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API
Basics
How to use Fmlib_js
A Single Page Web Application

fmlib_js

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Javascript Wrapper Library

Fmlib_js is a library to generate javascript code from ocaml code. The library uses js_of_ocaml to do the actual javascript generation.

API

Entry point: Fmlib_js

Basics

Fmlib_js is

Thin: It just wraps javascript functions. So you only pay what you ask for.

Typesafe: If it compiles there are no type errors at runtime. The library handles all unsafe operations which are possible in js_of_ocaml in a type safe manner.

Minimalistic: It provides the most important primitives only.

not object oriented: It avoids wrapping javascript objects in ocaml objects.

The types in Fmlib_js are opaque i.e. you have Document.t, Node.t and Value.t to represent a browser window document, a node in the dom tree and a javascript value and in the module only functions to access the objects. Therefore the ocaml compiler can give you precise error messages.

This design decision is based on the fact that classes and objects (i.e. the object oriented features of ocaml) are rarely used and many ocaml programmers (like the author of Fmlib_js) are not very familiar with the object oriented part of ocaml. Many ocaml programmers write and use modules and functions within the modules. Therefore Fmlib_js uses only this part of the ocaml language.

The library is minimalistic and it is assumed that the programmer writes his own convenience functions to combine the primitives in a way appropriate for his application.

For data exchange between ocaml and javascript we have the module Fmlib_js.Base.Value to generate arbitrary javascript values and Fmlib_js.Base.Decode to decode javascript values into ocaml values. All conversions are type safe. If you successfully decode a javascript value into an ocaml value of a certain type, it is guaranteed that the ocaml value has the type.

The module Fmlib_js.Base.Main provides functionality to interface with the global environment of javascript.

With the module Fmlib_js.Dom it is possible to access the complete dom tree in a browser window.

It is assumed the programmer of an ocaml application to be compiled to javascript wants to stay mainly in the domain of ocaml and has some limited functionality to interface with javascript.

Fmlib_js is not purely functional in the sense that it avoids mutation. Since it is just a thin wrapper around javascript functions and javascript functions have mutability, the thin wrapper has mutability as well.

It is the goal to provide additional functionality based on Fmlib_js which allows to write purely declarative web and node applications. Fmlib_js provide the basic functionality to interface with javascript.

Currently only browser functionality is sufficiently covered. Future releases of Fmlib_js will cover node functionality as well like file system access, starting of child processes, building web servers etc.

How to use `Fmlib_js`

Install the library via opam by

opam install fmlib_js

Let's assume you have a file `my_app.ml` using the library Fmlib_js. A typical dune file looks like

(executable
    (name my_app)
    (modes js)
    (libraries fmlib_js)
)

Having that, the command

dune build ./my_app.bc.js

issued from the directory of my_app.ml compiles your application into the build directory of your dune project (usually _build/default/path/to/my_app/my_app.bc.js).

If you want all unused functions removed from the generated javascript file, you can issue the command

dune build --profile release ./my_app.bc.js

Compiling with the release profile reduces the size of the generated javascript file dramatically.

In many cases it is convenient to have the compiled javascript file in the source directory of my_app.ml with the name my_app.js. This can be achieved by adding the following rule to the dune file

(rule
    (targets my_app.js)
    (deps    my_app.bc.js)
    (mode (promote (until-clean)))
    (action (copy %{deps} %{targets}))
)

If the application is a browser application you can write a simple html file my_app.html with the content

<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="my_app.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <script>
            ... optional start command ...
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

and load the html file into the browser.

An optional start command is necessary, if the application has been designed to be started by a start command. If the application starts itself automatically by registering an event listener on the load event of the browser window, then there is no need for a start command.

In many cases an explicit start command is convenient to send to the application some initialization data.

A Single Page Web Application

In order to demonstrate the basic functionality of the library we write a very rudimentary single page application. A single page application has the feature that it has access to the browser history and pushing the forward or the backward button does not issue a page load. The application just displays different pages depending on the local part of the url.

Our example single page application should have the layout

Page 1          (* Headline for the selected page *)

goto page 1     (* Button to change the page on click *)
goto page 2
goto page 3

By clicking on one of the buttons, the application shall change the headline to indicate the new page and pushing a new entry to the browser history such that each visited page has an own entry in the browser history.

Furthermore the application shall be notified when the user navigates forward or backward and display the corresponding page without triggering a reload of the application.

