CafeTownsend - AngularJS

This project is an HTML5/Javascript implementation of the infamous CafeTownsend application. CafeTownsend is a well known application created to demonstrate various MVC frameworks using Flex or ActionScript. There are known ports using Cairngorm, Mate, PureMVC, Spring ActionScript, RobotLegs and Swiz.

Recently a developer contributed an HTML5 port of the application using the javascript Spine MVC framework.

• CafeTownsend - Javascript with AngularJS Ioc … blog pending.
• CafeTownsend - Javascript with SpineJS MVC
• CafeTownsend - Flex with Swiz IoC
• CafeTownsend - Flex with Mate MVC

This project contributes a superior port of the HTML5 CafeTownsend application;using the Angular.js IoC framework.

Click to play with the live CafeTownsend Demo.

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AngularJS is an amazing IoC MVVM framework for Javascript applications. Supporting pageless architectures, advanced data binding, HTML templating, and dependency injection… AngularJS is strikingly similar to the Flex Swiz IoC framework.

Note: Subsequent CSS version will be rewritten in {Less} for dynamic stylesheet language support.
The AngularJS port also demonstrates significant advantages over the SpineJS implementation:

• Pageless Architecture
• Improved routing with deep link support
• Significant reduction in HTML template fragments
• Rigorous elimination of Javascript code from HTML
• Inter-controller data sharing
• Session Management/Authentication
• Lazy loading of data services (with auto-jsonify of external JSON data)
• Code versions handwritten in both Javascript and Coffeescript
• Demonstrates separation-of-concerns for Model-Views-Controllers
• Demonstates dependency injection for services and Controllers
• Demonstrates best practices for Model-View-View-Model (MVVM) architectures
• Uses CoffeeScript files for services and controller classes

Directory Layout

app/ --> all of the files to be used in production
CafeTownsend.html --> application file (the main html template file of the app)
assets/
css/ --> css files
styles.css --> default stylesheet
images/ --> image files
tmpl/ --> angular view partials (partial html templates)
login.html
employees.html
employee_edit.html
data/
members.json --> external, simple JSON data
js/
CafeTownsend.js --> application source code
bootstrap.js --> asynch loader and initializer (using head.js)
lib/
/angular
angular.js --> AngularJS v0.10.5 IoC Framework
jquery.min.js --> jQuery v1.7 minified
head.load.min.js --> asynch script loader
namespace.min.js --> namespace support for `package` class organization
uuid.js --> uuid generator
src/ Cakefile --> cake build script
coffee/ --> master developer files for service & controller classe bootstrap.coffee --> asynch loader and initializer (using head.js)
mindspace/cafetownsend/ CafeTownsendApp.coffee --> application class to establish routes and session
controller/ SessionController.coffee
LoginController.coffee
EmployeeController.coffee
EmployeeEditController.coffee
service/
EmployeeManager.coffee
SessionService.coffee
com/mindspace/angular/
directive/ EventDirectives.coffee --> doubleClick, focuse directives
scripts/ --> handy shell/js/ruby scripts
web-server.js --> simple development webserver based on node.js

Build Notes

Developers should use the cake script to build, consolidate, and minify the custom Javascript into Cafetownsend.min.js

cd ./src; cake build;

• CafeTownsend.js - consolidate application code
• bootstrap.js - asynch loader and initializer (using head.js)

Pending Features

This effort is still ongoing with some in-progress effort that will provide the following features:

• Provide loading indicator as data load indicator
• Support deep linking with synch data loads
• Convert disorganized CSS to LESS
• Build CafeTownsend Tests/Scenarios
• Create view slide transitions

Contact

Stay tuned for upcoming blog article and video on the GridLinked blog.
For more information on angular please check out http://angularjs.org/