YAWT: Yet Another Web Template

(a very uninspired name because I hate naming things)

YAWT is a Leiningen template to generate a base project for building:

• Clojure web applications using ClojureScript and Reagent
  • Also sets things up in a way that should work with IE8 (because -- woe is me -- I must support that crap still sometimes)
• Clojure web services exposing a JSON API (no or very minimal included web UI)
• Simple support for adding initial database dependencies (PostgreSQL or CouchDB only at the moment)

This template is primarly written for my own use. I got tired of generating new projects with Luminus or other templates and then fiddling with the resulting project for 20-30 minutes afterwards to get it where I wanted it to be before I would work on the actual important bits of the project I was starting.

It is not really intended to be completely generic "great fit for anyone" Leiningen template. There definitely will be some biased approaches to things like project/code organization and how things are configured. These things just happen to be set the way I like them to be. This may or may not work well for you, and if not, you might consider using another template to start off your projects instead.

However, if you do find that this template has worked out well for you -- that's great!

Usage

$ lein new yawt [project-name] [options]

Options

• webapp (default)
  Creates a new web application (ClojureScript/Reagent)

• webservice
  Creates a new web service mainly intended to expose a JSON API to be used by other client apps (no ClojureScript, only a barebones page served at the index out of the box)

• postgres
  Includes basic PostgreSQL support (dependencies, placeholder connection configuration, etc)

• couchdb
  Includes basic CouchDB support (dependencies, placeholder connection configuration, etc)

Note: Currently, the "postgres" and "couchdb" options cannot be combined together.

Profiles

The default project.clj includes three Leiningen profiles, ubejar, dev and repl.

These profiles include a profile-specific configuration config.edn file from under env-resources/ under the matching profile name. See edn-config for more information about how this configuration file can be accessed from code.

Out of the box, the repl configuration will automatically run (start-server) when the REPL finishes loading up and also provides a function for converting the REPL into a ClojureScript REPL (see below section for more info). The code that accomplishes this is located under dev/user.clj. As per the profile's name, the repl profile is only activated when you are in a Leiningen REPL.

Development

Note that unlike some other Clojure web frameworks / templates, this template does not include lein-ring. So you will not be able to run lein ring server. This is deliberately not included as it is not compatible with using an async Jetty adapter and also obviously not usable with something like http-kit, so I don't like including it since I prefer having my usual development tasks (commands) work the same regardless of which HTTP server I am using.

However, regardless of what Jetty adapter is being used, Ring's wrap-reload middleware is included in development builds so a simple lein run is probably sufficient to replace what lein ring server gave you.

ClojureScript

A Leiningen alias is available which is helpful during development:

$ lein cljsdev

It performs a cljsbuild clean, once and auto.

Generated web applications are set up with support for a ClojureScript REPL using weasel. Note that the project.clj uses a specific version of ClojureScript and weasel to ensure this configuration works.

To start a ClojureScript REPL, simply start up the web app in a regular REPL session and then run cljs-repl from the user namespace (which the REPL should put you in by default). This will convert your REPL to a ClojureScript REPL. Once cljs-repl returns you should refresh your browser. You can check the browser's console log to verify that a Websocket connection was opened successfully.

Obviously ClojureScript REPL support requires a browser with Websocket support. This means IE10+ or other modern browser.

Currently ClojureScript tooling, and more specifically ClojureScript REPL support, can be a bit flaky at times unfortunately. Be warned!

Deploying

Simply run:

$ lein uberjar

This will clean out existing compiled output, rebuild ClojureScript using advanced optimizations and spit out an uberjar you can deploy. This will use the config file under env-resources/uberjar which is usually configured for use with "release" builds.

License

Distributed under the the MIT License. See LICENSE for more details.