As a first step in the file my_app.ml we open the library and specifically the dom access modules.

open Fmlib_js
open Dom

We need a headline and a clickable element for each choice. Therefore we write a function which let us create an element containing a text node.

let text_element (tag: string) (text: string) (document: Document.t)
    : Element.t
    =
    let el   = Document.create_element   tag  document in
    let txt  = Document.create_text_node text document in
    Node.append txt (Element.node el);
        (* append 'txt' node to the children of 'el' *)
    el

Html elements are nodes. But in the library an element has type Element.t and a dom node has type Node.t. The function Element.node views an element as a node. See Fmlib_js.Dom.Element and Fmlib_js.Dom.Node for details.

In order to change the page in our simple application we just have to replace the headline by a new headline. The whole page is a div which contains the header and a navigation element. The Node module has functions to retrieve the first child and to replace a node by another node.

let change (h: Element.t) (page: Element.t): unit =
    let open Element in
    let page = Element.node page
    and h    = Element.node h
    in
    match Node.first page with
    | None ->
        assert false (* Illegal call *)
    | Some old_header ->
        Node.replace h old_header page

We design our page element in a way that it always has a first child. Therefore we can ignore the illegal case that there is no first child.

Next comes the main function which generates the whole application. First we make some important data accessible.

let make _: unit =
    let window  = Window.get ()
    in
    let doc      = Window.document window
    and history  = Window.history  window
    and location = Window.location window
    in
    let open Document in
    let open Element in
    ...

Then we create the elements of the page.

let page = create_element "div" doc in
let nav  = create_element "nav" doc in
let el1  = text_element "div" "go to page1" doc
and el2  = text_element "div" "go to page2" doc
and el3  = text_element "div" "go to page3" doc
and h1   = text_element "h1"  "Page1" doc
and h2   = text_element "h1"  "Page2" doc
and h3   = text_element "h1"  "Page3" doc
in

We use the fragment #page2 in the url to indicate that we are on page 2. The initial hash is

let hash = Location.hash location in

Based on the hash we can find the correct header to display

let find_header (hash: string): Element.t =
    match hash with
    | "#page1" -> h1
    | "#page2" -> h2
    | "#page3" -> h3
    | _ -> h1
in

The default case is page 1.

Every go to page needs a click handler to start a page change. We write a generic function to add a click handler.

let add_click (hash: string) (h: Element.t) (el: Element.t): unit =
    Event_target.add
        "click"
        (fun _ ->
             change h page;
             History.push_state Base.Value.null "" hash history
        )
        (Node.event_target (node el))
in

The click handler changes the header of the page to a new header h and pushes the new relative url hash to the browser history. The click handler is added to the element el.

Now we can wire the nodes and install the click handlers by

Node.append (node el1) (node nav);
Node.append (node el2) (node nav);
Node.append (node el3) (node nav);
Node.append (node (find_header hash))  (node page);
Node.append (node nav)  (node page);
Node.append (node page) (node (Document.body doc));
add_click "#page1" h1 el1;
add_click "#page2" h2 el2;
add_click "#page3" h3 el3;

In order to be able to react to clicks on the forward and backward button of the browser we need an event handler for the event type popstate of the browser window which does the corresponding page change.

Event_target.add
    "popstate"
    (fun _ ->
        change
            (Location.hash location |> find_header)
            page
    )
    (Window.event_target window)

This completes the main function make.

The function make must not be executed before the html of the application is loaded into the browser. Reason: Before the loading the body of the document is not available and therefore the main function which accesses the body will crash.

There are three methods to call make after the page load.

The first method is to install an event listener for the load event on the browser window.

let _ =
    Event_target.add
        "load"
        make
        Window.(event_target (get ()))

The second method is to make a start command available to the surrounding javascript by

let _ =
    let open Base in
    Main.make_global
        "start_application"
        Value.(function1 (fun _ -> make (); undefined))

and start the application in the html file

<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="my_app.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <script>
            start_application ()
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

The third and simplest method is to call make directly within the application

let _ = make ()

and include the application code at the end of the body

<html>
    <body>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="my_app.js"></script>
    </body>
</html>

Summary: With a few lines of code we have created a single page application.

package fmlib_js

Javascript Wrapper Library

API

Basics

How to use Fmlib_js

A Single Page Web Application

How to use `Fmlib_js`