swim-web-js

Swim Web TypeScript Framework

The Swim Web framework implements a thin web application framework built on the Swim UI toolkit. Swim Web makes it easy to embed Swim UI views and Swim UX widgets in any web page by simply adding special swim- attributes to ordinary HTML elements. Swim Web is a part of the broader Swim System framework.

Framework

The Swim Web framework consists of the following component libraries:

• @swim/web – umbrella package that depends on, and re-exports, all Swim Web libraries.
• @swim/website – minimalist components that implement common dynamic website behaviors.
• @swim/webapp – lightweight web application loader that dynamically instantiates views and controllers declared by swim- HTML attributes.

Swim Web builds on the Swim Core and Swim UI frameworks; it has no additional dependencies.

Installation

npm

For an npm-managed project, npm install @swim/web to make it a dependency. TypeScript sources will be installed into node_modules/@swim/web/main. Transpiled JavaScript and TypeScript definition files install into node_modules/@swim/web/lib/main. And a pre-built UMD script, which bundles all @swim/web component libraries, can be found in node_modules/@swim/web/dist/main/swim-web.js.

Browser

Browser applications can load swim-web.js, along with its swim-core.js and swim-ui.js dependencies, from the swimOS CDN.

<!-- Development -->
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-core.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-ui.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-web.js"></script>

<!-- Production -->
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-core.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-ui.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-web.min.js"></script>

Alternatively, the standalone swim-system.js script may be loaded from the swimOS CDN, which bundles @swim/web together with all other @swim/system frameworks.

<!-- Development -->
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-system.js"></script>

<!-- Production -->
<script src="https://cdn.swimos.org/js/latest/swim-system.min.js"></script>

Usage

ES6/TypeScript

@swim/web can be imported as an ES6 module from TypeScript and other ES6-compatible environments. All component libraries are re-exported by the umbrella @swim/web module.

import * as swim from "@swim/web";

CommonJS

@swim/web can also be used with CommonJS-compatible module systems. All component libraries are re-exported by the umbrella @swim/web module.

var swim = require("@swim/web");

Browser

When loaded by a web browser, the swim-web.js script adds all component library exports to the global swim namespace. The swim-web.js script requires that swim-core.js and swim-ui.js have already been loaded.

The swim-system.js script also adds all @swim/web component library exports to the global swim namespace, making it a drop-in replacement for swim-web.js when additional @swim/system frameworks are needed.

Development

Note: swim-web-js can be built against the currently checked out swim-core-js and swim-ui-js sources by compiling it from the parent swim-system-js directory.

Setup

Install build dependencies:

swim-web-js $ npm install

Build script

Use the bin/build.js script to build the Swim Web framework. The build script supports compile, test, doc, and watch commands, described below. All build script commands take an optional --projects (-p) option to restrict the build to a comma-separated list of projects.

Each project supports multiple output targets; typical targets for a project include main, to build the main sources, and test, to build the test sources. A specific target can be built for a project by appending a colon (:) and the target name to the project name. For example, to build just the main sources of the util project, pass -p util:main to the build script.

Most build commands take a --devel (-d) option to expedite development builds by skipping the minification step.

Run bin/build.js help to see a complete list of build commands. Run bin/build.js <command> --help to see a list of options supported by a particular build command.

Compiling sources

Use the compile build script command to compile, bundle, and minify TypeScript sources into JavaScript universal module definitions, output to the dist subdirectory of each project. To compile all targets, of all projects, run:

swim-web-js $ bin/build.js compile

To compile a subset of projects and targets, include a --projects (-p) option, with a comma-separated list of $project:($target)? specifiers. For example, to build the main target of the webapp project, and all targets of the web project, run:

swim-web-js $ bin/build.js compile -p webapp:main,web

Running tests

Use the test build script command to compile and run unit tests. For example, to compile and test the website project, run:

swim-web-js $ bin/build.js test -p website

Continuous development builds

Use the watch build script command to automatically rebuild projects when dependent source files change. For example, to continuously recompile the main target of the webapp project when any source file in the project–or in one of the project's transitive local dependencies–changes, run:

swim-web-js $ bin/build.js watch -p webapp:main

Pass the --devel (-d) option to expedite recompilation by skipping the minification step. Add the --test (-t) option to automatically run unit tests after each successful compilation. For example, to continuosly compile and test the website project, bypassing minification, and skipping generation of the main script, run:

swim-web-js $ bin/build.js watch -p website:test -d -t