Ash

This is a modular micro-MVC single-page web app serving Bootstrap components through Handlebars with Require (via ExpressJS). A minimal stack that renders a "living template" of Bootstrap GUI widgets (components) using the HandlebarsJS template system. All thanks to RequireJS.

I wanted to find a way to load Bootstrap templates using Handlebars, ideally doing so with RequireJS. These solutions all seemed to incorporate Backbone or some other off-the-shelf MVC/P framework. I wanted to do all that, but without using a third-party MVC framework. It took a few hours, but I was finally able to implement that formula using a RequireJS Handlebars plugin authored by Jean-Francois Paradis.

The modular micro-MVC ("3MVC") is a custom-built single-page web app. It is based on the collection of views of the app, abstract data models, and controllers to mediate the relationship between them.

Each view has a Handlebars template and JavaScript modules for its controller, view, and data.

This guide assumes you can use Git and NodeJS (w/ npm) from the command-line.

1. Clone the project $ git clone https://github.com/quantumtom/ash

2. Navigate to the new directory $ cd ash

3. Update npm $ npm update -g npm

4. Install project dependencies $ npm install

Run the default grunt task, $ grunt.

Run the ExpressJS server, $ node serve.js. Or just $ npm start.

Then you can visit your local instance at http://localhost:5000 (or http://127.0.0.1:5000).

1. RequireJS RequireJS is my loader of choice. Dependency management -- say no more, right? Enforces code modularity in a file-based tree hierarchy. v. 2.1.8is included in this project's JavaScript library.

2. jQuery jQuery is the modern foundation of an extensive family of plug-ins, libraries, and extensions. It's a hard depdendency for Bootstrap. Loading it with RequireJS can be a bit tricky.

3. Twitter Bootstrap Twitter Bootstrap is a fantastic UI library that integrates nicely with jQuery.

4. Handlebars Based on Mustache, Handlebars is my HTML template system of choice. Works well in both client and server capacities.

A few extra toys are included just for fun. Grunt is currently configured to run JSHint tests against the 41 original JavaScript files in the "3MVC" (see below).

1. Grunt The Grunt task runner is an indespensible tool for test and building from source files.

2. JSHint Adjusting the configuration for JSHint. See the .jshintrc for more info.

I owe deep thanks to Jonathan Verrecchia. Verecchia authored a tutorial on implementing a minimalist MVC using AMD through RequireJS. His guide should be considered indispensible to anyone implementing a MVC pattern in JavasScript.

I configured Bootstrap to load widgets using CSS themes from Bootswatch.

2016-02-12 - Rename project due to popular demand.

2016-02-12 - Update dependencies and logos.

2016-02-12 - Fix Grunt task for JSHint.

2016-02-12 - Update documentation.

2016-02-17 - Fix alignment in Grunt task

2016-02-18 - Change README.md.

2016-02-19 - Add cache control Grunt task.

2016-03-02 - Add Bootlint testing.

2016-03-12 - Add Grunt task for CSS lint.

2016-03-13 - Add GZip compression for Node/ExpressJS.

2016-03-16 - Add JSDoc support.

2016-03-17 - Add deploy branch.