way.js

Simple, lightweight, persistent, framework-agnostic two-way databinding Javascript library.
With no to little JS code to write. And no dependencies.

Demo
Codepen
jsFiddle

Buy us coffee: Gittip
Follow us on Twitter: @way_js

The following documentation is also available in Chinese (credits: @wuyunjiang).

Quick start

Declare an HTML element with some tags.

  <form way-data="myFormData" way-persistent="true">
  	<input type="text" name="name">
  	<input type="text" name="age">
  	<input type="text" name="gender">
  </form>

  Name: <span way-data="myFormData.name"></span>

Boom. Now every change in the form will be stored in-memory. The bound span's html will be changed on the fly. And the bound data will be persistent, meaning your HTML will be populated with your data on page reloads.

Enough talk, see it in action.

Installation

[Step 1] Include the library to your page.

1.a. via NPM

npm install way-js

then

import 'way-js';

1.b. or

<script src="dist/way.js"></script>

[Step 2] There is no step 2. You are good to go.

Options

Options can be passed via data attributes or JavaScript. For data attributes, append the option name to way-, as in way-data="". Set these options to the elements that have to be bound.

Some examples:

<form way-data="some.form" way-pick="some,properties,that,can.be.nested">

<form way-data="some.form" way-omit="dont,want.those">

<img way-data="some.image" way-default="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Bender_Rodriguez.png">

<pre way-data="some.json" way-json="true"></pre>

Scopes

You can set scopes to your DOM elements' data.

[way-scope] attribute
Passing this attribute to an element will point all its children's "way-data" attributes to this scope. Scopes can be nested.

way.set("someScope", { with: { something: "hello" }})

<div way-scope="someScope">
  <div way-scope="with">
    <div way-data="something"></div> <!-- Will render "hello" -->
  </div>
</div>

[way-scope-break] attribute
Breaks a scope chain. All the child elements of this one will have no scope set.

way.set("someScope", { with: { something: "hello" }})

<div way-scope="someScope">
  <div way-scope-break="true">
    <div way-data="someScope.with.something"></div> <!-- Will render "hello" -->
  </div>
</div>

scope() method
Returns the scope of a given DOM element

<div way-scope="someScope">
  <div way-scope="with">
    <div way-data="something" id="someDIV"></div>
  </div>
</div>

way.dom("#someDIV").scope()  
>> "someScope.with"

Repeats

Duplicates a DOM element for each of the values it can loop through in a way.js' passed data.
Notes:

• Repeat blocks automatically set the appropriate scope to their child elements.
• On each loop, "$$key" corresponds to the key of the current element looped.

Having this:

way.set("some.list", [
	{name:"Pierre"},
	{name:"Paul"},
	{name:"Jacques"}
]);

<div way-repeat="some.list">
	$$key - <span way-data="name"></span>
</div>

Will render that:

<div way-scope="some.list">
  <div way-scope="0">
    0 - <span way-data="name">Pierre</span>
  </div>
  <div way-scope="1">
    1 - <span way-data="name">Paul</span>
  </div>
  <div way-scope="2">
    2 - <span way-data="name">Jacques</span>
  </div>
</div>

Transforms

Transforms the displayed data bound to your DOM elements.

[way-transform] attribute
Pass transform functions by name. Add multiple transforms by separating them with the "|" symbol.
In case of conflicts between transforms, the last mentionned transform wins.
Some pre-build transforms [PR welcome for more!]

way.set("someData", "hello")

<div way-data="someData" way-transform="uppercase"></div>
<!-- Renders "HELLO" -->

registerTransform(name, transform) method
Adds a new transform.

way.set("someData", "hello");
way.registerTransform("lolify", function(data) {
  return data + " lol";
});

<div way-data="someData" way-transform="lolify|uppercase"></div>
<!-- Renders "HELLO LOL" -->

Helper elements

Allows to perform simple tasks on your way.js' data with a click.

Example:

way.set("some.list", ["I", "am", "list"]);

<div id="clickToRemove" way-action-remove="some.list.2"></div>
<div id="clickToPush" way-action-push="some.list"></div>

$("#clickToRemove").click();
$("#clickToPush").click();
way.get("some.list");
>> ["I", "am", null]

Helper classes

For images only way.js adds classes to your DOM elements to easily detect load / error / success statuses with the data they get passed.

way.set("image.url", "somethingThatsNotAnImageURL");

<img way-data="image.url">
<!-- Gets a class ".way-error" attributed -->

Methods

Everything should be done for you from the HTML tags. But if necessary, you can also use helper functions to interact with your stored data and DOM elements.

