So I started coding a chess engine in typescript as a side project. I initially intended it to be a CLI like most other chess engines that interact through stdin and stdout. This so I could plug it to a GUI like Arena and test it against other engines. For that I decided to do it as a node project.
I set it across several files with 1 being the UCI (universal chess interface) implementation and the remaining ones chess logic and AI logic. After banging my head a few times trying to understand modules in typescript I finally got it to work.
Now I decided it would be interesting to write a simple GUI myself as a webpage with html+typescript+jquery. Now, I would like to use all the logic modules I wrote but I'm finding it impossible. From what I understand you can't use CommonJS in browsers so the only way I could get it to work was using instead internal modules for which I need to modify the .ts files to wrap the code in module X{ } blocks and recompile them just for the GUI every time I change something. This situation seems far from ideal and I was wondering if there is a way around it...
Use http://browserify.org/ to add CommonJS-like support on the front-end.
But also read this (slightly outdated) question and answer: How should I go about writing a node.js web application with both server and client side code?
Use external modules for both the server and the browser.
When compiling for the browser, use the switch to specify the AMD module pattern:
tsc --module amd app.ts
And use RequireJS to load modules for you.
<script src="require.js" data-main="app.js"></script>
You will need to compile for the different targets, but the source code in TypeScript can be identical.
I created a demo project to share code between the client and the server : https://github.com/basarat/demo-fullstack/blob/master/src/Gruntfile.js
It compiles the common files for both amd/commonjs and server files only as commonjs with the client only files as only amd. It uses grunt-ts to manage this : https://github.com/grunt-ts/grunt-ts
Related
I estimate possibility to write Report Desktop Application using React NodeGUI. There is some questions what I need to find answer before starting to develop by NodeGUI. Could you help me to figure out.
What way is to load program extension dynamicaly in React NodeGUI. For example: If I want to change business logic and visualization of my program without compile code. Is it possible?
What way is to load program extension dynamicaly in React NodeGUI. For example: If I want to change business logic and visualization of program adding some program module code of other developers. How way is it possible to do?
What way is to work with XML files in React NodeGui?
Is there possibility to run other program code written by C/C++ or other languages? What restriction of running non-native JS modules?
What way is to connect to SQL or NoSQL DB (PostgreSQL, Oracle, Mongo and etc)?
What are reasons yet to write or not write Desktop Applications by React NodeGUI?
React NodeGui is just another npm module that you would install in a nodejs program. It is a pure javascript library. It depends on NodeGui which is another regular npm module. NodeGui contains C++ code which acts as a nodejs addon. But for all purposes think of nodegui and react nodegui as regular npm modules. An app built with these libraries is a regular nodejs app.
What way is to load program extension dynamicaly in React NodeGUI. For example: If I want to change business logic and visualization of my program without compile code. Is it possible?
All business logic is written in javascript so any change in those would follow the same flow of how you would in a nodejs app.
What way is to load program extension dynamicaly in React NodeGUI. For example: If I want to change business logic and visualization of program adding some program module code of other developers. How way is it possible to do?
Yes you can use all npm modules available in npm that works with nodejs.
What way is to work with XML files in React NodeGui?
You can find a lot of npm modules you can use to parse and work with xml files in the npm registry.
Is there possibility to run other program code written by C/C++ or other languages? What restriction of running non-native JS modules?
Yes it is possible to run non js code by building them as NodeJs addons.
What way is to connect to SQL or NoSQL DB (PostgreSQL, Oracle, Mongo and etc)?
You have a lot of modules available in the npm registry for these which work with NodeJs.
What are reasons yet to write or not write Desktop Applications by React NodeGUI?
Reasons to use:
- NodeGui apps are native apps so they get all the benefits of native apps. They are snappy, they are accessible and run with low memory and cpu usage.
Reasons not to use:
Its under development so is only recommended for hobby projects as of Dec 2019.
PS: I am the author of the library
Are there any existing solutions for run-time bundling of ES6 modules?
I'm looking to simplify JavaScript code development in a MVC5 web app. We're having issues with large, unwieldy JS files, so I'm hoping to get a module loader system in place. So far, I'm not finding any existing bundle transformers for ES6 or another module loader format. I'd be fine with using TypeScript or nodejs require style. I prefer not to use require.js style, though.
Perhaps there's a good reason this solution doesn't exist already. Maybe the dependency resolution processing is too much for a run-time bundling solution. But, I figure it's worth a shot to ask.
