Like Ruby on Rails for Node - the Sails js framework

LIKE RUBY ON RAILS FOR NODE:
THE SAILS JS
FRAMEWORK
By Stenio Ferreira
: @stenio123
: /stenio123
stenio@impacta.us

Stenio Ferreira - www.impacta.us - May 2015
WHAT IS SAILS JS?
BLUEPRINTS
… and lodash, bluebird, etc

SHOULD YOU CARE?
Benefits
• Turnkey development environment
• Project standardization
• Flexibility

SAILS JS IN THE NODE WORLD
abstraction
Koa Hapi RestifyExpress
Sails
Js templating engines
Generators (Yeoman)
Node js
Loopback Meteor
Ember Angular

HOW SAIL CAN BE USED
or
API Server
API Server
+
Client

API SERVER
JSON

API SERVER
> npm install sails
> sails new myproject
> sails generate api user
> sails lift
http://localhost:1337
/user
/create?
name=Stenio
&surname=Ferreira

API + CLIENT
JSON

API + CLIENT
Javascript templating engine support:
ejs, jade, handlebars, mustache underscore, hogan, haml, haml-coffee,
dust atpl, eco, ect, jazz, jqtpl, JUST, liquor, QEJS, swig, templayed,
toffee, walrus, & whiskers

DATABASE
ORM
(Object Relational Mapping)
… and others
adapters

WEBSOCKET
Automatic starts listening on
> sails lift
register: Model.watch(req.socket.id);
publish: Model.publishCreate({});
subscribe: io.socket.get(“/model”);
listen: io.socket.on(“model”, function(event){});
Client (on the view)
Server (on the controller)

ROUTES
No need to declare if following naming conventions. Three types:
RESTful
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE to /user
CRUD Shortcuts
/user/create?name=joe
/user/update:1?name=Joe
Action routes
methods declared in controller
BLUEPRINTS

MISCELANEOUS
Policies
Runs after route, before controller
Grunt
Automate tasks

ANGULAR/ EMBER
or
BUT!
Make sure added complexity really necessary.
Jquery + socket.io?
RivetsJS + Backbone?
JSON

CHALLENGES WITH SAILS
• Modular? Waterline
• User management?
• Grunt magic?
• Deployment?
• Outdated info? (official docs
current!)

FUTURE OF SAILS
(BUSINESS)
As of Dec 2014, received $120k Seed from Y
Combinator.

BEFORE I GO…
Impacta
Small businesses have lots of internal processes.
More than a few of those are inefficient.
Do you believe you can help fix that?
For more info – www.impacta.us/jobs

THANK YOU!
www.impacta.us/jobs
Stenio@impacta.us
Questions?

APPENDIX

USER MANAGEMENT
No Ruby on Rails Devise equivalent – Passport only works for
authentication, not authorization (and password reset). Potential
solutions:
Sails-auth – npm library to provide authorization
Waterlock – npm library to provide authorization
Sails starter app – github repository with code for password reset
Stormpath.com – SaaS for user management in Node apps

FOLDER STRUCTURE
Folder structure
Api
• Controllers
• Models
• Policies
• Responses
• Services
Assets
• ..
• Styles
• Importer.less
• Js
• Dependencies
Config
• …
• Connections.js
• Routes.js
• Session.js
• Sockets.js
• Views.js
Tasks
• Pipeline.js
Views
• …
• Layout.ejs
CLIENT
CLIENT
SERVER
SERVER
+ VIEW

WATERLINE
Model hooks -
- beforeValidate(), afterValidate(), beforeCreate(), afterCreate()
https://github.com/balderdashy/waterline-docs/blob/master/models.md#lifecycle-
callbacks
Associations – to populate,
Post.findOne(id).populate(‘user’)
.then(function(populatedPost) {
//work with result
}).catch(function(err) {
//error handling
});
https://github.com/balderdashy/waterline-docs/blob/master/associations.md

EJS ON SAILS
Server and client inside same project
... previous steps,
manually create views/user/index.ejs,
add ‘index’ method to UserController,
> sails lift
Server + client
JSON
http://localhost:1337/user/
<%- body %>
<head>
<scripts>
<%= user.name %>

1) To change template engine
config/views.js
2) To use view-specifc layout
on controller:
res.view({layout: ‘myLayout’});
3) Javascript loading order:
assets/js/dependencies (alphabetically)
assets/js (alphabetically)
4) To load view-specific javascript
use ejs-locals (already installed)
on layout.ejs: <%- blocks.localScripts %>
on view:
<% block('localScripts', '<script src=”/myScript.js”></script>’) %>
VIEW CONSIDERATIONS

CONTROLLERS ON SAILS
req and res objects – same as Express
Controllers are usually written as
//UserController.js
module.exports = {
index: function(req, res) {
var user = req.session.User
res.json({name:user.name})
}
}
*newbie tip – watch out for asynchronous methods before
returning response!

SOCKET IO
Check example project at
https://github.com/stenio123/sails-socket-example
Sails documentation reference:
http://sailsjs.org/#!/documentation/reference/websockets/resource
ful-pubsub
To perform actions before socket connects, or
once it disconnects:
Config/sockets.js

CONFIG OPTIONS
Config/
Check the config folder for lots of interesting
options:
Config/session.js : can specify db to store session
Config/csrf.js: specify cross-site request forgery protection
settings
Config/policies.js: specify policies to be applied to certain routes
Config/env: specify environment variables (dev, prod)
Config/local.js: configurations of local machine
Config/blueprints.js: set pluralize to true if working with Ember

EXTRA
Testing
Sails supports Mocha and istanbul
Reference:
http://sailsjs.org/#!/documentation/concepts/Testing
Sails Support:
Basic questions: Stackoverflow
Advanced Questions: Gitter (https://gitter.im/balderdashy/sails)

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