Bean-Server

See http://blog.parkerfox.co.uk/2009/12/08/beans-rubygems-for-javascript/

For more detailed explanation

About

Server to serve javascript files and resolve dependencies.

Allows modular javascript to be tested and modularized in a similar form to ruby gems. This modularity allows for a much improved reusability.

Partly inspired by Sprockets, but more flexible.

Setup

To run:

ruby app.rb

point browser at http://localhost:4567/test-beanz.html

Or add to passenger pane (config.ru supplied)

settings.rb provides 1 setting

:load_paths => the paths to load the Beans from

Use

From any local html page, or local server, you can call

<script src='http://bean-server/=jquery,jquery.plugin,myvector,other_stuff'></script>

The bean-server will then attempt to find these files in the repo and include them. It will also resolve internal dependencies.

Without the initial =, it will simply try and return the file in the path specified

<script src='http://bean-server/jquery/jquery.js'></script>

If the option "add_path=x" is passed in the search params, server will add the full path to the search paths

Script Dependencies

Script's can require other scripts using the following terminology (same syntax as Sprockets)

//= require 
//= require "../lib/my_relative_file"

These directives must be placed at the very top of the script.

Concatenatation vs Pods

If there is more than one script to return as an include there are two options:

Default action is to returns a list of scripts in document.write form (a pod of scripts :-)

If the option "?concatenate=true" is passed in the search params, server will concatenate the scripts together

Differences to Gems

Currently there's no way of versioning the 'beans', short of naming the files themselves. I.e. jquery.1.3.3.js.

There's also the problem of accidently including another file named myfile.js that occurs in another 'bean'

There features/bugs could be fixed/implemented, but I'm wary of adding complexity at this early stage.