#Clam
#####(0.4.0-alpha3)
The development of clam is stopped.
We used it in several projects, and in most of them writing Clam-modules was a delight. It never really took off hovewer, and I just had the feeling that something is not exactly right with the tool.
My main problem with Clam, is that it does a bit too much magic. So in order to deal with that issue, I'm taking the good ideas from the project, and I will create several independent node modules out of them instead.
Clam's successor modules are:
#####What is it?
Clam is a frontend toolset. It encourages organizing frontend widgets in CommonJS modules. These modules can then be instantiated once or multiple times on a single page, depending on whether they are "singleton" on "basic" modules. Modules developed with the use of Clam will be maintainable and extendable. The main goal of the project is to help writing js modules in an organised manner, while staying as simple and lightweight as possible.
To use clam, you'll have to learn some naming conventions - inspired by the BEM metodology -, and how to write CommonJS modules Clam-style.
To get started, a demo application is available here: Clam Demo.
#####What it's not
Clam is not a frontend framework. It has nothing to do with "views" or "models" for example. If you need them, implementing such features is up to you.
#####A quick example
Suppose we have a singleton module called "popup". Using it in an app.js file - which is processed by browserify - would look like this:
// Getting the module
// We assume that we have a "clam_module" directory which contains the
// "popup.js" module.
var cutil = require('clam/core/util');
var popup = require('clam_module/popup');
// Instantiating the module with the default configuration.
cutil.createPrototypes(popup);
// Note: By using the "createPrototypes" helper method, the created
// prototype will be registered to the clam container, so other modules
// can later access it by calling: "clam_container.get('popup')".Then a popup open button in html could look like this:
<div class="jsm-popup__open-btn" data-jsm-popup='{"type": "contact"}'></div>Which would open the "contact" popup. (Depending on the implementation, the same effect could be achieved by calling the popup prototype's appropriate method, for example: "clam_container.get('popup').open('contact')".)
#####Installation
Installation is done via Bower.
bower install clam --save-dev
#####Building
For the building process - from the "raw" clam modules and scss files -, Gulp and Browserify are the preferred tools. The clam demo is a working example for this.
#####JSDoc
JSDoc generated documentation can be found under the jsdoc/ folder.
Generation is done via the jsdoc core/ -r -d jsdoc command from the root.
#####Full documentation (Work in progress)
#####Disclaimer Although Clam is very lightweight, performance is not guaranteed for big applications. For example: if you have to make a single-page application, that is expected to perform well under extensive use by the user over a long period of time without reloading, please check the project's source code first, before you start using these modules to decide whether it suits your needs.
The main focus of this project is to speed up development by the reuse of clam-style modules.
Having said all the above, if you are used to optimizing javascript code, I would be more than happy to accept pull requests, if that solves issues stopping you from using Clam. :)
#####License Released under the MIT license.