Codename Starshard

Synopsis

SSI Network Infrastructure, provides a unified interface for web applications. The base system will provide session and db storage for upper applications. Each application can define routes of their own and access one exclusive database. Accounts can be shared throughout all applications.

Getting Started

First make sure you have grunt, if you don't know what it is, see http://gruntjs.com/.

Compile LESS styles, uglify and minify js files using grunt

Make sure mongodb and redis are running.

As the server uses gm to process images, you also need to download and install GraphicsMagick or ImageMagick.

Init database and stard static files using node init.js

Now you can start the server node server.js.

Base system

Routes

All applications can be accessed via paths like "/appname", and administrator can set an application as default ("/"). Some app names are reserved for management or maintenance purposes.

Database Interface

Base system provides a database interface for applications. Each application will have their own database(if needed) and a shared user database.

If the application requires a database, the base system will provide an object to execute the database operations.

For each application that requires database storage, a Mongodb database will be created.

Session storage

The base system uses Redis to store user session data. Class Sessions will handle the session data of each user.

Application

Shard.json

Shard.json will provide basic information for the base system. Shard properties will include:

name - The name of the application, will be used in its path.
usedb - [Bool] Indicate whether this app requires database
static - Path of static files for this application

Index.js

index.js is the entry point of the application. A typical index.js should look like:

var shard = require('./shard.json');
shard.routes = [
  {
    path: '/',
    method: 'GET',
    respond: function (req, res, session, db) {
	  // Handle the request
    }
  }
]
module.exports = shard;

Base system APIs

The base system provides database, route, and session APIs for each application. Each application main script should begin with:

module.exports = function (route, db, session) {};

Application can use these three objects route, db, session to register routes, access the database and session storage.

In-app routes

Sub-routes can be declared in each application. If a /path route is registered in an application, this path can be accessed via /appname/path.

Routes should be registered as the following using HTTP method names

route.get('/path', function (req, res) {});
/* You can also use .post, .put, .delete */

Database and session

Database and session can be accessed by db and session.

Shared users

All applications share users registered in the base system. Each application can access a user's name and unique id, but to access other properties like email, applications are required to ask for permission in Shard.json.

akasfei/isi