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What Is LightObject?

LightObject is a Cappuccino framework that you use to manage the model layer objects in your application. It provides generalized and automated solutions to common tasks associated with object life cycle and object graph management, including persistence.

Light Object typically decreases the amount of code you write to support the model layer. This is primarily due to the following built-in features that you do not have to implement, test, or optimize:

  • Change tracking of attributes on objects.
  • Maintenance of change propagation, including maintaining the consistency of relationships among objects.
  • Lazy loading of objects, partially materialized futures (faulting).
  • Grouping, filtering, and organizing data in memory and in the user interface.
  • Automatic support for storing objects in postgresql database with this backend
  • Sophisticated query compilation. Instead of writing SQL, you can create complex queries by associating an CPPredicate object with a fetch request.
  • Effective integration with the OS X and iOS tool chains.

Please check the documentation in the wiki

Tutorial without any need of Apple Xcode IDE

Lets do a quick 5 minutes tutorial how you can create a small web application running in the web browser and updating an postgresql database. It contains a table view with two columns (firstname and lastname). There will be two buttons to add and remove rows in the table. Everything will be stored in a Person table in the sql database. This tutorial can be done on any computer with just Node.js and Postgresql.

You have to install the following things before we begin:

As a base for this tutorial we use a Cappuccino project. Download PersonApplication.

Unpack it.

We need to create a postgresql database:

createdb -U <YourPostgresqlUsername> MyPersonDatabase

Enter a password for the database

Now we need to install the backend:

cd /somewhere/on/your/harddisc
npm install objj-backend
cd node_modules/objj-backend

The last thing is to start the backend:

bin/objj main.j -d MyPersonDatabase -u <YourPostgresqlUsername> -v -V -A /path/to/your/downloaded/project/directory

The option -v (verbose) will log all sql statements etc. -V (Validate) will validate the database against the model file. Read more on the model file below. -A (Alter) will generate sql statements if the validation fail. It will alter the database so it will correspond to the model file.

The backend should prompt for the above database password. After the password is entered the validation should fail but it will generate the nessesary sql to create any missing tables etc. The backend should start on port 1337

The backend does also serve as a web server. The document root directory is the /path/to/your/downloaded/project/directory as specified when starting the backend. This allows us to test the application in a browser with the following link: http://localhost:1337/index-debug.html. Press the plus and minus buttons to add and remove rows in the table. Double click on the row to enter the names.

If you check the output from the backend you will see the generated sql for every access to the database.

Note: It takes a few seconds to load the application as it has to compile all the source files in the LightObject framework in the browser. When deploying an application all files can be precompiled to make it load faster.

How does it work?

The main logic is in the AppController.j file inside the project. It looks like this:

@import <Foundation/Foundation.j>
@import <AppKit/AppKit.j>
@import <LightObject/LightObject.j>
@import <LightObject/LOBackendObjectStore.j>

@implementation AppController : CPObject
{
}

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(CPNotification)aNotification
{
    var theWindow = [[CPWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:CGRectMakeZero() styleMask:CPBorderlessBridgeWindowMask],
        contentView = [theWindow contentView],
        tableView = [[CPTableView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMakeZero()],
        columnFirstname = [[CPTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:'firstnameId'],
        columnLastname = [[CPTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:'lastnameId'],
        scrollView = [[CPScrollView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(50, 100, 210, 300)],
        objectContext = [[LOObjectContext alloc] init],
        personArrayController = [[LOArrayController alloc] init],
        objectStore = [[LOBackendObjectStore alloc] init],
        insertButton = [[CPButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(50, 50, 30.0, 25)],
        removeButton = [[CPButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(90, 50, 30.0, 25)];

    // Setup the tableview
    [tableView setAutoresizingMask:CPViewWidthSizable | CPViewHeightSizable];
    [tableView setUsesAlternatingRowBackgroundColors:YES];

    // Setup the table columns
    [[columnFirstname headerView] setStringValue:@"Firstname"];
    [columnFirstname setEditable:YES];
    [[columnLastname headerView] setStringValue:@"Lastname"];
    [columnLastname setEditable:YES];

