Get Started.md

Get Started

1. Install locally

$ npm install --save bootstruct

2. Create a server and initialize Bootstruct app

Your server's index.js file:

const http = require('http');
const bootstruct = require('bootstruct');

const app = bootstruct(folderPath); // <-- web root folder

http.createServer(app).listen(8080, () => {
    console.log('Listening on port 8080...');
});

3. Create your web root folder

The web root folder holds your entire API. Pass whatever name you pick to the bootstruct() call above.

Suggested names: routes | api | app | www.

We'll be using the name "api" for the rest of this tutorial.

 

This is how your project folder tree should look like:

├── myProject
│   ├── node_modules
│   ├── api
│   └── index.js

This is our starting point for this tutorial.

Now let's create our first route.

 

"Hello World"

Create an index.js file in your web root folder api.

├── api
│   └── index.js

Put the following in that index.js:

module.exports = function (io) {
	io.res.end('hello world');
};

Start your server up:

$ node index.js

and open your browser in http://localhost:8080.

Your api folder becomes your app's root-controller and index.js is its only method so ANY request will be responded with "hello world".

The io argument is an object that holds Node's native request/response objects you probably know.

Method

Let's add another method (a file): greet.js

├── api
│   ├── greet.js
│   └── index.js

api/greet.js contents:

module.exports = function (io, who) {
	if (who) {
		io.res.end('Hey ' + who);
	}
	else {
		io.res.end('Hello everyone');
	}
};

Request	Response
/greet	Hello everyone
/greet/john	Hey john

Our "api" controller now has another method named "greet".

Hooks

Now let's create a file named "_in.js":

├── api
│   ├── _in.js
│   ├── greet.js
│   └── index.js

api/_in.js contents:

module.exports = function (io) {
	io.res.write('Yay! ');
	io.next();
};

Request	Response
/	Yay! hello world
/whatever	Yay! hello world
/_in	Yay! hello world
/greet	Yay! hello everyone
/greet/john	Yay! hey john

_in is one of Bootstruct's hooks. Its exported function will run before the other two (index and greet). This is why all the responses start with "Yay! ". Because _in is a reserved name, it won't be parsed as a method like greet so requesting /_in will be handled by api/index.js just like requesting /whatever.

io.next() is called to move the io forward in the chain, from one handler (_in) to the next one (index or greet). You call it at the end of your methods.

Debugging

Bootstruct can be initiated with a second argument, a debug-mode flag (default: false). Start your app with a second truthy argument for console logs of the io's different checkpoints along its way.

const app = bootstruct('api', true);

What's next?

This page covered Bootstruct's basics, but there's more.

Read The Fabulous Manual.