WebFund 2013F Lecture 5

Audio from the lecture given on September 23, 2013 is here.

Readings

• Chapter 4 in Learning Node (Modules)

Topics

• node modules
• function arguments array
• return values

Notes

September 23

var express = require('express')
  , routes = require('./routes');

• in the case of node, var express makes a local variable
  • this means it is global (but private to) a file
  • ./routes - a directory in the directory you are in
  • express is somewhere else
    • express is in the node module directory
    • "look for the code in the express directories in one of the node modules"
• npm install populates the node modules directory
• exports object is a special object

exports.add = function(req, res){
    res.render('add', { title: 'Person added',
			name: req.body.name,
			country: req.body.country,
			date: req.body.birthday,
			email: req.body.email});

• come from text fields on page input from user
• res.render
  • rendering in graphics -rendering a ball, wire frame, textures, lighting etc.
  • this is what creates the page
  • default renderer is jade
    • provides a template for entire page that is then filled in with parameters

h1 Info Added
p Name: #{name}
p Country: #{country}
p Date: #{date}
p Email: #{email}

• describes what your page will look like
• !!! is used in jade
  • stuff needed for standard syntax
  • doctype html
• jade-lang.com/reference
• html, jade, css, javascript
• html
  • markup language with tags using angle brackets <> </>
• indentation in jade is very important
  • kind of like python
  • language for generating html pages
• div are divisions
  • essentially specifying a block
• any time you call a function in javascript there is a thing called arguments
  • it is bound to an area with all the arguments
  • function takes a variable amount of arguments
• push
  • in java script an array is already a stack
  • can push an element on the top
  • works for the first element in the array
• pop
  • works for the last element of the array
• arrays are variably sized objects
  • can be accessed in different throughout
  • ordered
  • similar to object
  • loosely typed