aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/README.md
blob: 60f4ba3027ed7827a89542057dac0408bcc5824b (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
![KVision Logo](graphics/kvision-logo.png?raw=true "KVision")
# KVision

Object oriented Web UI framework for Kotlin/JS.

[![Travis CI](https://travis-ci.com/rjaros/kvision.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.com/rjaros/kvision)
[![Download](https://api.bintray.com/packages/rjaros/kotlin/kvision/images/download.svg) ](https://bintray.com/rjaros/kotlin/kvision/_latestVersion)
[![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

KVision allows you to build user interface of modern web applications with the [Kotlin](https://kotlinlang.org) language.
It's designed to be object oriented in the "most classical" sense - it gives you a hierarchy of many different components,
which are used to build application UI.

Unlike most of the popular web UI frameworks (AngularJS, React, Vue.js and others),
KVision is not declarative - it is not designed to mix HTML code (or pseudo code) with a typical
programming language like JavaScript. In KVision everything is just written in Kotlin, and your code can be reused not by creating any templates,
but by using well known OOP design patterns - composition and inheritance.

This design is quite similar to many non-web UI programming libraries including Swing (Java), JavaFX, QT (C++), WinForms (C#) and Flutter.

KVision contains innovative connectivity interface for [Ktor](https://ktor.io/), [Jooby](https://jooby.org) and [Spring Boot](https://spring.io/projects/spring-boot) frameworks on the server side, which
allows to build full-stack, multiplatform applications with shared common code.

**KVision is being actively developed. Please create an issue for any bugs or feature requests.**

## Features

- 100% type safe and fully compiled dev environment.
- Type safe DSL builders.
- Based on [Bootstrap](https://getbootstrap.com/) styles, typography and components.
- Utilizes [Snabbdom](https://github.com/snabbdom/snabbdom) fast virtual DOM implementation.
- Integrates with libraries and components from [Font awesome](https://fontawesome.com/), [Bootstrap Select](https://github.com/silviomoreto/bootstrap-select) (with [AJAX](https://github.com/truckingsim/Ajax-Bootstrap-Select) extension),
[Awesome Bootstrap Checkbox](https://github.com/flatlogic/awesome-bootstrap-checkbox), [Trix editor](https://trix-editor.org/), [Bootstrap Datetime picker](https://github.com/smalot/bootstrap-datetimepicker), 
[Bootstrap touchspin](https://github.com/istvan-ujjmeszaros/bootstrap-touchspin), [Bootstrap File Input](http://plugins.krajee.com/file-input),
 [Handlebars](http://handlebarsjs.com/) and [Navigo](https://github.com/krasimir/navigo).
- Includes sophisticated layout containers, including CSS flexbox, CSS grid and Bootstrap responsive 12 columns grid.
- Includes convenient forms implementation, with support for many different input components and easy to use validation.
- Data binding support for [observable](https://github.com/rjaros/kotlin-observable-js) data model.
- Internationalization support based on [Jed](http://messageformat.github.io/Jed/) library and [gettext](https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/) translations. 
- Easy to use Drag & Drop support.
- Type-safe REST connectivity.
- Innovative integration interface for [Ktor](https://ktor.io), [Jooby](https://jooby.org) and [Spring Boot](https://spring.io/projects/spring-boot) frameworks on the server side.
- Support for building multi-platform, desktop applications with [Electron](https://electronjs.org).
- Ready to explore [KVision examples](https://github.com/rjaros/kvision-examples) are available,
built with [Gradle](https://gradle.org/) and supporting Webpack's [Hot Module Replacement (HMR)](https://webpack.js.org/concepts/hot-module-replacement/) and
[Kotlin JavaScript DCE (dead code elimination)](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/javascript-dce.html).
- [Karma](https://karma-runner.github.io/) testing framework support.
- IDE support (IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition).

## Documentation

The comprehensive [KVision guide](https://kvision.gitbook.io/kvision-guide/) is published on GitBook. 

Full API documentation (KDoc) is available at [https://rjaros.github.io/kvision/api/](https://rjaros.github.io/kvision/api/).


## Quickstart

#### Development

1. Download [KVision examples](https://github.com/rjaros/kvision-examples) from GitHub:

        git clone https://github.com/rjaros/kvision-examples.git
        
2. Enter one of the examples directory:

        cd kvision-examples/showcase                        (on Linux)
        cd kvision-examples\showcase                        (on Windows)

3. Run Gradle incremental build with:

        ./gradlew -t run                                    (on Linux)
        gradlew.bat -t run                                  (on Windows)
        
4. Open [http://localhost:8088/](http://localhost:8088/) in your browser.

5. Play with the code and see your changes immediately in the browser.

#### Production

To build complete application optimized for production run:

        ./gradlew -Pprod=true distZip                       (on Linux)
        gradlew.bat -Pprod=true distZip                     (on Windows)
        
Application package will be saved as build/distributions/showcase.zip.

## Code samples

### Hello world

        val root = Root("root")
        val label = Label("Hello world!")
        root.add(label)

### Basic components interactions using type safe DSL builders

        Root("root") {
            hPanel(spacing = 20, alignItems = FlexAlignItems.CENTER) {
                val label = label("Not yet clicked.")
                var count = 0
                button("Click me") {
                    onClick {
                        label.content = "You clicked the button ${++count} times."
                    }
                }
            }
        }

### Tab panel with JavaScript routing

        val firstPanel = Tag(TAG.DIV, "First")
        val secondPanel = Tag(TAG.DIV, "Second")
        val thirdPanel = Tag(TAG.DIV, "Third")

        Root("root").add(TabPanel().apply {
            addTab("First", firstPanel, route = "/first")
            addTab("Second", secondPanel, route = "/second")
            addTab("Third", thirdPanel, route = "/third")
        })

### Type safe forms

        @Serializable
        data class Model(val username: String? = null, val password: String? = null)

        Root("root").add(FormPanel {
            add(Model::username, Text(label = "Username"), required = true)
            add(Model::password, Password(label = "Password"), required = true)
            add(Button("OK").onClick {
                val data: Model = this@FormPanel.getData()
                println("Username: ${data.username}")
                println("Password: ${data.password}")
            })
        })
        
### Data binding with observable data model

        data class Data(val text: String)
        
        val model = observableListOf(
            Data("One"),
            Data("Two"),
            Data("Three")
        )
        Root("root").add(DataContainer(model, { data, _, _ ->
            Label(data.text)
        }, HPanel(spacing = 10)))

        GlobalScope.launch { // Kotlin coroutines
            while (true) {
                delay(1000)
                model.reverse()
            }
        }