Hyperloop Models are implemented in the HyperModel Gem.
In Hyperloop, your ActiveRecord Models are available in your Isomorphic code.
Components, Operations, and Stores have CRUD access to your server side ActiveRecord Models, using the standard ActiveRecord API.
In addition, Hyperloop implements push notifications (via a number of possible technologies) so changes to records on the server are dynamically pushed to all authorized clients.
In other words, one browser creates, updates, or destroys a Model, and the changes are persisted in ActiveRecord models and then broadcast to all other authorized clients.
- The
hyper-model
gem provides ActiveRecord Models to Hyperloop's Isomorphic architecture. - You access your Model data in your Components, Operations, and Stores just like you would on the server or in an ERB or HAML view file.
- If an optional push transport is connected Hyperloop broadcasts any changes made to your ActiveRecord models as they are persisted on the server or updated by one of the authorized clients.
- Some Models can be designated as server-only which means they are not available to the Isomorphic code.
For example, consider a simple model called Dictionary
which might be part of Wiktionary type app.
class Dictionary < ActiveRecord::Base
# attributes
# word: string
# definition: text
# pronunciation: string
scope :defined, -> { 'definition IS NOT NULL AND pronunciation IS NOT NULL' }
end
Here is a very simple Hyperloop Component that shows a random word from the dictionary:
class WordOfTheDay < Hyperloop::Component
def pick_entry!
# pick a random word and assign the selected record to entry
@entry = Dictionary.defined.all[rand(Dictionary.defined.count)]
force_update! # redraw our component when the word changes
# Notice that we use standard ActiveRecord constructs to select our
# random entry value
end
# pick an initial entry before we mount our component...
before_mount :pick_entry
# Again in our render block we use the standard ActiveRecord API, such
# as the 'defined' scope, and the 'word', 'pronunciation', and
# 'definition' attribute getters.
render(DIV) do
DIV { "total definitions: #{Dictionary.defined.count}" }
DIV do
DIV { @entry.word }
DIV { @entry.pronunciation }
DIV { @entry.definition }
BUTTON { 'pick another' }.on(:click) { pick_entry! }
end
end
For complete examples with push updates, see any of the apps in the examples
directory, or build your own in 5 minutes following one of the quickstart guides:
Depending on the architecture of your application, you may decide that some of your models should be Isomorphic and some should remain server-only. The consideration will be that your Isomorphic models will be compiled by Opal to JavaScript and accessible on he client (without the need for a boilerplate API) - Hyperloop takes care of the communication between your server-side models and their client-side compiled versions and you can use Policy to govern access to the models.
In order for Hyperloop to see your Models (and his make them Isomorphic) you need to move them to the hyperloop/models
folder. Only models in this folder will be seen by Hyperloop and compiled to Javascript. Once a Model is on this folder it ill be accessable to both your client and server code.
Location of Models | Scope |
---|---|
app\models |
Server-side code only |
app\hyperloop\models |
Isomorphic code (client and server) |
Upto Rails 4.2, all models inherited from ActiveRecord::Base
. But starting from Rails 5, all models will inherit from ApplicationRecord
.
To accommodate this change, the following file has been automatically added to models in Rails 5 applications.
# app/models/application_record.rb
class ApplicationRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
self.abstract_class = true
end
For Hyperloop to see this change, this file needs to be moved (or copied if you have some server-side models) to the apps/hyperloop
folder.
In order to prevent unauthorized access to information like scope counts, lists of record ids, etc, Hyperloop now (see issue #43) requires you explicitly allow scopes to be viewed on the client, otherwise you will get an AccessViolation.
To globally allow access to all scopes add this to the ApplicationRecord class
class ApplicationRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
regulate_scope :all
end
Hyperloop uses a subset of the standard ActiveRecord API to give your Isomorphic Components, Operations and Stores access to your server side Models. As much as possible Hyperloop follows the syntax and semantics of ActiveRecord.
Hyperloop integrates with React (through Components) to deliver your Model data to the client without you having to create extra APIs or specialized controllers. The key idea of React is that when state (or params) change, the portions of the display effected by this data will be updated.
Hyperloop automatically creates React state objects that will be updated as server side data is loaded or changes. When these states change the associated parts of the display will be updated.
