In the last article, I wrote an introductory post about Oats~i, the open web framework. I talked about its core features, a bit of how it works, and what to expect. If you didn’t read that piece, give it a quick look.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve created a few tooling around Oats~i to ensure we can quickly get up and running installing the framework, running a starter project, and seamlessly working on tutorials and learning.

This piece is the first of a series called Build a Web App with Oats~i. We’ll start with setting up an Oats~i project using two methods – using the cli or manually.

Using the Oats~i CLI (Recommended)

This is the most recommended method for setting up an Oats~i project. It saves you the time of writing boiler plate code and installing the dependencies needed to get an Oats~i project up and running.

However, you should use this method only when creating a completely new project to avoid potential file conflicts between Oats~i and your current project structure.

The cli comes set up with a starter project with a home and about page. You can navigate between these two pages to see Oats~i already in action, handling routing and fragments.

How to Use the Oats~i CLI

Navigate to the folder you want to create an Oats~i project
Open the terminal and run


npx oats-i-cli

Follow the prompts and wait for the setup to complete
Run


npm run dev

Navigate to the address shown in the terminal at the start of the build (often is localhost:8080). That will open the starter project on your browser. (You can use the local network address to view it on your other devices connected to the same network)

Manual Installation

If you have an existing project you want to install Oats~i to, or love being hardcore, you can set up Oats~i manually. This process is much longer, and requires more attention to ensure everything works well.

Install Dependencies

Now, start by navigating to your project’s directory and open the terminal.

First, we install the dependencies needed to build and run Oats~i. If you’re starting a new project, start by running.


npm init -y

Then, follow the steps outlined below.

NOTE: Apart from installing Oats~i, you can skip any of the steps after it if you already have the libraries/dependencies installed in your current project.

Install Oats~i (Core)

Install the core Oats~i library.

Run


npm install oats-i

Install Webpack

Install Webpack as a development dependency. Webpack will allow us to have better project structures among other features, with the library handling module bundling and asset management.

Run


npm install --save-dev webpack webpack-cli

Install Webpack Dev Server

Install the webpack dev server as a development dependency. This will allow us to run a development server that will auto-update on new changes while we’re building and testing our Oats~i web app.

Run


npm install --save-dev webpack-dev-server

Install Handlebars-Loader

It’s strongly recommended that you use a templating engine for rendering your views in Oats~i. My preferred choice is handlebars. (Learn more about handlebars)

To work with webpack, we’ll need to install the handlebars-loader as a development dependency. That will allow us to use handlebars templates to generate and render our views in-app.

Run


npm install --save-dev handlebars-loader

Install HTML-Loader

To create server-side views, the base Oats~i configuration uses a combination of html-loader and html-webpack-plugin. Let’s first install the html-loader library as a development dependency.

Run


npm install --save-dev html-loader

Install HTML-Webpack-Plugin

The html-webpack-plugin library allows us to output server-side views for our app using webpack. It works in conjunction with html-loader. Install it as a development dependency.

Run


npm install --save-dev html-webpack-plugin

Install Babel-Loader

Babel-loader will load and transform our JavaScript files using webpack. Install it as a development dependency.

Run


npm install --save-dev babel-loader

Install Style-Loader and CSS-Loader

Style-loader and css-loader will inject our css imports as stylesheets in our html files produced by html-loader and html-webpack-plugin. Install these loaders as development dependencies.

Run


npm install --save-dev style-loader npm install --save-dev css-loader

Install Webpack-Merge

Webpack-merge will allow us to merge multiple webpack configuration files, allowing us to structure our configuration files in optimal ways for our project setup. Install this library as a development dependency.

Run


npm install --save-dev webpack-merge

Install Express-Handlebars

Express-handlebars will allow us to emulate server-side rendering in development using handlebars view files outputted by our webpack configuration, using html-loader and html-webpack-plugin. Install this library as a development dependency.

Run


npm install --save-dev express-handlebars

Create Webpack Configuration Files

At the root of your project’s directory, create a new folder and call it “webpack-configs”.

Navigate into this folder and create two new folders inside it named “main” and “oats~i”.

Your folder structure should now look like this:

Now, navigate into “oats~i” and create two more folders named “default” and “main”.

Your folder structure should now look like this:

——

The “default” folder will hold the default webpack configuration needed by Oats~i to have it’s webpack-dependent functions work. Currently, that is code splitting and lazy loading for fragments.

