From a52ec5893c0251060a5bc980164c65f8bc50a18a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Chris O'Hara <cohara87@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2011 20:46:14 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] Added a README

---
 README.md | 113 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 111 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5a74ef1..755d76d 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,114 @@
 **redback** - [Redis](http://redis.io/)-backed persistence for [Node.JS](http://nodejs.org/)
 
-Follow [redbackjs.com](http://redbackjs.com/) or [@chris6F](twitter.com/chris6F) for updates.
+Follow [redbackjs.com](http://redbackjs.com/) and [@chris6F](twitter.com/chris6F) for updates.
 
-*Almost ready for consumption! - Check back soon*
+### What is it?
+
+Redback is a high-level library for Redis. It provides an accessible and extensible interface to the Redis [data types](http://redis.io/topics/data-types) and allows you to roll your own structures with ease. Redback comes with the following built-in structures:
+
+- List
+- Set
+- SortedSet
+- Hash
+- Channel
+- Cache
+
+There's also some more advanced structures available:
+
+- *DensitySet*
+- *KeyPair*
+- *SocialGraph*
+- *CappedList*
+
+### Usage
+
+    var redback = require('redback').createClient();
+
+    //Call: redback.create<structure>(key); where <structure> is any of the structures listed above
+
+    var list = redback.createList('my_list');
+
+    list.push(['foo','bar'], callback);
+
+### Creating your own structures
+
+To create your own structure, use `addStructure(name, methods)`.
+Structures have access to a Redis key `this.key` and the Redis client
+`this.client`. If an `init()` method is defined, then it is called after
+the structure is instantiated - `init()` receives an extra parameters
+when calling `create<structure>()`
+
+Let's create a queue that can be either FIFO or LIFO
+
+    redback.addStructure('Queue', {
+        init: function (is_fifo) {
+            this.fifo = is_fifo;
+        },
+        add: function (value, callback) {
+            this.client.lpush(this.key, value, callback);
+        },
+        next: function (callback) {
+            var method = this.fifo ? 'lpop' : 'rpop';
+            this.client[method](this.key, callback);
+        }
+    });
+
+To use the queue, call `createQueue(key, is_fifo)`
+
+    var queue = redback.createQueue('my_queue', true);
+
+    queue.add('awesome!', callback);
+
+### Other uses
+
+You can also use Redis as a cache backend or as a pub/sub provider
+
+**Cache backend**
+
+    var cache = redback.createCache();
+    cache.set('foo', 'bar', callback);
+
+**Pub/sub provider**
+
+    var channel = redback.createChannel('chat');
+
+    channel.subscribe();
+
+    //To received messages
+    channel.on('message', function (msg) {
+       console.log(msg);
+    });
+
+    //To send messages
+    channel.publish(msg);
+
+### Installation
+
+    npm install -g redback
+
+If you don't have Node.JS or NPM, see [this page](https://github.com/chriso/redback/wiki/Node.JS-and-NPM).
+
+### License
+
+(MIT License)
+
+Copyright (c) 2010 Chris O'Hara <cohara87@gmail.com>
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.