A brief overview of how this works will help you understand the how Hypeloop gets the job done.
On the UI you will be reading models in order to display data.
If during the rendering of the display the Model data is not yet loaded, placeholder values (the default values from the columns_hash
) will be returned by Hyperloop.
Hyperloop then keeps track of where these placeholders (or DummyValue
s) are displayed, and when they do get loaded, those parts of the display will re-render.
If later the data changes (either due to local user actions, or receiving push updates) then again any parts of the display that were dependent on the current values will be re-rendered.
You normally do not have to be aware of this. Just access your Models using the normal scopes and finders, then compute values and display attributes as you would on the server. Initially the display will show the placeholder values and then will be replaced with the real values.
During server-side pre-rendering, Hyperloop has direct access to the server so on initial page load all the values will be loaded and present.
Hyperloop lazy loads values, and does not load any thing until an explicit displayable value is requested. For example Todo.all
will have no action, but Todo.all.pluck[:title]
will return an array of titles.
At the end of the rendering cycle the set of all values requested will be merged into a tree structure and sent to the server, returning the minimum amount of data needed.
There are a number of methods that allow you to interact with this load cycle when needed. These are documented below.
new
: Takes a hash of attributes and initializes a new unsaved record. The values of any attributes not specified in the hash will be taken from the Models default values specified in the columns_hash
.
If new
is passed a native javascript object it will be treated as a hash and converted accordingly.
create
: Short hand for new(...).save
. See the save
instance method for details on how saving is done.
scope
and default_scope
: Hyperloop adds four new options to these methods: joins
, client
, select
and server
. The joins
option provides information on how the scope will be joined with other models. The client
and select
options allow scoping to be done on the client side to offload this from the server, and the server
option is there just for symmetry with the other options.
# the active scope proc is executed on the server
scope :active, -> () { where(completed: true) }
# if the scope does a join (or include) this must be indicated
# using the joins: option.
scope :with_recent_comments,
-> { joins(:comments).where('comment.created_at >= ?', Time.now-1.week) },
joins: ['comments'] # or joins: 'comments'
# the server side proc can be indicated by the server: option
# an optional client side proc can be provided to compute the scope
# locally at the client
scope :completed,
server: -> { where(complete: true) }
client: -> { complete } # return true if the record should be included
unscoped
and all
: These builtin scopes work just like standard ActiveRecord.
Word.all.each { |word| LI { word.text }}
BTW: to save typing you can skip the all
: Models will respond like enumerators.
find
: takes an id and delivers the corresponding record.
find_by
: takes a single item hash indicating an attribute value pair to find.
find_by_...
: i.e. find_by_first_name
these methods will find the first record with a matching attribute.
Word.find_by_text('hello') # short for Word.find_by(text: 'hello')
limit
and offset
: These builtin scopes behave as they do on the server:
Word.offset(500).limit(20) # get words 500-519
belongs_to, has_many, has_one
: These all work as on the server. However it is important that you fully specify both sides of the relationship.
class Todo < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :assigned_to, class_name: 'User'
end
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :todos, foreign_key: 'assigned_to_id'
end
Note that on the client the linkages between relationships are live and direct. In the above example this works:
Todo.create(assigned_to: some_user)
but this may not:
Todo.create(assigned_to_id: some_user.id)
composed_of
: You can create aggregate models like ActiveRecord.
Similar to the linkages in relationships, aggregate records are represented on the client as actual independent objects.
Normally an application defined instance method will run on the client and the server:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
def full_name
"#{first_name} #{last_name}"
end
end
Sometimes it is desirable to only run the method on the server. This can be done using the server_method
macro:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
server_method :full_name, default: '' do
"#{first_name} #{last_name}"
end
end
When the method is first called on the client the default value will be returned, and there will be a reactive update when the true value is returned from the server.
To force the value to be recomputed at the server append a !
to the end of the name, otherwise the last value returned from the server will continue to be returned.
column_names
: returns a list of the database columns.
columns_hash
: returns the details of the columns specification. Note that on the server columns_hash
returns a hash of objects specifying column information. On the client the entire structure is just one big hash of hashes.
abstract_class=
, abstract_class?
