Javascript REST with Jester
Javascript REST with Jester
Jan 15, 2015
Mike Bailey gave a presentation on a Javascript library called Jester to the Melbourne Ruby Users Group. Here are the slides. They contain mostly working code.
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Javascript RESTwith Jester
deprec
awesome new client Rails app launching soon
available for interesting work
the problem
• gmap based content management app
• didn’t want to reload page
• wanted to keep controller simple
enter the jester
• http://giantrobots.thoughtbot.com/
• jester.js => 657 lines of javascript
• javascript access to your models via REST
How much work does it take to implement?
Not much!
<%= javascript_include_tag 'jester.js' %>
<%= javascript_include_tag 'demo.js' %>
<%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>
// demo.js
// Object definitionsBase.model('PaperRound');Base.model('Property');Base.model('Subscription');
Javascript REST in 60 seconds
# Create our application
rails democd demo/./script/generate scaffold_resource Property name:string address:string./script/generate scaffold_resource PaperRound name:string./script/generate scaffold_resource Subscription paper_round_id:integer property_id:integer position:integer
# Setup our database
mysqladmin -u root drop demo_developmentmysqladmin -u root create demo_developmentrake db:migrate
# put in some static content
rm app/views/layouts/* public/index.html
echo '<html><head></head><body><%= [:properties, :paper_rounds, :subscriptions].collect {|i| link_to(i, send("#{i}_path"))}.join(" | ") %><%= yield %><%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %><%= javascript_include_tag "jester.js" %><%= javascript_include_tag "demo.js" %></body></html>' > app/views/layouts/application.rhtml
echo “Base.model('PaperRound');Base.model('Property');Base.model('Subscription');” > public/javascripts/demo.js
cp ~/jester.js public/javascripts/
# Let's go!
./script/serveropen http://localhost:3000/properties
• interactive javascript console
# new # note, reflection available but not turned on by default # rails patch by jesters author has been accepted into core
property = Property.build( {name: 'Kevin', address: '40 The Avenue, Windsor'} ); property.id; # => nullproperty.save();property.id; # => 4
# createproperty = Property.create( {name: 'Kim', address: 'Meadowvale'} );property.id;
# indexproperties = Property.find('all');properties.pluck('name');
# showproperty = Property.find(2);alert('address = ' + property.address);
# updateproperty = Property.find(1);property.address = 'Ridgecrest Retirement Village';property.save();
# destroyProperty.find('all').last().destroy();
# reload a modelproperty.reload();
# can cause problems if your object has associations# as it recreates objects - existing references to # the associated objects are orphaned
Associations
# GET /properties # GET /properties.xml def index respond_to do |format| format.html # index.rhtml format.xml { render :xml => @properties.to_xml( :include => [:subscriptions], # associated models :methods => [:amount_owing] # call these methods ) } end end
class PropertyController < ApplicationController
Use Rails’s .to_xml, not .to_json
Changeset 7156
Patch in core for .to_xml clash between :include & :methods
Other Tips
more info
• jester is documented in three blog posts
• http://giantrobots.thoughtbot.com/
• I’ve linked to them on my blog
• http://mike.bailey.net.au/blog/?p=15
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