pegesund / LiveWeb

LiveWeb: web app framework for Smalltalk

LiveWeb

LiveWeb is a server side rendered web application framework for Smalltalk. It is based on Zinc HTTP server and WebSockets.

The components live on the server and can send updates to clients through the web socket.

Quick start guide

Try docker examples

You can try the examples in a docker with

docker run -p 8080:8080 antitadex/liveweb-examples

and opening examples: http://localhost:8080/examples/clock (and counter, wordle).

Installation

 Metacello new
   repository: 'github://tatut/LiveWeb/src';
   baseline: 'LiveWeb';
   load.

Creating a page and component.

The main endpoint is an instance of LWPage subclass. The page will create the head (optional) and body (required) components for each page render. The page will register itself with a random UUID so the client can connect to it.

Creating a simple counter component.

LWPage subclass: #CounterPage.

CounterPage >> body: args [
  ^ CounterComponent new
]

The create the component.

LWComponent subclass: #CounterComponent
  instanceVariableNames: 'counter'.

CounterComponent >> initialize [
  super initialize.
  counter := 0
]

CounterComponent >> renderOn: h [
  h div: { #id->'myBody' } with: [
    h button: { #onclick -> [ self counter: counter - 1] } with: '-';
      div: counter asString;
      button: { #onclick -> [ self counter: counter + 1] } with: '+'
  ]
]

CounterComponent >> counter: newValue [
  counter := newValue.
  self changed "this causes the component to rerender"
]

Then you need to register the page into the Zinc server delegate.

ZnServer default delegate
  map: #counter
  to: [:req | CounterPage new value: req ].

See the LiveWeb-Examples package for more elaborate examples and examples of using the styling package.