, primary_key
, primary_key=
, inheritance_column
, inheritance_column=
, model_name
: All work as on the server. See ActiveRecord documentation for more info.
All attributes have an associated getter and setter. All relationships have a getter. All belongs_to
relationships also have a setter. has_many
relationships can be updated using the push (<<
) operator or using the delete
method.
puts my_todo.title
my_todo.title = "neutitle"
my_todo.comments << a_new_comment
a_new_comment.todo == my_todo # true!
In addition if the attribute getter ends with a bang (!) then this will force a fetch of the attribute from the server. This is typically not necessary if push updates are configured.
The save
method works like ActiveRecord save, except it returns a promise that is resolved when the save completes (or fails.)
my_todo.save(validate: false).then do |result|
# result is a hash with {success: ..., message: , models: ....}
end
After a save operation completes the models will have an errors
hash (just like on the server) with any validation problems.
During the save operation the method saving?
will return true
. This can be used to instead of (or with) the promise to update the screen:
render do
...
if some_model.saving?
... display please wait ...
elsif some_model.errors.any?
... highlight the errors ...
else
... display data ...
end
...
end
Like save
destroy returns a promise that is resolved when the destroy completes.
After the destroy completes the record's destroyed?
method will return true.
new?
returns true if the model is new and not yet saved.
primary_key
returns the primary key for the model
id
returns the value of the primary key for this instance
model_name
returns the model_name.
revert
Undoes any unsaved changes to the instance.
changed?
returns true if any attributes have changed (always true for a new model)
dup
duplicate the instance.
==
two instances are the same if it is known that they reference the same underlying table row.
..._changed?
(i.e. name_changed?) returns true if the specific attribute has changed.
itself
returns the record, but will override lazy loading and force a load of at least the model's id.
All Ruby objects will respond to these methods. If you want to put up a "Please Wait" message, spinner, etc, you can use the loaded?
or loading?
method to determine if the object represents a real loaded value or not. Any value for which loaded?
returns false
(or loading?
returns true
) will eventually load and cause a re-render
Sometimes it is necessary to insure values are loaded outside of the rendering cycle. For this you can use the Hyperloop::Model.load
method:
Hyperloop::Model.load do
x = my_model.some_attribute
OtherModel.find(x+12).other_attribute
# code in here can be arbitrarily complex and load
# will re-execute it until all values are loaded
# the final expression is passed to the promise
end.then |result|
puts result
end
Normally you will simply display attributes as part of the render method, and when the values are loaded from the server the component will re-render.
Sometimes outside of the render method you may need to insure an attribute (or a server side method) is loaded before proceeding. This is typically when you are building some kind of higher level store.
The load
method takes a list of attributes (symbols) and will insure these are loaded. Load returns a promise that is resolved when the load completes, or can be passed a block that will execute when the load completes.
before_mount do
Todo.find(1).load(:name).then do |name|
@name = name;
state.loaded! true
end
end
Think hard about how you are using this, as Hyperloop already acts as flux store, and is managing state for you. It may be you are just creating a redundant store!
By default scopes will be recalculated on the server. For simple scopes that do not use joins or includes no additional action needs to be taken to make scopes work with Hyperloop. For scopes that do use joins, or if you want to offload the scoping computation from the server to the client read this section.
When the client receives notification that a record has changed Hyperloop finds the set of currently rendered scopes that might be effected, and requests them to be updated from the server.
On the server scopes are a useful way to structure code. On the client scopes are vital as they limit the amount of data loaded, viewed, and updated in the browser. Consider a factory floor management system that shows job state as work flows through the factory. There may be millions of jobs that a production floor browser is authorized to view, but at any time there are probably only 50 being shown. Using ActiveRecord scopes is the way Hyperloop keeps the data requested by the browser limited to a reasonable amount.
To make scopes work efficiently on the client Hyperloop adds some features to the ActiveRecord scope
and default_scope
macros. Note you must use the scope
macro (and not class methods) for things to work with Hyperloop.
The additional features are accessed via the :joins
, :client
, and :select
options.
The :joins
option tells the Hyperloop client which models are joined with the scope. You must add a :joins
option if the scope has any data base join operations in it, otherwise if a joined model changes, Hyperloop will not know to update the scope.
