Simple Raincatcher Example Module

This simple module is intended to demonstrate:

• The structure of a Raincatcher module.
• The concept of bridging client and cloud functionality in the same module.

These are key concepts when developing Raincatcher modules.

This module is a very simple Raincatcher module that allows the listing and creation of users. The goal of this module is to be integrated into a client and cloud app to allow client interactions (list user, create user) to be pushed to the cloud app.

This module is intended to be used with the raincatcher-tutorial-cloud and raincatcher-tutorial-client apps.

Solution Overview

This module is separated into to sections: client and cloud. On both sides of the module, the mediator topic wfm:user is used for publishing and subscribing using the mediator.

Client

As in all other Raincatcher modules, the client side of the module is based on AngularJS 1. This side of the module presents the user with a list of existing users and allows the user to create a new user.

This functionality is located in the lib/angular folder. A new wfm.users angular module is created with:

• A single directive (lib/angular/user/user-directive.js) for rendering existing users and the form for creating a new user.
• A single controller (lib/angular/user-controller.js) for updating the data bound in the directive. This controller publishes and subscribes to wfm:user topics to update its state.
• A single service (lib/angular/user-client-service.js) for making http requests to the cloud side of the app.

Cloud

As in all other Raincatcher modules, the cloud side of the solution is based on ExpressJS routes. This side of the app is responsible for storing a set of users on the cloud.

The cloud side of the module is located in the lib/server folder.

The lib/server/router.js file creates an ExpressJS router and mounts the routes on the relevant endpoint configured by lib/config-user.

Bridging Client and Cloud

The client and cloud side of this module are bridged by the lib/angular/user-client-service file. This service sets up subscribers for events that other parts of the client can publish.

To highlight this, consider an example flow:

1. When the UserController is initialised, it publishes the wfm:user:list topic. It also subscribes the to the done state for the wfm:user:list topic.
2. The UserClientService has subscribed to this topic, so the function is called.
3. The UserClientService makes a HTTP GET request to the server side of the module using the list function.
4. The GET handler in the lib/server/router.js relieves the http request.
5. The GET handler subscribes once to the done state for the wfm:user:list topic.
6. The GET hanlder publishes the wfm:user:list topic. This is subscribed to by the lib/server/userStore User Store.
7. The User Store publishes the done state for the wfm:user:list topic. This is subscribed to in Step 5.
8. The GET handler responds with a HTTP response to the UserClientService.
9. The UserClientService handles the HTTP response and emits the done state for the wfm:user:list topic.
10. The UserController subscription in Step 1 is fired. This updates the state of the users on the $scope, which in turn updates the UI.