Notes:

• [element] refers to the CSS selector of a DOM element.
• [options] is optional. By default, options are read from the HTML tags of the elements. But you can overwrite them, by passing this parameter.

DOM methods

way.dom(element).toStorage(options)
Stores the element's value to the in-store memory.

way.dom("#someForm").toStorage()

way.dom(element).fromStorage(options)
Sets the element's value from the stored one.

way.dom("#someForm").fromStorage()

way.dom(element).toJSON(options)
Returns a JSON with the parsed data of the input (particularly handy for forms).

way.dom("#someForm").toJSON()

>> {
		its: "values",
		serialized: {
			in: "a json"
		}
	}

way.dom(element).fromJSON(data, options)
Sets the element's value from any data (in json).

way.dom("#someForm").fromJSON({name:"John Doe"})

way.dom(element).getValue()
Returns a structured JSON containing the value of the DOM element.

way.dom("#someForm").getValue()

way.dom(element).setValue(value, options)
Sets the element's value from any data (in json).

way.dom("#someForm").setValue({name:"John Doe"})

way.dom(element).setDefault(force)
Sets the default value of an element. By default, only the DOM element gets its value set to the default value. Its bound value in the datastore in unchanged. Pass a [force] parameter if you need to force setting in-memory value of this data to the element's default value.

way.dom("#someForm").setDefault()

way.setDefaults(force)
Sets all the default values of bound DOM elements.

way.setDefaults()

way.dom(element).getOptions()
Returns the list of the ["way-"] options attributed to a DOM element.

way.dom("#someForm").getOptions()

Data methods

way.get(selector)
Returns the value of the data stored under a given pathname.

way.get("some.path");
>> "bonjour"

way.set(selector, value, options)
Saves the data in memory under the specified pathname.

way.set("some.path", "bonjour!");

way.remove(selector, options)
Removes the data stored under a given pathname.

way.remove("some.path");
way.get("some.path");
>> undefined

way.clear(options)
Clears all the data

way.clear();
way.get();
>> {}

localStorage methods

way.backup()
Stores the data saved in way.js' datastore to localStorage.

way.backup();

way.restore()
Restores the data saved in localStorage. Called on $(document).ready by default (can be changed with global options).

way.restore();

Binding methods

way.registerBindings()
Triggers a scan of the DOM to find and save the elements with the [way-data] attribute, that will be bound with some data.

way.registerBindings()

way.updateBindings(selector)
Sets the value of all the DOM elements binded to a data selector with their values in way.js' datastore. If omitted, all (excluding write-only's and omitted) DOM elements with a "way-data=" attribute will be refreshed.

way.updateBindings("formData.name")

Repeat methods

way.registerRepeats()
Triggers a scan of the DOM to find and save the elements with the [way-repeat] attribute, that will be bound with some data.

way.registerRepeats()

way.updateRepeats(selector)
Triggers a refresh of the repeat elements with their respective data.

way.updateRepeats("somethingToBeLooped")

Watcher methods

way.watch(selector, callback[value])
Watches changes of a given value.

way.watch("some.data", function(value) {
	console.log("Data has been updated to value: " + value);
});

way.watchAll(callback[selector, value])
Watches all changes in way.js' datastore.

way.watchAll(function(selector, value) {
	console.log("The data " + selector + " has been changed.", value);
});

Global options

way.options.persistent (Boolean)
Sets whether or not data will be restored from localStorage on document.ready (true by default).

way.options.persistent = true

way.options.timeoutInput (Number)
Number of milliseconds of the timeout between keypresses on bound elements to store their values to the datastore (50 by default).

way.options.timeoutInput = 50

way.options.timeoutDOM (Number)
Number of milliseconds of the timeout between scans of the DOM to list bound elements on each DOM change (500 by default).

way.options.timeoutDOM = 500

To do

• document a bit more the code
• test
• enjoy

Integrations

• [Meteor] To be coming

Contribute

• Fork & pull request.
• If you planning add some feature please create issue before.

Otherwise changes will be rejected.

Licence

The MIT License

Copyright (c) 2014 Gwendall Esnault [email protected]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.