The :client
and :select
options provide the client a way to update scopes without having to contact the server. Unlike the :joins
option this is an optimization and is not required for scopes to work.
class Todo < ActiveRecord::Base
# Standard ActiveRecord form:
# the proc will be evaluated as normal on the server, and as needed updates
# will be requested from the clients
scope :active, -> () { where(completed: true) }
# In the simple form the scope will be reevaluated if the model that is
# being scoped changes, and if the scope is currently being used to render data.
# If the scope joins with other data you will need to specify this by
# passing a relationship or array of relationships to the `joins` option.
scope :with_recent_comments,
-> { joins(:comments).where('comment.created_at >= ?', Time.now-1.week) },
joins: ['comments'] # or joins: 'comments'
# Now with_recent_comments will be re-evaluated whenever a Todo record, or a Comment
# joined with a Todo change.
# Normally whenever Hyperloop detects that a scope may be effected by a changed
# model, it will request the scope be re-evaluated on the server. To offload this
# computation to the client provide a client side scope method:
scope :with_recent_comments,
-> { joins(:comments).where('comment.created_at >= ?', Time.now-1.week) },
joins: ['comments']
client: -> { comments.detect { |comment| comment.created_at >= Time.now-1.week }
# The client proc is executed on each candidate record, and if it returns true the record
# will be added to the scope.
# Instead of a client proc you can provide a select proc, which will receive the entire
# collection which can then be filtered and sorted.
scope :sort_by_created_at,
-> { order('created_at DESC') }
select: -> { sort { |a, b| b.created_at <=> a.created_at }}
# To keep things tidy you can specify the server scope proc with the :server option
scope :completed,
server: -> { where(complete: true) }
client: -> { complete }
# The expressions in the joins array can be arbitrary sequences of relationships and
# scopes such as 'comments.author'.
scope :with_managers_comments,
server: -> { ... }
joins: ['comments.author', 'owner']
client: -> { comments.detect { |comment| comment.author == owner.manager }}}
# You can also use the client, select, server, and joins option with the default_scope macro
default_scope server: -> { where(deleted: false).order('updated_at DESC') }
select: -> { select { |r| !r.deleted }.sort { |a, b| b <=> a } }
# NOTE: it is highly recommend to provide a client proc with default_scopes. Otherwise
# every change is going to require a server interaction regardless of what other client procs
# you provide.
end
Consider this scope on the Todo model
scope :with_managers_comments,
server: -> { joins(owner: :manager, comments: :author).where('managers_users.id = authors_comments.id').distinct },
client: -> { comments.detect { |comment| comment.author == owner.manager }}
joins: ['comments.author', 'owner']
The joins 'comments.author' relationship is inverted so that we have User 'has_many' Comments which 'belongs_to' Todos.
Thus we now know that whenever a User or a Comment changes this may effect our with_managers_comments scope
Likewise 'owner' becomes User 'has_many' Todos.
Lets say that a user changes teams and now has a new manager. This means according to the relationships that the User model will change (i.e. there will be a new manager_id in the User model) and thus all Todos belonging to that User are subject to evaluation.
While the server side proc efficiently delivers all the objects in the scope, the client side proc just needs to incrementally update the scope.
Hyperloop implements push notifications (via a number of possible technologies) so changes to records on the server are dynamically pushed to all authorized clients.
The can be accomplished by configuring one of the push technologies below:
Push Technology | When to choose this... |
---|---|
Simple Polling | The easiest push transport is the built-in simple poller. This is great for demos or trying out Hyperloop but because it is constantly polling it is not suitable for production systems or any kind of real debug or test activities. |
Action Cable | If you are using Rails 5 this is the perfect route to go. Action Cable is a production ready transport built into Rails 5. |
Pusher.com | Pusher.com is a commercial push notification service with a free basic offering. The technology works well but does require a connection to the internet at all times. |
Pusher Fake | The Pusher-Fake gem will provide a transport using the same protocol as pusher.com but you can use it to locally test an app that will be put into production using pusher.com. |
The easiest push transport is the built-in simple poller. This is great for demos or trying out Hyperloop but because it is constantly polling it is not suitable for production systems or any kind of real debug or test activities.