The “main” folder will hold the webpack configuration for loaders used and recommended by Oats~i. These are the loaders we installed in the “install dependencies” stage. Feel free to edit this configuration later if you want to change loaders.

——

Navigate to the “default” folder and create a new file called “webpack.config.js”

Open the file and paste the following code inside it.


//@ts-check
const DefaultOats_iConfig = { optimization: { splitChunks: { minSize: 0, //Minimum size, in bytes, for a chunk to be generated. minSizeReduction: 1, //Minimum size reduction to the main chunk (bundle), in bytes, needed for a chunk to be generated. minChunks: 2, cacheGroups: { commons: { chunks: "async", //Allow chunks to be shared between sync and async } } } }
} module.exports = DefaultOats_iConfig;

Now, navigate back to the “oats~i” folder and navigate into “main”.

Create a new file and name it “webpack.config.js”.

Open the file and paste the following code inside.


//@ts-check
/** * Contains loaders */
const DefaultOats_iLoadersConfig = { module: { rules: [ { test: /\.(html|sv.hbs|p.hbs)$/, use: [ { loader: "html-loader", options: { minimize: false } } ] }, { test: /\.(hbs)$/, exclude: /\.(sv.hbs|p.hbs)/, use: [ { loader: "handlebars-loader", options: { inlineRequires: "./assets" } } ] }, { test: /\.(js)$/, exclude: /node_modules/, use: [ { loader: "babel-loader" } ] }, { test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|gif)$/, type: 'asset/resource', }, { test: /\.css$/, use: [ 'style-loader', 'css-loader' ] } ] }
} module.exports = DefaultOats_iLoadersConfig;

We’re done setting up the core webpack configuration for Oats~i. Now, we need to merge them in a common configuration file that we’ll use project-wide.

Now, navigate back to the “oats~i” folder then back to the “webpack-configurations” folder. Now navigate into “main”.

Create a new file and name it “webpack.config.js”.

Open the file and paste the following code inside.


//@ts-check
const path = require("path");
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require("html-webpack-plugin");
const DevServerMiddlewareConfig = require("../../proxy-server/proxy_server");
//The folder we'll have our assets emitted after build
const DIST_PATH_PUBLIC_ASSETS = "../../dist/public";
const { merge } = require("webpack-merge");
const DefaultOats_iConfig = require("../oats~i/default/webpack.config");
const DefaultOats_iLoadersConfig = require("../oats~i/main/webpack.config"); //@ts-expect-error
module.exports = merge(DefaultOats_iConfig, DefaultOats_iLoadersConfig, { mode: "development", devtool: "eval-source-map", output: { //Where we'll output public assets path: path.resolve(__dirname, `${DIST_PATH_PUBLIC_ASSETS}`), publicPath: "/", assetModuleFilename: 'assets/[name][ext]', filename: "js/[name].dev_bundle.js", clean: true }, entry: { //The main entry (app) index: "./src/app/index/scripts/index.js", }, plugins: [ new HtmlWebpackPlugin({ template: "./src/server/home/home.sv.hbs", filename: "../views/home.hbs", chunks: ["index"], minify: false }) ], devServer: { devMiddleware: { writeToDisk: true, //Because of our configured server }, setupMiddlewares: DevServerMiddlewareConfig, }
});

Now, we should be done setting up our webpack configurations that’s just fine to run an Oats~i project.

Update package.json

Navigate back to your project’s root folder. Open package.json, look for the “scripts” line, and add the following line after “test” (remember to separate with a comma).

 "dev": "webpack-dev-server --config ./webpack-configs/main/webpack.config.js"

Set Up Dev Server Middlewares

In our final webpack configuration file, we specified a middlewares file for the webpack dev server under


setupMiddlewares: DevServerMiddlewareConfig

Under normal circumstances, you don’t need this setup. You can simply write your server view files in html format, use html-loader and html-webpack-plugin to produce them, and have them directly served by webpack-dev-server during development.

However, as you’ll come to learn later, this is not the best setup for building an Oats~i project that’s already primed for server-side rendering. The server-side files are already in html format, meaning they can’t be easily templated with data before being rendered to the client on the initial request.

To accommodate that, the default Oats~i setup ensures you’re creating template files for your server views that will be easy to render with data from your server every time a client requests for a fresh page.

