scaffold

The template I use for new web applications. It is based on Nodejs/Express for the backend, and handlebars for the frontend.

Get started

• Clone the project
• install grunt (required for the frontend folder).
• use npm install at the root, and in the frontend project.
• you might have to manually add a data folder at the root, and run mongod --dbpath ./data/db/ the first time (The reason why is to be investigated).
• run grunt buildDev or grunt (to have watch running) in the frontend folder
• run launchServer.sh to start the server
• open localhost:3000 in your browser

Internationalization

I have added a very simple internationalization framework, to get me started. The API is pretty simple.

app.i18n.register('en', {
 user: {
  name: 'My name is %{name}',
  logout: 'Logout',
  age: {
    counter: 'age'
    1: 'I am one year old.',
    2: 'I am two years old',
    n: 'I am %{age} years old'
  }
 }
});

app.i18n.translate('user.logout'); // 'Logout'
app.i18n.translate('user.name', {name: 'Bob'}); // 'My name is Bob'

app.i18n.translate('user.age', {age: 1}); // 'I am one year old.'
app.i18n.translate('user.age', {age: 2}); // 'I am two years old.'
app.i18n.translate('user.age', {age: 13}); // 'I am 13 years old.'

app.i18n.setDefault('en'); // sets the default language to English
app.i18n.setLanguage('fr'); // sets the current language to French

and you have an internationalization framework in less than 80 lines of code (including comments).

It is also integrated with Handlebars through the i18n helper:

{{i18n string="user.name" name="Bob"}} // 'My name is Bob'
{{i18n string="user.age" age=13}} // 'I am 13 years old.'

It also works with variables present in the context

{{i18n string="user.age" age=context.age}} // 'I am 13 years old.'

Still to do

• The production mode is not yet correctly handled. There is no way to run the server in production mode.
• Testing
• I'd like to have some stuff added to the layout:
  • In dev mode, have files added one by one (easier debugging)
• Livereload?