Usage

Run it from the command line.

$ node alligator.js

Requires Node.JS v0.1.99 or greater. If you want to bind to a port under 1024, you'll need to run node with special privileges.

Features

Handling request parameters easily (for GET and POST)
Distributed session management, including timeout
Distributed application scope management
Dynamic js loader (the lib folder)
User can set the server-side script begin and end tags
Utilizing all cores per cpu (the nodes settings parameter)

When one is writing a script nested to the tags

He/She can use the following implicit functions/variables over the context object:

context.request for handling the request
context.request.parameters to read and write request post/get parameters
context.responseHead.header to add headers of the response (e.g. responseHead.header["set-cookie"] = "..";)
context.responseHead.status to change the HTTP response status
context.write(str) to add string to the response body (or instead one can use the tag)
context.forward(other.jssp) to forward the request and response to another server-side resource
context.sendRedirect(url) to send HTTP redirect response back to the client
context.lib.filename.member to access whatever lib one has loaded
context.session.set(key,value,callbackFunc) to put anything on the HttpSession
context.session.get(key,callbackFunc) to get anything from the HttpSession
context.application.set(key,value,callbackFunc) to put anything on the application context
context.application.get(key,callbackFunc) to get anything from the application context

#Examples Ex1.jssp:
Translates to:
2 Once can achieve the same thing using Ex2.jssp

One can forward from one jssp to another: Exf1.jssp: showTable.jssp:

One can easily redirect:

Welcome...

How to use the session scope, the counter Example: (separation of logic and view) logic.jssp: view.jssp: <TITLE>Application Scope Counter Tester</TITLE> <? var counter = request.parameters.counter; if(counter==1) context.write("First Time"); else context.write("Number of hits by you:" + counter);

	?>
	</BODY>
</HTML>

In case you had like to write JS only you can use a file with the 'script_ext', here is a different way to write logic.jssp logic.ssjs: (no script tags) this.page = function (context){ var counter = 1; context.application.get("counter",function(value){ context.log.debug("Page","ApplicationLOGIC.JSSP, value - " +value); if(value == undefined){ context.application.set("counter",1); }else{ counter = value+1; context.application.set("counter",counter); } context.request.parameters.counter = counter; context.forward("counter/view.jssp"); });

**Please note that behind the scene Alligator translate JSSP file to SSJS file upon the first request to this JSSP file(lazy) and later on use the SSJS file only. One can develop SSJS files instead of JSSP which makes the translation unnecessary. Alligator invokes the page() function.

One can also add content outside the page() function in two ways: using the tag sample.jssp:

<html>
	<head>
		<script src="jquery142.js"></script>
		<script src="alligator.js"></script>
		<script>
			function click1(){
				server("test",function(text){
					$("#hello").html(text);
				});
			}
		</script>
	</head>
	<body>
		<span id="hello"></span><br/>
		 <form>
 			<input type="button" id="button1" value="click me" onclick="click1()" />
 		</form>
	</body>
</html>

which compiles to sample.ssjs:(the text is escaped) this.page = function (context){context.writeEscapedText(""); context.writeEscapedText("%3Chtml%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%3Chead%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%3Cscript%20src%3D%22jquery142.js%22%3E%3C/script%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%3Cscript%20src%3D%22alligator.js%22%3E%3C/script%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%3Cscript%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%09function%20click1%28%29%7B%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%09%09server%28%22test%22%2Cfunction%28text%29%7B%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%09%09%09%24%28%22%23hello%22%29.html%28text%29%3B%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%09%09%7D%29%3B%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%09%7D%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%3C/script%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%3C/head%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%3Cbody%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%3Cspan%20id%3D%22hello%22%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cbr/%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%09%20%3Cform%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%20%09%09%09%3Cinput%20type%3D%22button%22%20id%3D%22button1%22%20value%3D%22click%20me%22%20onclick%3D%22click1%28%29%22%20/%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%20%09%09%3C/form%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%09%3C/body%3E%0A"); context.writeEscapedText("%3C/html%3E%0A"); };

this.test = function(context){
	context.write("hello ajax world");
};

In case Memcached is enabled, the application and session contexts are being saved there.

Configuration

Configuration is through a JSON text file - settings.json in the same folder as alligator.js.

Example settings file:

{
	"web_app_name" : "Alligator TestApp",
	"port"         : 8080,
	"path"         : {
				     	"root" : "/home/vadmin/ws/Alligator/WWW/",
				     	"lib"  : "/home/vadmin/ws/Alligator/WWWlib/"
			},
	"server_script": {
				     	 "template_ext"          : "jssp",
					     "script_ext"            : "ssjs",
					     "begin"                 : "<?",
					     "write" 				 : "=",
					     "global" 				 : "!",					     
					     "end"                   : "?>",
                	     "session_minutes"       : 1,
				    	 "memcached"             : {
													   "enable" : 0,
													   "server" : "localhost",
													   "port"   : 11211
					                           		}
			         },
	"logs"		   :{
						"Engine"		:"DEBUG",
						"ASemaphore"	:"ERROR",
						"Session"		:"ERROR",
						"Application"	:"ERROR",
						"Page"			:"DEBUG"
					},
	"nodes"	       : 1
}

This server listens on port 8080 for HTTP requests.

Explanation of properties:

web_app_name - the name of the current web application
port - the server listen to this port (default = 80)
path.root - the root folder for the static and dynamic files (default = WWW)
path.lib - the folder for JavaScript files that will get loaded automatically - you can access those via lib.fileName.yourStuff (default = None)
server_script.template_ext - the extension of files that contains of server-side template (default = 'jssp')
server_script.script_ext - the extension of files that contains of server-side script (default = 'ssjs')
server_script.begin - the beginning tag for server-side scripting (default = '<?')
server_script.write - in case coming right after the server_script.begin (e.g. '<?=') it auto warp the content with context.write() (default = '=')
server_script.global - in case coming right after the server_script.begin (e.g. '<?!') it adds the content outside the page() function (default = '=')
server_script.end - the end tag for server-side scripting (default = '?>')
server_script.session_minutes - session timeout after X minutes (default = 30)
server_script.memcached - integration with memcached
logs - the log level for each module
nodes - number of process running this application server ** currently we support shared memory using memcached! we recommand to set the number of nodes as the number of cores

Bugs and Contribution

Please let us know if you find any bug or if you would like to contribute code: mrohad.jsf at gmail

Known Bugs - http://github.com/mrohad/Alligator/blob/master/knowBugs.txt

Credits