Introduction

Onion is the web client for Ascribe. The idea is to have a well documented, easy to test, easy to hack, JavaScript application.

The code is JavaScript ECMA 6.

Getting started

Install some nice extension for Chrom(e|ium):

• React Developer Tools

git clone git@github.com:ascribe/onion.git
cd onion
npm install
sudo npm install -g gulp
gulp serve

Additionally, to work on the white labeling functionality, you need to edit your /etc/hosts file and add:

127.0.0.1   localhost.com
127.0.0.1   cc.localhost.com
127.0.0.1   cyland.localhost.com
127.0.0.1   ikonotv.localhost.com
127.0.0.1   sluice.localhost.com
127.0.0.1   lumenus.localhost.com
127.0.0.1   portfolioreview.localhost.com
127.0.0.1   23vivi.localhost.com

JavaScript Code Conventions

For this project, we're using:

• 4 Spaces
• We use ES6
• We don't use ES6's class declaration for React components because it does not support Mixins as well as Autobinding (Blog post about it)
• We don't use camel case for file naming but in everything Javascript related
• We use let instead of var: SA Post
• We don't use Javascript's Date object, as its interface introduced bugs previously and we're including momentjs for other dependencies anyways

Branch names

To allow Github and JIRA to track branches while still allowing us to switch branches quickly using a ticket's number (and keep our peace of mind), we have the following rules for naming branches:

// For issues logged in Github:
AG-<Github-issue-id>-brief-and-sane-description-of-the-ticket

// For issues logged in JIRA:
AD-<JIRA-ticket-id>-brief-and-sane-description-of-the-ticket

where brief-and-sane-description-of-the-ticket does not need to equal to the issue or ticket's title.

Example

JIRA ticket name: AD-1242 - Frontend caching for simple endpoints to measure perceived page load <more useless information>

Github branch name: AD-1242-caching-solution-for-stores

SCSS Code Conventions

Install lint-scss, check the editor integration docs to integrate the lint in your editor.

Some interesting links:

• Improving Sass code quality on theguardian.com

Testing

We're using Facebook's jest to do testing as it integrates nicely with react.js as well.

Tests are always created per directory by creating a __tests__ folder. To test a specific file, a <file_name>_tests.js file needs to be created.

Since we're using mixed syntax, test files are not linted using ES6Lint. This is due to the fact that jest's function mocking and ES6 module syntax are fundamentally incompatible.

Therefore, to require a module in your test file, you need to use CommonJS's require syntax. Except for this, all tests can be written in ES6 syntax.

Workflow

Generally, when you're runing gulp serve, all tests are being run. If you want to test exclusively (without having the obnoxious ES6Linter warnings), you can just run gulp jest:watch.

Troubleshooting

Q: OMG nothing works

A: try npm install. Someone may have updated some dependencies

Q: ZOMG, I'm getting this error:

[09:58:56] 'sass:watch' errored after 6.68 ms
[09:58:56] Error: watch ENOSPC
    at errnoException (fs.js:1031:11)
    at FSWatcher.start (fs.js:1063:11)
    at Object.fs.watch (fs.js:1088:11)
    at Gaze._watchDir (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:289:30)
    at /home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:358:10
    at iterate (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/helper.js:52:5)
    at Object.forEachSeries (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/helper.js:66:3)
    at Gaze._initWatched (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:354:10)
    at Gaze.add (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:177:8)
    at new Gaze (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/gulp/node_modules/vinyl-fs/node_modules/glob-watcher/node_modules/gaze/lib/gaze.js:74:10)

events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: watch ENOSPC
    at errnoException (fs.js:1031:11)
    at FSWatcher.start (fs.js:1063:11)
    at Object.fs.watch (fs.js:1088:11)
    at createFsWatchInstance (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/browser-sync/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:37:15)
    at setFsWatchListener (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/browser-sync/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:80:15)
    at EventEmitter.NodeFsHandler._watchWithNodeFs (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/browser-sync/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:228:14)
    at EventEmitter.NodeFsHandler._handleDir (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/browser-sync/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:403:23)
    at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/browser-sync/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:450:19)
    at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/home/tim/ascribe/onion/node_modules/browser-sync/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:455:16)
    at Object.oncomplete (fs.js:108:15)

A: Use npm dedupe to remove duplicates in npm. This might fix that you're not running out of watchers in your system (read the comments).

Q: How can I use a local copy of SPOOL and Onion? A: Easily by starting the your gulp process with the following command:

ONION_BASE_URL='/' ONION_SERVER_URL='http://localhost.com:8000/' gulp serve

Q: I want to know all dependencies that get bundled into the live build. A: browserify -e js/app.js --list > webapp-dependencies.txt

Reading list

Start here

• ReactJS for stupid people
• Flux for stupid people
• ReactJS
• alt.js
• alt.js readme

Moar stuff

• ReactJS: Reusable Components
• 24ways.org: JavaScript Modules the ES6 Way
• Babel: Learn ES6
• egghead's awesome reactjs and flux tutorials
• Crockford's genious Javascript: The Good Parts (Tim has a copy)