Core Calipso

Calipso

The lib/calipso.js library is the engine of Calipso, it must be included in every module, and binds together all of the libraries, modules, helper classes, theming and is ultimately responsible for responding to a user request.

Calipso as Connect Middleware

To import the Calipso library as connect middleware:

  var calipso = require("calipso");
  app.use(calipso.calipsoRouter(app, app.set('config'), next);

The express object is passed through to enable it to be linked to the Calipso object, and hence be available (e.g. to access configuration via app.set('config') within any module).

Note - this can probably be refactored to make it look much less clunky :)

The Calipso Router is defined in more detail on this page: the Calipso Router Middleware.

Exports

The Calipso object exports the following:

Export	Description
lib	Common 3rd party libraries (avoids modules having to reimport these everywhere).
dynamicHelpers	Helper functions (uninitialised) that can be used in views.
getDynamicHelpers	Initialises helper functions for a specific request
mr	Tracks running map reduce operations.
sessionCache	Local cache for sessions (if required - not used currently)
data	Used to hold simple core cached data (e.g. content types).
e	Holder for events and event listeners.
theme	The loaded theme object (created during bootstrap).
modules	All loaded modules.
cache	Theme / rendering cache library - not currently used.
date	Date library
form	Form library
table	Table library
link	Link library
menu	Menu library
event	Event library
utils	General utils
calipsoRouter	The middleware that responds to a request.

As all modules are expected to require the calipso library, all of these functions are typically available within any module e.g.

calipso.form.render(form,formValues,req,next); 

or

var myDate = calipso.date.parseDate(format,dateString,settings);

Imported Libraries

These are all core dependencies of Calipso, that are all available via calipso.lib:

fs: require('fs'),
path: require('path'),
express: require('express'),
step: require('step'),
sys: require('sys'),
mongoose: require('mongoose'),
url: require('url'),
ejs: require('ejs'),
pager: require('utils/pager'),
prettyDate: require('utils/prettyDate.js'),
crypto: require('utils/crypto.js'),
connect: require('connect'),
_:require('underscore')

For example:

calipso.lib.step();
var _ = calipso.lib._;

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