Simply add this initializer:
#config/initializers/hyperloop.rb
Hyperloop.configuration do |config|
config.transport = :simple_poller
# options
# config.opts = {
# seconds_between_poll: 5, # default is 0.5 you may need to increase if testing with Selenium
# seconds_polled_data_will_be_retained: 1.hour # clears channel data after this time, default is 5 minutes
# }
end
That's it. Hyperloop will use simple polling for the push transport.
To configure Hyperloop to use Action Cable, add this initializer:
#config/initializers/hyperloop.rb
Hyperloop.configuration do |config|
config.transport = :action_cable
end
If you are already using ActionCable in your app that is fine, as Hyperloop will not interfere with your existing connections.
Otherwise go through the following steps to setup ActionCable.
Firstly, make sure the action_cable
js file is required in your assets.
Typically app/assets/javascripts/application.js
will finish with a require_tree .
and this will pull in the cable.js
file which will pull in action_cable.js
However at a minimum if application.js
simply does a require action_cable
that will be sufficient for Hyperloop.
Make sure you have a cable.yml file:
# config/cable.yml
development:
adapter: async
test:
adapter: async
production:
adapter: redis
url: redis://localhost:6379/1
Set allowed request origins (optional):
By default action cable will only allow connections from localhost:3000 in development. If you are going to something other than localhost:3000 you need to add something like this to your config:
# config/environments/development.rb
Rails.application.configure do
config.action_cable.allowed_request_origins = ['http://localhost:3000', 'http://localhost:5000']
end
That's it. Hyperloop will use Action Cable as the push transport.
Pusher.com provides a production ready push transport for your App. You can combine this with Pusher-Fake for local testing as well. You can get a free pusher account and API keys at https://pusher.com
First add the Pusher and HyperLoop gems to your Rails app:
add gem 'pusher'
to your Gemfile.
Next Add the pusher js file to your application.js file:
# app/assets/javascript/application.js
...
//= require 'hyperloop/pusher'
//= require_tree .
Finally set the transport:
# config/initializers/Hyperloop.rb
Hyperloop.configuration do |config|
config.transport = :pusher
config.channel_prefix = "Hyperloop"
config.opts = {
app_id: "2....9",
key: "f.....g",
secret: "1.......3"
}
end
That's it. You should be all set for push notifications using Pusher.com.
The Pusher-Fake gem will provide a transport using the same protocol as pusher.com. You can use it to locally test an app that will be put into production using pusher.com.
Firstly add the Pusher, Pusher-Fake and HyperLoop gems to your Rails app
- add
gem 'pusher'
to your Gemfile. - add
gem 'pusher-fake'
to the development and test sections of your Gemfile.
Next add the pusher js file to your application.js file
# app/assets/javascript/application.js
...
//= require 'hyperloop/pusher'
//= require_tree .
Add this initializer to set the transport:
# typically app/config/initializers/Hyperloop.rb
# or you can do a similar setup in your tests (see this gem's specs)
require 'pusher'
require 'pusher-fake'
# Assign any values to the Pusher app_id, key, and secret config values.
# These can be fake values or the real values for your pusher account.
Pusher.app_id = "MY_TEST_ID" # you use the real or fake values
Pusher.key = "MY_TEST_KEY"
Pusher.secret = "MY_TEST_SECRET"
# The next line actually starts the pusher-fake server (see the Pusher-Fake readme for details.)
# it is important this require be AFTER the above settings, as it will use these
require 'pusher-fake/support/base' # if using pusher with rspec change this to pusher-fake/support/rspec
# now copy over the credentials, and merge with PusherFake's config details
Hyperloop.configuration do |config|
config.transport = :pusher
config.channel_prefix = "Hyperloop"
config.opts = {
app_id: Pusher.app_id,
key: Pusher.key,
secret: Pusher.secret
}.merge(PusherFake.configuration.web_options)
end
That's it. You should be all set for push notifications using Pusher Fake.
Sometimes you need to figure out what connections are available, or what attributes are readable etc.
Its usually all to do with your policies, but perhaps you just need a little investigation.
