Example Webapp

Base for building web applications with Node.js, CoffeeScript, Stylus, Backbone.js and Handlebars.js.

Cool stuff:

• Uses Handlebars.js for both the server and client templating
• Has buildin support for CSS live reloading
• Asset management. Do not ever use preminified assets. Piler will do that for us

Directories

Server-side code:

lib/

Client-side code:

client/

Client styles:

client/styles/

Vendor bundles for the client (JS and CSS!):

client/vendor/

Handlebars templates:

views/

Client-side Handlebars templates:

views/client

Random helper scripts

bin/

Conventions (proposal)

• Use two spaces for indentation everywhere
• camelCase for CSS classes and IDs
• camelCase for CoffeeScript variables and properties
• UpperCamelCase for CoffeeScript classes
• Max 79 characters per line. Keeps pyramid of doom away :)

Installing Node.js

Build dependencies

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

Build

cd /tmp/
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/latest/node-v0.6.7.tar.gz
tar xzvf node-v0.6.7.tar.gz
cd node-v0.6.7
./configure
make
sudo make install

Installing Webapp dependencies

npm install

Running the app

In development

bin/develop

Node.js debugging

bin/debug

Production

export NODE_END=production
npm start

Resources

• CoffeeScript
  • http://coffeescript.org/
  • http://arcturo.github.com/library/coffeescript/
  • http://autotelicum.github.com/Smooth-CoffeeScript/
• Backbone.js
  • http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/
  • https://github.com/addyosmani/backbone-fundamentals
• Handlebars.js
  • http://handlebarsjs.com/
• Underscore.js
  • http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/
• Async.js
  • https://github.com/caolan/async
• jQuery
  • http://jqapi.com/
  • http://docs.jquery.com/Main_Page
• Node.js
  • http://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/
• Express
  • http://expressjs.com/
• Cool Vim tricks ;)
  • http://esa-matti.suuronen.org/blog/2011/11/28/how-to-write-coffeescript-efficiently/