    // Add the columns to the table view
    [tableView addTableColumn:columnFirstname];
    [tableView addTableColumn:columnLastname];

    // Bind the tableview columns with the array controller
    [columnFirstname bind:@"value" toObject:personArrayController withKeyPath:@"arrangedObjects.firstname" options:nil];
    [columnLastname bind:@"value" toObject:personArrayController withKeyPath:@"arrangedObjects.lastname" options:nil];

    // Connect the object store, object context and array controller
    [objectContext setObjectStore:objectStore];
    [personArrayController setObjectContext:objectContext];

    // Tell the array controller what entity it handles
    [personArrayController setEntityName:@"Person"];

    // Get the model from the Backend
    [objectStore retrieveModelWithCompletionHandler:function(receivedModel) {
        // When the model has arrived we can fetch the Person objects
        var fs = [LOFetchSpecification fetchSpecificationForEntityNamed:@"Person"];

        [objectContext requestObjectsWithFetchSpecification:fs withCompletionHandler:function(objects, statusCode) {
            // Set the content on the array controller
            if (statusCode === 200)
                [personArrayController setContent:objects];
        }];
    }];

    // Add insert and remove buttons. Connect the actions to the array controller.
    [insertButton setTitle:@"+"];
    [removeButton setTitle:@"-"];
    [contentView addSubview:insertButton];
    [contentView addSubview:removeButton];
    [insertButton setTarget:personArrayController];
    [insertButton setAction:@selector(insert:)];
    [removeButton setTarget:personArrayController];
    [removeButton setAction:@selector(remove:)];

    // Add the views to the content view in the window
    [scrollView setBorderType:CPLineBorder];
    [scrollView setDocumentView:tableView];
    [contentView addSubview:scrollView];
    [theWindow orderFront:self];
}

@end

Inside the PersonApplication project there is a model file with the name Model.xml. It describes the model and corresponds to the table that will be created in the database. It uses the same format as a model file created by the Xcode IDE from Apple. The format is very simple and we are going to edit it by hand in this tutorial.

The file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<model type="com.apple.IDECoreDataModeler.DataModel" documentVersion="1.0">
    <entity name="Person" representedClassName="CPMutableDictionary">
        <attribute name="firstname" optional="YES" attributeType="String"/>
        <attribute name="lastname" optional="YES" attributeType="String"/>
        <attribute name="primaryKey" attributeType="Integer 64"/>
    </entity>
</model>

Note: This tutorial can be done with the Xcode IDE from Apple without writing any code using the Iterface Builder and Core Data Model Editor inside Xcode.

Add an extra column with phone number

It is very easy to add an extra column. First add a new attribute tag in the model xml file on line 5.

        <attribute name="phone" optional="YES" attributeType="String"/>

In the AppController.j file we need to create a new column and add it to the table view. Add the following code on line 17 in the AppController.j

        columnPhone = [[CPTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:'phoneId'],

Change the width on the scroll view to fit the extra column on line 18 in AppController.j. Line 18 should look like this now:

        scrollView = [[CPScrollView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(50, 100, 310, 300)],

Setup the new column by adding the following code at line 34 in AppController.j

    [[columnPhone headerView] setStringValue:@"Phone"];
    [columnPhone setEditable:YES];

Include the new column in the table view by adding the following code at line 40 in AppController.j

    [tableView addTableColumn:columnPhone];

Last we should add the binding with the array controller for the new column at line 45 in AppController.j

    [columnPhone bind:@"value" toObject:personArrayController withKeyPath:@"arrangedObjects.phone" options:nil];

Make sure to save both files and reload the application in the browser. The backend will read the model file again and validate it against the database. It will find that the model file has a new column but not the database and generate the sql to create the new column in the database table.

This tutorial is a "work in progress". If you try it out please give me feedback so I can make it better. Please let me also know if everything worked without any problems

For more documentation on the framework check the wiki