Our dev server middlewares setup will allow us to mimic such as setup on the actual server, for our development environment.

With its default setup, you don’t need to update it for new fragments that you add to the project, as long as you’re not interested in having them server-side rendered. However, once you get to the point where you want to have server-side rendering and test it in development, setting things up will be much easier and faster, without a change in file formats you’ve already used across the project.

Let’s Set Up this Config

At your project’s root directory, create a new folder and name it “proxy-server”. Inside this new folder, create a file and name it “proxy_server.js”

Open the file and paste the following code:


//@ts-check
const express = require("express");
const path = require("path");
const hbs = require("express-handlebars"); const DevServerMiddlewareConfig = (middlewares, devServer) => { /** * @type {import("express").Application} */ const app = devServer.app; //Configure the view engine app.set("views", path.resolve(__dirname, "../dist/views")); app.set("view engine", "hbs"); app.engine("hbs", hbs.engine({ extname: "hbs", layoutsDir: path.resolve(__dirname, "../dist/views"), partialsDir: path.resolve(__dirname, "../dist/views/partials") })); //for json app.use(express.json()); //I think params and queries app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: false })); //static app.use(express.static(path.resolve(__dirname, "../dist/public"))); //My middlewares //Capture all app.get("/*", (req, res, next) => { res.render("home", { layout: "home" }); }); return middlewares;
} module.exports = DevServerMiddlewareConfig;

This configuration will capture all requests to the dev server and return the home.hbs layout file. You can rename this later to your file’s actual name once you start creating your own Oats~i project and leave it as is as long as you’ll not require server-side rendering for any of your fragments.

Create jsconfig.json

Oats~i is typed using a combination of typescript declaration files and JSDoc. There’s a slight issue where types may not always reflect correctly when using the framework, slightly hurting the developer experience.

Instead of refactoring over 100 files and thousands of lines of code, I’ve found a way to make typescript and intellisense (at least in VSCode) to understand the JSDoc types used in Oats~i.

To do this, navigate to your project’s root folder. Create a file named “jsconfig.json”.

Open it and paste the code below:


{ "include": [ "*/**/*.js", "**/*", "/**/*", "node_modules/oats-i" //to get type definitions for oats-i in your project ],
}

NOTE: This bit comes automatically with the cli, so don’t do this for an Oats~i project you’ve set up using the cli.

Create Starter Project Files

Let’s now put everything together and create our starter project files to run an Oats~i app for the first time.

Server-side Base Layout

Navigate to your project’s root folder and create a new folder named “src”. This folder will contain all of our project’s source files.

Inside the “src” folder, create two folders named “app” and “server”.

Navigate to the “server” folder and create a new folder named “home”. Inside the “home” folder, create a new file and name it “home.sv.hbs”

Open the file and paste the code below:


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>Home - My Oats~i App</title>
</head>
<body> <app-root id="my-app"> <div id="nav"> <a href="/" class="home-link">Home</a> </div> <main-fragment> </main-fragment> </app-root>
</body>
</html>

App Files

Now navigate back to “src”. Get into the “app” folder and create two folders name “fragments” and “index”.

Navigate into the “index” folder and create two folders named “scripts” and “styles”.

Inside the “scripts” folder, create a new folder called “routing-info”. Inside “routing-info” create two files named “app_main_nav_info.js” and “app_routing_info.js”

Main Navigation info

Open “app_main_nav_info.js” and paste the following code:


//@ts-check
import MainNavigationInfoBuilder from "oats-i/router/utils/nav-info/main_nav_info_builder"; const AppMainNavInfo = MainNavigationInfoBuilder.buildMainNavigationInfo([ { selector: "home-link", defaultRoute: "/", baseActiveRoute: "/", }
]); export default AppMainNavInfo;

Main Routing Info

Now open “app_routing_info.js” and paste the following code:


//@ts-check
import RoutingInfoUtils from "oats-i/router/utils/routing-info/routing_info_utils";
import AppMainNavInfo from "./app_main_nav_info";
import homeMainFragmentBuilder from "../../../fragments/home/scripts/home_main_fragment"; const AppRoutingInfo = RoutingInfoUtils.buildMainRoutingInfo([ { route: "/", target: homeMainFragmentBuilder, nestedChildFragments: null }
], AppMainNavInfo); export default AppRoutingInfo;

Index.css

We’ll create an index.css file for a special reason, which MUST be replicated across all your Oats~i projects if you want consistent behavior.

