chaz 😼

Simple and powerful

A lightweight and gently opinionated framework to use for your applications.

---

Installation and Directory structure

Create an empty project directory, init a package.json file and install the framework:

npm i chaz-js

In your project root directory, create the entrypoint app.js (you can call it whatever you like), and the folders src/ and resources/ (the folder names must be exactly "src" and "resources").

<project>
   |
   +--src/
   |
   +--resources/
   |
   +--app.js

Paste the following into your app.js file, it only serves to kick off an application.

// app.js

const chaz = require('chaz-js');
chaz.initialize();

Getting started and initializing an application

Kicking off the application by running your app.js (or equivalent file in your project root) will trigger the framework to search for an ApplicationRunner class (or TaskScheduler class, but more on those later) to run. You may have multiple ApplicationRunner classes, but most applications will probably stick with just 1.

An ApplicationRunner is a simple subclass that extends the ApplicationRunner class provided by the framework. Let's create a simple one in the src/ folder:

module.exports = {
    name: "Main", service: __, dependencies: ['ApplicationRunner']
};

function __(ApplicationRunner) {
    
    // Application runners should implement 2 methods
    // - order(): return an int to decide run order for multiple ApplicationRunners (if you have more than 1)
    // - run(): contains whatever code you want to run when your application starts
    class Main extends ApplicationRunner {
        order() {return 0;}

        run() {
            console.log(`Starting sample ApplicationRunner class '${this.constructor.name}'`);
        }
    }
    
    return Main;
}

Dependency Injection Container

All files placed in the src/ directory is eligible to be autoscanned for the DI container provided that an object in the following format is exported by each file:

module.exports = {
    // Name you want your module to be known for DI
    name: "ComponentName", 
    
    // Constructor function for your Component, whatever this function
    // returns will registered in the DI registry and will be injected when
    // another component requests this component in its dependency list
    service: serviceConstructorFunction,  
    
    // The DI container will look through its registry and inject these
    // dependencies (with the exact names specified) into the serviceConstructorFunction
    // for this component. They will be injected in the order in this list.
    dependencies: ['dependency1', 'dependency2']
};

To inject require-ed modules, simply type in the command "require(<module_name>)" in the exported dependencies property list (you still need to have them installed using npm install <module_name>). Notice the lack of quotes around the <module_name> in the dependency list, this is on purpose.

Example:

module.exports = {
    name: "MyFancyServiceClass", 
    service: __,  
    dependencies: ['require(mongoose)', 'MyService']
};

function __(mongoose, MyService) {
    // mongoose and MyService will be injected and usable in this scope
    
    class MyFancyServiceClass {
        constructor() {
            // constructor stuff
        }
        foo() {
            // foo stuff
        }
        bar() {
            // bar stuff
        }
    }
    
    return MyFancyServiceClass;
}

Special Dependencies

In addition to registered components, the following dependency formats have special meaning when specified in a component's dependency list:

• require(<module_name>): inject installed module (core or node_modules)
• resource(<resources_relative_name>): get and inject resource from resources/ directory
• env(<ENV_VARIABLE_NAME>): inject environment variable (from process.env)

Special Framework "Runner" classes

ApplicationRunner

ApplicationRunner subclasses must implement a run function that will be kicked off in order by the framework after initialization. This is typically the main entry point to an application. You can think of them like a public static void main() in Java; however you can have more than 1 ApplicationRunner in an application if the need arises.

See example shown above in the Getting started and initializing an application section.

TaskScheduler

TaskScheduler subclasses must implement a run function for the framework to periodically run and a config function that lets the framework know the what schedule the framework should follow.

Example TaskScheduler class:

module.exports = {
    name: "MessageScheduler", service: __,
    dependencies: ['TaskScheduler']
};

function __(TaskScheduler) {

    class MessageScheduler extends TaskScheduler {
        config() {
            return { 
                delay: 1000, 
                runOnceFirst: false, 
                runOnlyOnce: false 
            };
        }
        
        run() {
            console.log(`Running sample TaskScheduler class '${this.constructor.name}'`);
        }

    }
    return MessageScheduler;
}