Connexions

Development and Building

Below are instructions for hosting and building the site and a layout of how the code is organized.

CNX webview is designed to be run as a frontend for cnx-archive.

Installing & Hosting

Installing

1. If necessary, install Node.js and npm (included with Node.js).
2. Run npm install -g grunt-cli bower in the command line to install grunt-cli and bower.
3. From the root webview directory, run npm install in the command line to install test and build dependencies.

• npm install runs bower install and grunt install, both of which can also be run independently
  • bower install downloads front-end dependencies
  • grunt install compiles the Aloha-Editor (which is downloaded by bower)

By default, webview will use cnx-archive and cnx-authoring hosted on cnx.org.

Testing

From the root webview directory, run npm test.

Building

From the root webview directory, run grunt dist.

The dist directory containing the built site will be added to the root webview directory.

Updating

From the root webview directory, run npm run-script upgrade, which executes the following commands:

1. npm update
2. bower update
3. grunt aloha --verbose

Hosting

Quick Development Setup

1. Install nginx
2. Run grunt nginx:start (uses nginx.development.conf)
3. (optional) Install https://github.com/prerender/prerender
4. Point your browser to http://localhost:8000

Customization Notes

1. Update settings in src/scripts/settings.js if necessary to, for example, include the correct Google Analytics ID, and to point to wherever cnxarchive is being hosted.

2. Ensure resources are being served with the correct MIME type, including fonts.

• Example nginx MIME types that may need to be added:

  types {
      image/svg+xml           svg svgz;
      font/truetype           ttf;
      font/opentype           otf;
      application/font-woff   woff;
  }

3. Configure your server to point at dist/index.html (or src/index.html for development)

• Unresolveable URIs should load dist/index.html or src/index.html
• If not hosting the site from the domain root, update root in src/scripts/settings.js
• scripts, styles, and images routes should be rewritten to the correct paths
• Example nginx config:

  server {
      listen 8000; # dev
      listen [::]:8000; # dev ipv6
      listen 8001; # production
      listen [::]:8001; # production ipv6
      server_name  _;

      # Support both production and dev
      set $ROOT "src";
      if ($server_port ~ "8001") {
          set $ROOT "dist";
      }

      root /path/to/webview/$ROOT/;

      index index.html;
      try_files $uri @prerender;

      # Proxy resources and exports to cnx.org
      # since they are not part of the locally hosted package
      location /resources/ {
          proxy_pass http://cnx.org;
      }
      location /exports/ {
          proxy_pass http://cnx.org;
      }

      # For development only
      location ~ ^.*/bower_components/(.*)$ {
          alias /path/to/webview/bower_components/$1;
      }

      location ~ ^.*/(data|scripts|styles|images|fonts)/(.*) {
          try_files $uri /$1/$2;
      }

      # Prerender for SEO
      location @prerender {
          # Support page prerendering for web crawlers
          set $prerender 0;
          if ($http_user_agent ~* "baiduspider|twitterbot|facebookexternalhit|rogerbot|linkedinbot|embedly|quora link preview|showyoubot|outbrain|pinterest") {
              set $prerender 1;
          }
          if ($args ~ "_escaped_fragment_") {
              set $prerender 1;
          }
          if ($http_user_agent ~ "Prerender") {
              set $prerender 0;
          }
          if ($uri ~ "\.(js|css|xml|less|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|pdf|doc|txt|ico|rss|zip|mp3|rar|exe|wmv|doc|avi|ppt|mpg|mpeg|tif|wav|mov|psd|ai|xls|mp4|m4a|swf|dat|dmg|iso|flv|m4v|torrent)") {
              set $prerender 0;
          }
          if ($prerender = 1) {
              rewrite .* /$scheme://$http_host$request_uri? break;
              proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
          }
          if ($prerender = 0) {
              rewrite .* /index.html break;
          }
      }
  }

Directory Layout

• bower_components/ 3rd Party Libraries (added after install)
• node_modules/ Node Modules (added after install)
• dist/ Production version of the site (added after build)
• src/ Development version of the site
• src/data/ Hardcoded data
• src/images/ Images used throughout the site
• src/scripts/ Site scripts and 3rd party libraries
• src/scripts/collections Backbone Collections
• src/scripts/helpers Helpers for Handlebars, Backbone, and generic code
• src/scripts/models Backbone Models
• src/scripts/modules Self-contained, reusable Modules used to construct pages
• src/scripts/pages Backbone Views representing an entire page (or the entire viewport)
• src/scripts/config.js Require.js configuration
• src/scripts/loader.coffee App loader, responsible for setting up global listeners
• src/scripts/main.js Initial script called by Requirejs
• src/scripts/router.coffee Backbone Router
• src/scripts/session.coffee Session state singleton (Backbone Model)
• src/scripts/settings.js Global application config settings (remains in place after build)
• src/styles/ App-specific LESS variables and mixins
• src/index.html App's HTML Page
• test/ Unit tests

License

This software is subject to the provisions of the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3.0 (AGPL). See license.txt for details. Copyright (c) 2013 Rice University.