TODO check rr has become hyperloop (as below)
You can bring up a console within the controller context by browsing localhost:3000/hyperloop/console
Note: change rr
to wherever you are mounting Hyperloop in your routes file.
Note: in rails 4, you will need to add the gem 'web-console' to your development section
Within the context you have access to session.id
and current acting_user
which you will need, plus some helper methods to reduce typing
-
Getting auto connection channels:
channels(session_id = session.id, user = acting_user)
e.g.channels
returns all channels connecting to this session and user providing nil as the acting_user will test if connections can be made without there being a logged in user. -
Can a specific class connection be made:
can_connect?(channel, user = acting_user)
e.g.can_connect? Todo
returns true if current acting_user can connect to the Todo class. You can also provide the class name as a string. -
Can a specific instance connection be made:
can_connect?(channel, user = acting_user)
e.g.can_connect? Todo.first
returns true if current acting_user can connect to the first Todo Model. You can also provide the instance in the form 'Todo-123' -
What attributes are accessible for a Model instance:
viewable_attributes(instance, user = acting_user)
-
Can the attribute be viewed:
view_permitted?(instance, attribute, user = acting_user)
-
Can a Model be created/updated/destroyed:
create_permitted?(instance, user = acting_user)
e.g.create_permitted?(Todo.new, nil)
can anybody save a new todo?
e.g.destroy_permitted?(Todo.last)
can the acting_user destroy the last Todo
You can of course simulate server side changes to your Models through this console like any other console. For example
Todo.new.save
will broadcast the changes to the Todo Model to any authorized channels.
-
No policy class If you don't define a policy file, nothing will happen because nothing will get connected. By default Hyperloop will look for a
ApplicationPolicy
class. -
Wrong version of pusher-fake (pusher-fake/base vs. pusher-fake/rspec) See the Pusher-Fake gem repo for details.
-
Forgetting to add
require pusher
in application.js file this results in an error like this:Exception raised while rendering #<TopLevelRailsComponent:0x53e> ReferenceError: Pusher is not defined
To resolve make sure you
require 'pusher'
in your application.js file if using pusher. DO NOT require pusher from your components manifest as this will cause prerendering to fail. -
No create/update/destroy policies You must explicitly allow changes to the Models to be made by the client. If you don't you will see 500 responses from the server when you try to update. To open all access do this in your application policy:
allow_change(to: :all, on: [:create, :update, :destroy]) { true }
-
Cannot connect to real pusher account If you are trying to use a real pusher account (not pusher-fake) but see errors like this
pusher.self.js?body=1:62 WebSocket connection to 'wss://127.0.0.1/app/PUSHER_API_KEY?protocol=7&client=js&version=3.0.0&flash=false' failed: Error in connection establishment: net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
Check to see if you are including the pusher-fake gem. Hyperloop will always try to use pusher-fake if it sees the gem included. Remove it and you should be good to go. See issue #5 for more details.
-
Cannot connect with ActionCable. Make sure that
config.action_cable.allowed_request_origins
includes the url you use for development (including the port) and that you are usingPuma
. -
Attributes are not being converted from strings, or do not have their default values Eager loading is probably turned off. Hyperloop needs to eager load
hyperloop/models
so it can find all the column information for all Isomorphic models. -
When starting rails you get a message on the rails console
couldn't find file 'browser'
Thehyper-component
v0.10.0 gem removed the dependency on opal-browser. You will have to add the 'opal-browser' gem to your Gemfile. -
On page load you get a message about super class mismatch for
DummyValue
You are still have the oldreactive-record
gem in your Gemfile, remove it from your gemfile and your components manifest. -
On page load you get a message about no method
session
fornil
You are still referencing the old reactive-ruby or reactrb gems either directly or indirectly though a gem like reactrb-router. Replace any gems likereactrb-router
withhyper-router
. You can also just removereactrb
, ashyper-model
will be included by thehyper-model
gem. -
You keep seeing the message
WebSocket connection to 'ws://localhost:3000/cable' failed: WebSocket is closed before the connection is established.
every few seconds in the console. There are probably lots of reasons for this, but it means ActionCable can't get itself going. One reason is that you are trying to run with Passenger instead of Puma, and trying to useasync
mode in cable.yml file.async
mode requires Puma.