Solipsist.js

Solipsist is a library that allows you to develop JavaScript applications without worrying about the backend by providing a simple way to define object factories and mocking ajax requests.

The idea is to provide an isolated environment that mimics the behaviour of the server so you can focus completely on the frontend until it's ready to talk to the real world, avoiding the painful context-switching between client-server code.

Status of the Library

Very early proof-of-concept version.

Factories

With Solipsist.Factory you can define 'blueprints' for your data objects and then generate as many of them as you need:

// Define some factory with six silly properties

var Factory = Solipsist.Factory;

var MyFactory = Factory({
  prop_one:    Factory.int_between(10, 20),
  prop_two:    Factory.int_between(0, 100),
  prop_three:  Factory.int_sequence(),
  prop_four:   Factory.int_sequence(1000),
  prop_five:   "Just a plain, static string",
  prop_six:    function() { return new Date; }
});

// Then, use it to generate data objects

var my_obj = MyFactory();
console.log(my_obj.prop_one);   // 13
console.log(my_obj.prop_three); // 0
console.log(my_obj.prop_four);  // 1000
console.log(my_obj.prop_five);  // "Just a plain, static string"

var other_obj = MyFactory({prop_five: "Another String"});
console.log(other_obj.prop_one);   // 17
console.log(other_obj.prop_three); // 1
console.log(other_obj.prop_four);  // 1001
console.log(other_obj.prop_five);  // "Another String"

You can use the data generated by the factory to populate more complex models speficing a custom constructor with the _constructor special property:

// Using backbone.js

var MyModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
  method_one: function() {
    return this.get('prop_one');
  },
  method_two: function() {
    return this.get('prop_two');
  }
});

var Factory = Solipsist.Factory;

var MyFactory = Factory({
  prop_one: Factory.int_between(10, 100),
  prop_two: Factory.int_sequence(50),
  _constructor: function(data) { return new MyModel(data); }
});

var instance = MyFactory();
console.log(instance.method_one());    // 34
console.log(instance.get('prop_two')); // 50

AJAX stubs

This is the core functionality of the library and what allows you to build an isolated, client-only development environment. Use Solipsist.Request to define stubs that capture ajax requests from jQuery and emulate the behaviour of a server response. The syntax is very simple, following the sinatra model of route-handler pairs.

// Resource factory

var Factory = Solipsist.Factory;

var ItemFactory = Factory({
  id: Factory.int_sequence(),
  name: Factory.string_random(10),
  description: Factory.string_random_paragraph(10, 10)
});

// AJAX stub

var Request = Solipsist.Request;

Request.get('/resource/index', function(req) {
  var response = ItemFactory.array_of(10);
  req.success(response);
});

// Your client code

$.get('/resource/index', function(data) {
  console.log(data);
});

You can use URL patterns to emulate more complex requests:

// Resource factory

var Factory = Solipsist.Factory;

var ItemFactory = Factory({
  id: Factory.int_sequence(),
  name: Factory.string_random(10),
  description: Factory.string_random_paragraph(10, 10)
});

// AJAX stub

var Request = Solipsist.Request;

Request.get('/resource/:id', function(req) {
  var id = req.params['id'];
  var item = ItemFactory({id: id});
  req.success(item);
});

// Your client code

$.get('/resource/34', function(data) {
  console.log(data);
});

And make things more real simulating server errors and delays:

// Resource Factory

var Factory = Solipsist.Factory;

var BookFactory = Factory({
  title: Factory.string_random(10),
  pages: Factory.int_between(100, 500)
});

var AuthorFactory = Factory({
  id: Factory.int_sequence(),
  name: Factory.string_random_paragraph(2, 10),
  books: function() { return BookFactory.array_of(4); }
});

// AJAX stub

var Request = Solipsist.Request;

Request.get('/author/:id', {delay: 300}, function(req) {
  var author = AuthorFactory({id: req.params['id']});
  if (Math.random() > 0.3) {
    req.success(author);
  } else {
    req.error();
  }
});

// Your client code

$.ajax({
  url: '/author/12',
  type: 'get',
  success: function (data) {
    console.log("Success!");
    console.log(data);
  },
  error: function () {
    throw new Error('Request failed!');
  }
});

When you launch a POST request, all the data fields are available inside the req.params object:

var Request = Solipsist.Request;

Request.post('/say', function(req) {
  console.log('You said: ' + req.params['message']);
  req.success();
});

$.post('/say', {message: 'Hello, fake server!'});

The req object also has a req.complete method to trigger the complete handler.

Intended Usage

Despite its simplicity, you can go quite far combining factories and request stubs. The implementation of the ajax proxy is not very exhaustive and its behaviour doens't match exactly the real thing, so don't use it for testing purposes if you have complex ajax patterns in your app. For now, the focus is on making the development envirnoment simple and server-free.