WARNING: protoweb is in very early stages of development!
protoweb is a very singular console command that helps you prototype Cyclone based web applications, without the need of focusing too much on server-side when templating and stuff is needed.
Quick history: I am very, very systematic when develop things, and almost make my own life a big MVC in motion. I like to separate tasks the best as possible, so I can focus better. In that way, I created protoweb to focus on javascript, css/less and HTML/templates, instead all this plus request handlers, regex, console, regenerating static content and etc. And yes, I'm a Linux user, developer, sysadmin, so my head is a total mess.
As being an application, you should install it first (doh!). Grab a copy from github or install it from pip:
$ [sudo] pip install protoweb
protoweb should now be in your $PATH. You can check if everything is working properly by simply typing:
$ protoweb
It should provide you the following output:
2013-05-29 14:53:24-0300 Log opened.
2013-05-29 14:53:24-0300 ProtoWebServer starting on 9000
2013-05-29 14:53:24-0300 Starting factory <protoweb.server.server.ProtoWebServer instance at 0x19511b8>
The list of options are provided by running protoweb with the --help flag:
$ protoweb --help
Usage: protoweb [-h]
protoweb is a simple command line tool to create rich web development
environments, with processors and the power of the Cyclone framework to handle
static and dynamic content.
Options:
--version show program's version number and exit
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-s SOURCE, --source=SOURCE
source path to run protoweb, can be more then one,
default: none
-p PORT, --port=PORT the TCP port this server will listen to, default: 9000
-i INDEX, --index=INDEX
the html file in case none is found, default:
index.html
-I INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE
the TCP interface you will be running, default:
0.0.0.0
-L, --use-less use the Less CSS processor for *.less files, default:
False
-n, --no-templates disable the usage of Cyclone templates: False
Less options:
-l LESS-FLAGS, --less-flag=LESS-FLAGS
less desired compilation flag, can be more then one
Cyclone template options:
-j JSON_PATH, --json-path=JSON_PATH
the JSON path in case of usage of Cyclone templates,
default: .
Copyright 2013 Richard Kuesters <rkuesters@gmail.com> and released under the
MIT LICENSE <http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>. Visit us on
https://github.com/vltr/protoweb for more information.
Yes, protoweb needs a lot of documentation, improvements, polishing, and so on. You can check the TODO list. I'll be very pleased if anyone sends pull requests :)
Do not expect any word for this particular item while no buffer / caching engine is embed into protoweb :)
One of my goals with protoweb was to deliver a fast LESS prototyping environment, specially testing with older browsers (the ones we love), where including less.js inside the <head> tag means headaches and broken layouts.
So, to have Less up and running, you must have Node.js installed in your system. You can find more information on how to install it from here or here.
Having Node.js installed, you must install Less using npm:
$ [sudo] npm install less
Check if lessc exists and you're good to go!
$ which lessc
PS: it's good to check Less' compiler flags. They're accepted by protoweb, but I think you would like to leave it with defaults ;)
- better documentation;
- better error handling, with tracebacks, colored output - if necessary;
- better logging (basically for processors);
- create a simple dynamic routing engine for Javascript development;
- REST server mocks;
- gateway proxies for HTTP[S] requests;
- provide a plugin system for processors;
- separate template engines - if users decide to use any other;
- why not use other web platforms, and not only Cyclone?
- as of Cyclone, make better use of its template engine (some functions are not working, like
static_url- because I don't really have a static handler); - buffering, caching, auto-reload?
- static export engine?
- Humantech Gestao do Conhecimento, for giving me work and the opportunity to create this tool. I mean, it's your tool, AFAIK;
- My work colleagues and friends that shares the necessity of fast prototyping :)
- My music - for preventing me from loosing more focus, lol; and
- The majestic open source community.