erdromian / fulcro-rad-demo

A demo for Fulcro RAD using either SQL or Datomic databases.

Fulcro RAD Demo

This is a demo repository for Fulcro RAD. It includes a shared source directory of files that would be common to any project, and then separate source directories that have specific files that would be needed to work with specific back-end technologies (currently SQL and Datomic).

Important

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What is It?

RAD is a set of libraries for Fulcro that have you model your data via attributes. An attribute is a description of a fact in your data model, that itself can have descritive data (ala RDF). Fulcro components can also be given data attributes. The combination of annotating components and the data model leads to some great synergies, since Fulcro itself already has the UI components participate in your application’s global data model.

The result is a system where a group of attributes can be leveraged to automatically create:

• Database schema

• Networking APIs

• Documentation

• UIs that pull exactly what they need

• Applications that auto-normalize their client-side data

• Form and Report generation

• Federated data modes, where a cluster of attributes can actually live in disparate locations under different control.

and much more.

Status

RAD includes a number of features that I would recommend in any new production project using Fulcro. This demo is a good reference for how to set up such a project; however, RAD is changing rapidly, so beware that this demo may be somewhat out of date. This is not a template project per-se, but the RAD approach of designing your data model via attributes that can then be leveraged to generate a lot of your boilerplate code is quite useful and powerful in all stages of development.

The demo should be relatively easy for even a beginner to understand and tinker with, and I hope it serves to inspire you to learn more about Fulcro in general; however, if you do not understand Fulcro, then you will very quickly run into difficulties.

Beginners should therefore start with non-RAD projects using the core library via examples from the Developer’s Guide or even the standard https://github.com/fulcrologic/fulcro-template. RAD does not eliminate the need to understand the core library. RAD is simply some macros and patterns that leverage Fulcro.

The SQL version has some known bugs. If you want to play with RAD, use the Datomic database adapter for now.

Common FAQ

Does RAD Require a Database (or Server)?

No the general front-end elements of RAD could be powered by any data source. The main requirement is that a Fulcro "remote" exist which is able to support an EQL interface. It is trivial to build a remote that uses anything from an SQL database on a server to Browser LocalStorage.

Building the SPA

You must compile the CLJS source to run the client. If you want to be able to edit it, just start a shadow-cljs watch:

$ yarn
$ shadow-cljs watch main

if you don’t have yarn, use npm install instead.

Running a Datomic-based Server

The example code for Datomic components is in the src/datomic folder, along with a custom development.clj. It defaults to using an in-memory datomic-free database.

You can run it with the :datomic deps alias:

$ clj -A:dev:datomic
user=> (clojure.core/require 'development)
user=> (development/go)

Using Datomic Cloud

Please see the datomic-cloud branch of this repository. An alternate setup is required.

Running an SQL-based Server (ALPHA quality)

The example code should work with most SQL databases (and defaults to using an in-memory H2 db). The data source is configured in the defaults.edn config file in the sql source directory. See the HikariCP connection pool documentation.

The SQL example has a custom development namespace in the src/sql source folder, along with components needed to run that server.

You can start the server-side version for SQL using the deps aliases that set up the proper classpath:

$ clj -A:dev:sql
user=> (clojure.core/require 'development)
user=> (development/go)

Running an Crux-based Server (ALPHA quality)

The example code for Crux components is in the src/crux folder, along with a custom development.clj. Crux nodes are configured by a map under :roterski.fulcro.rad.database-adapters.crux/databases key in defaults.edn.

You can run it with the :crux deps alias:

$ clj -A:dev:crux
user=> (clojure.core/require 'development)
user=> (development/go)

Restarting

The development/restart will stop the server, reload source, and start the server.

Contributing

RAD uses several different libraries at once. It is ideal that you check out the source of all of those and set up your deps so you can run from the source of them all at once. You may also want to update the set-refresh-dirs in the development namespace to point at those additional source directories in CLJ so you get proper reload there.

Running From Source

The very active development I’m doing makes changes to 5 projects at once (Fulcro, Fulcro RAD, Fulcro RAD Datomic, Fulcro RAD SQL, and this demo). I do not guarantee I will keep everything in sync as far as versions in the deps file go. I personally set the following in my top-level ~/.clojure/deps.edn:

{:aliases {:f3-dev    {:override-deps {com.fulcrologic/fulcro {:local/root "/Users/tonykay/fulcrologic/fulcro"
                                                               :exclusions [com.taoensso/sente]}}}
           :rad-dev   {:override-deps {com.fulcrologic/fulcro-rad                 {:local/root "/Users/username/fulcrologic/fulcro-rad"}
                                       com.fulcrologic/fulcro-rad-sql             {:local/root "/Users/username/fulcrologic/fulcro-rad-sql"}
                                       com.fulcrologic/fulcro-rad-semantic-ui     {:local/root "/Users/username/fulcrologic/fulcro-rad-semantic-ui"}
                                       com.fulcrologic/fulcro-rad-datomic         {:local/root "/Users/username/fulcrologic/fulcro-rad-datomic"
                                                                                   :exclusions [com.datomic/datomic-free]}}}}}

so that in IntelliJ (or at the command line) I can work from local sources for all of them. I try to remember to push SNAPSHOTS daily, but if I forget and you see some missing symbol error or things are broken, that is almost certainly why.

Running shadow and clj would look like this from the command line:

# in one terminal
$ shadow-cljs -A:f3-dev:rad-dev watch main
# in another terminal
$ clj -A:dev:f3-dev:rad-dev:datomic

In IntelliJ, you’d simply make sure to run a CLJ REPL with current classpath, and use the alias checkboxes and + button in the Clojure Deps tab to set it up.

LICENSE

The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c), Fulcrologic, LLC

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.