Navigate back to the “index” folder, and create a new folder named “styles”. Inside the folder, create a new file called “index.css”

Open the file and paste the following code:

/* Crucial styling to allow specially structured A links to still have clicks intercepted by router. */
/* Carry over to your project */
a *:not([click-override=true]){ pointer-events: none }

What this css code does is remove pointer events from elements nested inside an A tag, to ensure the browser doesn’t intercept it before Oats~i does. It also gives you, the developer, the freedom to override this behavior using the attribute click-override=true on any element nested within an A tag.

However, expect Oats~i, at its current state, not to intercept links from an A tag with a child element having that attribute.

This means that you can safely write A tags without any modification or special attributes for Oats~i to automatically intercept them and navigate your app locally. You only add special attributes when you want to stop this behavior and have the browser manually route the website.

Carry over this css directive in all Oats~i projects you create. If you use the cli, you’ll find it already in index.css.

Index.js

Navigate back to “scripts” (inside index) and create a new file named “index.js”.

Open the file and paste the following code.


//@ts-check
//import styles
import "../styles/index.css";
import AppStateManager from "oats-i/base-history/app_state_manager";
import appRoot from "oats-i/bin/app_root"
import AppRoutingInfo from "./routing-info/app_routing_info";
import MainRouter from "oats-i/router/main_router";
import AppMainNavInfo from "./routing-info/app_main_nav_info"; function initApp(){ const appStateManager = new AppStateManager(AppRoutingInfo); appRoot.initApp(appStateManager, new MainRouter(AppRoutingInfo, appStateManager, (args) => {}, "", async (url) => { return { canAccess: true, fallbackRoute: "/" } }), { template: null, mainNavInfos: AppMainNavInfo }, "");
} initApp();

Fragments

Navigate back to the “app” folder. Navigate into “fragments” and create a new folder named “home”.

Inside “home”, create a new folder named “scripts”. Inside “scripts”, create a new file named “home_main_fragment.js”.

Open the file and paste the code below.


//@ts-check
import AppFragmentBuilder from "oats-i/fragments/builder/AppFragmentBuilder";
import AppMainFragment from "oats-i/fragments/AppMainFragment" class HomeMainFragment extends AppMainFragment{ async initializeView(cb){ //@ts-expect-error cannot find module (for view) const uiTemplate = require("../views/home_fragment.hbs")(); this.onViewInitSuccess(uiTemplate, cb); }
} const homeMainFragmentBuilder = new AppFragmentBuilder(HomeMainFragment, { localRoutingInfos: null, viewID: "home-main-fragment",
});
export default homeMainFragmentBuilder;

Now navigate back to “home” and create a new folder called “views”. Inside “views”, create a new file and name it “home_fragment.hbs”

Open file and paste the following code:


<h1>Home Fragment<h1/>

Test the Configuration

Navigate to your project’s root. Open the terminal and run


npm run dev

This will start the webpack-dev-server which will bundle the files and run Oats~i. If you open the browser at the url shown in the terminal (often is localhost:8080) and see a page with “Home Fragment” showing, your project has been successfully set up and Oats~i is working fine.

Configuration Extensibility

Regardless of whether you’ve manually set up an Oats~i project or used the cli, there are configuration flexibilities you can enjoy thanks to Oats~i running on top of Webpack.

Basically, apart from the default Oats~i webpack configuration, you can change anything else to your liking as long as you understand webpack, plugins, and loaders, and how they’ll affect your project.

For instance, you can have a production configuration that will use MiniCssExtractPlugin to extract your css into files that will be added to the final html-webpack-plugin output. You can use advanced babel configurations and even switch handlebars-loader for a loader that suits your favorite templating engine.

However, the default setup provided by Oats~i is good enough for most projects. Later on in the tutorials, we’ll add a new configuration to create the final production build with key features such as minification.

Sign Up and Follow for the Next Tutorial

That’s it for setting up Oats~i for your project. If you’re working on a new project, just use the cli. It’s easier, faster, and will directly load you into a beautiful starter project that you can inspect and start getting ideas of how to setup a full project with view, styling, and script files in Oats~I, before we start doing that together.

In the next tutorial, we’ll create our first simple project in Oats~i, where we’ll start learning what routing infos, nav infos, and fragments are in Oats~i.

Build a Web App with Oats~i – Setting Up