Solutions Considered
Prebuilt Web Client
Ultimately, this is where I want to be, but I need a stop-gap solution for now. I know how to put together a build system for an HTML client using grunt/gulp/webpack. But I don't want to have to tell developers to run webpack -w or something similar during development. Nor do I want to tell them to rebuild a solution for every JS change. They should be able to modify the file, refresh the browser, and see the change.
Directory Structure
This is the route I'll probably end up going with. Basically, this JS codebase consists of jQuery widgets and plain JS (helpers/common functions). So, if I structure the code in this directory structure and include the js dir, it should get me most of the way there:
js (DIR)
app-start.js
helpers (DIR)
widgets (DIR)
Widgets should be fine. Helpers, I can see issues where one function/class depends on another. Though, since a function call should never start with a helper (only a widget), this should work fine, assuming no globals are used (or maybe one global like 'App').
I'm building an app that will contain many js (jquery) modules (files) using the following setup;
The build is run using Grunt task runner.
I use handlebars templates, then generate the html from *.hbs files.
During the build, I uglify all the js files into one minified file.
I call the minified file in my application <script src="assets/js/app.min.js"></script>
Now, I want to use requirejs to organize my code and adhere to the AMD specifications..
But I got 3 problems with this approach:
I need to have 1 single minified file for all the js; this keeps my code harder to "decode" thus to copy (since it is mixed with other dependencies; jquery, modernizer..) and also helps avoid extra http requests if scripts are called individually.. However, requirejs needs a main file to initialize the app and inside that main file It calls the other required files.. I don't have such configuration.
Many of the dependencies I'm using are in a bower package (that I don't include in the distribution); this makes it not possible to call those files using the suggested requirejs method.
I'm using jquery on this with some 3rd party plugins that don't call define(); to make them work I have to use shim config which again rises the problem #2!
So how am I supposed to take advantage of requirejs while keeping my code in modules and well organized?
Sorry for the long question and thanks for reading :)
ps: Feel free to change the title of the question as I couldn't find a better one!
I finally opted for AngularJS as it adheres to my setup above and allows me to split my app into manageable small modules.
I have also the possibility to use the ease of jQuery (even though it is not a best practice among angular community) and much more.
I'm a Node n00b starting a couple web app projects using Express, and I've got some common client-side libraries I'd like to share between the two projects. This seems like a very common problem, so there must be several solutions available already.
I come from a java background, and in java, I'd create a separate "common" project and "overlay" common WAR over my project during packaging. This would also allow for r.js optimization during the build process.
My best guess in Node is that I need to create a private NPM module, and map those common files into express via a use() middleware plugin. Is that right?
How, then, can I package both my common and project specific javascript into a minified file using r.js?
Or is source control the answer? Checking out my "common" repository inside each project?
Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks.
This seems like a very common problem, so there must be several solutions available already.
Good news: Yes, this is a common problem. Yes, there are several "solutions".
Bad News: All of the "solutions" are at least partially terrible.
Here's my advice:
1) Individual .js files should be coded as CommonJS modules
2) Groups of related .js files should be made into npm packages
3A) Use them in node via the regular node.js/CommonJS require function and use browserify to use them in the browser
3B) OR use a built tool like grunt to wrap commonjs into AMD format for use with requireJS in the browser
3C) OR consider something like component.io components
I'm looking for a javascript library that attempts to provide the same simple utilities in both the browser environment AND nodejs (iteration, mapping, maybe control-flow) so that code can more easily be re-used across server and client. I know you can hack out parts of any JS library (YUI, jQuery, ...) and get them to work in both environments, I'm just wondering if it's already been done or standardized.
The closest I've seen is this: https://github.com/kof/sharedjs
But it's incomplete and has some odd stuff. I'm wondering if there is something more polished before I fork and hack.
The underscore library was built to add more functional programming to jquery, things like mapping, and also templating.
Because it doesn't rely on the DOM (it leaves that to jquery) it functions well in node.
The RightJS link library has a server build link that has node.js in mind.
From the download page:
RightJS is also available as a server-side library. In this case it contains only the native JavaScript unit extensions and the Class, Observer, Options units along with all the non-DOM utility functions from the Util module.
Our server-side build follows the CommonJS principles and is ready for use with the node.js framework.
Node's GitHub wiki has a list of CommonJS-compatible modules which will run in Node and browsers.
Some of the other modules on that page may also run in a browser environment. For example, the excellent DateJS works fine in Node. (It is available as a NPM.)
Btw, RightJS is also available on NPM