Ticket Terminal

A terminal to buy train tickets.

Setup

Run:

bundle install
ruby app.rb

Visit: http://localhost:4567/

Test

Run:

bundle exec rspec

Approach

I wanted to learn Sinatra and thought the idea of a website that looked like a terminal would be interesting. I also wanted to try to structure the app in a componetized way much like React.

Reconciling Sinatra with a component style architecture had its challenges. When Sinatra is implemented as a modular application all classes inherit from Sinatra::Base. You can then connect the instances together with Extensions/helpers. However I discovered that the custom methods added to a sub class of Sinatra::Base will fail silently when called, and that the sub class already has a render() method which conflicted with the component pattern I was trying to achieve. Sinatra seems geared towards get/post/delete requests/methods only but please let me know if there's another way. As a workaround I made my Component class disconnected from Sinatra::Base. Because I now couldn't use Extensions/helpers, I then used an AppHelper module which is included in every Component to access the base App instance.

In summary, this was an experimental build marrying different paradigms, but resulting in an end product that actually works :)

Architecture

Sinatra for routing/light-weight controllers
Components for entities that initialize() and render() themselves
Components use writable @state and read-only props just like React
Sinatra does the final rendering of components into templates/HTML

Learnings

I wouldn't use Sinatra if I could do this project again. It felt like I was fighting the framework rather than working with it. Using an AppHelper module as well as accessing the App class directly inside the controllers felt hacky. But it was a good learning experience into how Sinatra works.

maedi / ticket_terminal