SolidusClient

Render your Solidus views in the browser! Just like Solidus, this library will:

1. Fetch data from static and dynamic resources, and make it available in the context.
2. Add and transform the context with custom preprocessors.
3. Render Handlebars templates, with partials and helpers. The handlebars-helper helpers are automatically made available.

Refer to the Solidus documentation to know more about those concepts.

Usage

Rendering a template starts with the render function call, and ends with the end callback. The various options can be passed directly to the render method as a config object, or by chaining method calls on the returned object.

• resources - Object of named urls or options. The urls can have dynamic segments, which will be replaced by the matching params. If an error occurs while fetching a resource, the template is not rendered, except if the resource's optional option is true.

var resources = {
  blogs: 'http://my-site.com/blogs?page={page}',
  news: {
    url: 'http://news-site.com/news',
    proxy: true
  }
}
};

Available options:

• url - Resource URL.
• query - Object of query values to add to the resource URL.
• query_options - Options passed to qs.stringify, the function used to serialize the query object. An additional option is available, objectFormat: 'json', which will encode query values of type object into JSON strings.
• headers - Object of HTTP headers to add to the resource request.
• auth - Object with user and pass values for HTTP Basic authentication.
• with_credentials - Whether to send cookies from the origin. Defaults to false.
• jsonp - Whether to use jsonp instead of ajax for the request. Defaults to false.
• proxy - Whether to fetch the resource through Solidus, instead of directly hitting the resource URL. If true, all other options are ignored. Defaults to false.
• solidus_api_route - Route to the Solidus resource.json endpoint if proxy is true. Defaults to /api/.
• timeout - Maximum time to wait for the resource, in milliseconds. Defaults to 20,000.
• optional - If true and the resource cannot be fetched, the template is rendered anyway. Defaults to false. Error conditions:
  • Invalid URL.
  • A required param is missing.
  • HTTP error, like a network error.
  • Timeout is exceeded.
  • Returned status code is not in the 2xx range.
  • Returned data is not valid JSON.
  • Returned data has a root property named status with value error.
• params - Object of named values. The values will be interpolated into the dynamic resource urls.

var params = {
  page: 123
};

• required_params - Array of required param names. If any param is missing, an error is returned.
• preprocessor - Function that modifies the context. The preprocessor is run after the resources are fetched, but before the template is rendered. If an error occurs while running the preprocessor, the template is not rendered.

// Sync
var preprocessor = function(context) {
  context.blogs_count = context.resources.blogs.length;
  return context;
};

// Async
var preprocessor = function(context, callback) {
  context.blogs_count = context.resources.blogs.length;
  if (context.resources.blog.some_condition) {
    solidus_client.getResource('http://www.my-site.com/something', null, function(err, data) {
      if (err) throw err;
      context.more_data = data;
      callback(context);
    });
  } else {
    callback(context);
  }
};

Return values:

• object - Modified context.

• string - URL to immediately redirect the browser to, instead of rendering the template.

• array - Item 0 is ignored, item 1 is URL to immediately redirect the browser to, instead of rendering the template.

• Any other value results in a preprocessor error.

• template - Compiled Handlebars template.

var template = Handlebars.compile('{{blogs_count}} posts: <ul>{{#each resources.blogs}}<li>{{> blog}}</li>{{/each}}</ul>');

• template_options - Object of options to use when rendering the template: data, helpers and partials.

var template_options = {
  helpers: {
    uppercase: function(string) {
      return string.toUpperCase();
    }
  },
  partials: {
    blog: Handlebars.compile('{{uppercase name}}');
  }
};

Config Object Example

var view = {
  resources: resources,
  params: params,
  preprocessor: preprocessor,
  template: template,
  template_options: template_options
};

var solidus_client = new SolidusClient();
solidus_client.render(view)
  .end(function(err, html) {
    console.log(html);
  });

Methods Chain Example

var solidus_client = new SolidusClient();
solidus_client.render(template)
  .params(params)
  .template_options(template_options)
  .get(resources)
  .then(preprocessor)
  .end(function(err, html) {
    console.log(html);
  });

Combined Example

var view = {
  resources: resources,
  preprocessor: preprocessor,
  template: template,
  template_options: template_options
};

var solidus_client = new SolidusClient();
solidus_client.render(view)
  .params(params)
  .end(function(err, html) {
    console.log(html);
  });

Auth

Just like in Solidus, resource security settings are configured globally. The resources_options property of the SolidusClient instance is scanned whenever a resource is fetched, to find matching options. See the Resources documentation above for the available options. Example:

var resources_options = {
  "http://proxy.storyteller.io/*": {
    headers: {
      "Api-Key": "0000aaaa-aa00-00aa-a00a-aaaa000000"
    }
  },
  "http://services.sparkart.net/*": {
    query: {
      key: "1111bbbb-bb11-11bb-b11b-bbbb111111"
    }
  }
};

// Two ways to assign the resources options
var solidus_client = new SolidusClient({resources_options: resources_options});
solidus_client.resources_options = resources_options;

Building

$ npm run build

Testing

Node and automated browser tests

$ npm run test

Node test

$ npm run node-test

Automated browser test

$ npm run browser-test

Manual browser test

$ npm run test-server

Then access http://localhost:8081/test/browser/test.html in your browser