linen

Linen (line-in) maps API's to bindable objects, and collections. At classdojo, we use linen to abstract our API from front-end, so we don't necessarily depend on any sort of API while developing new components. This allows us to rapidly build prototypes which can be wired up later.

Here's an example person schema:

``javascript
var linen = require("linen")();

linen.addSchema({

// name of the schema - gets referenced by
// linen.model("person")
name: "person",

//fields for the person. Keep in mind that model properties
//get validated against their coresponding field.
fields: {
firstName: "string",
lastName: "string",

// virtual value - doesn't actually exist in the API
fullName: {
$get: function(model) {
return model.get("first_name") + " " + model.get("last_name");
},
$set: function(model, value) {
var nameParts = String(value).split(" ")
model.set("first_name", nameParts.shift());
model.set("last_name", nameParts.join(" "));
},
$bind: ["first_name", "last_name"]
},

// fetches GET /people/:personId/friends when
// person.bind("friends").to(fn) is called
friends: [{
$ref: "person",
$fetch: function(payload, next) {
transport.fetch(payload.method, "/people/" + payload.model.get("_id") + "/friends", next);
}
}]
},

//fetches GET /people/:personId when
//person.bind(property).to(fn) is valled
fetch: function(payload, next) {
transport.fetch(payload.method, "/people/" + (payload.model.get("_id") || ""), next);
}
});
`

To use the schema, simply call the following:

`javascript
var person = linen.model("person"), //creates a new person
existingPerson = linen.model("person", "someId"); //some ID
`

Linen works by overriding the bind method to fetch from any API you have setup, so when you call:

`javascript

//calls GET /people/someId
existingPerson.bind("firstName").to(function(name) {
console.log(name);
}).now();
`

The existingPerson will asynchronously call .to(fn) when it's been loaded from the server. This is useful when data-binding to any sort of UI component, such as rivets.js, or paperclip.js.

Here's another example of data-binding to linen models:

`javascript

// GET /people/someId/friends
existingPerson.bind("friends").to(function(friends) {

// GET /people/friendId
friends.at(0).bind("firstName").once().to(function(name) {
}).now();
}).now();
`

The above examples make it easy to abstract models from any API. To demonstrate this, here's an example of using dummy data:


`javascript
var existingPerson = new bindable.Object({
firstName: "Ron",
lastName: "Burgundy",
friends: [
new bindable.Object({
firstName: "Brian",
lastName: "Fontana"
}),
new bindable.Object({
firstName: "Brick",
lastName: "Tamland"
}),
new bindable.Object({
firstName: "Champ",
lastName: "Kind"
})
]
});


existingPerson.bind("firstName").to(function(name) {
console.log(name); //Ron
}).now();

existingPerson.bind("friends").to(function(friends) {
friends.at(0).bind("firstName").once().to(function(name) {
console.log(name); //Brian
}).now();
}).now();
`

$3

#### linen()

Returns a new linen instance

#### linen.addSchema(definition)

adds a new schema

#### definition

Inspired by mongoose:

`javascript
linen.addSchema({
firstName: {

}
});
``

#### linen.model(schemaName[, modelId ])

returns a new, or existing model