jsclass

Getting started with jsclass

You can use jsclass on any of the supported platforms without any custom configuration. To start using jsclass in your project, you’ll need to download it using the link on the left.

If you’re using jsclass on Node and do not need to support other environments, you can install it with npm and avoid a lot of the boilerplate shown below.

The download contains two directories, src and min. Both contain the same files; src contains the jsclass source code, and min contains a minified version suitable for production use on the web. Pick which version you want to use, and copy it into your project. You can then load jsclass into your pages as follows.

<script>JSCLASS_PATH = '/path/to/jsclass/min'</script>
<script src="/path/to/jsclass/min/loader-browser.js"></script>

On server-side platforms, you need to set the global variable JSCLASS_PATH like this:

(function() {
    var $ = (typeof global === 'object') ? global : this;
    $.JSCLASS_PATH = 'path/to/jsclass/src';
})();

Then use the platform’s module loading API to load the jsclass package loader:

// On CommonJS:
var JS = require('./' + JSCLASS_PATH + '/loader');

// On other platforms, this creates JS as a global:
load(JSCLASS_PATH + '/loader.js');

JSCLASS_PATH tells the loader script where you’re storing the jsclass library, and will be interpreted relative to the current working directory. loader.js is a script that knows how to load packages on any platform, while loader-browser.js only contains code for loading packages in the browser, and is thus a little smaller.

This may look like quite a lot of boilerplate, but once you’ve done this you can use a single mechanism to load jsclass components (and any other components you make) on any platform your code needs to run on. That mechanism is the JS.require() function.

All components that are part of the jsclass library can be loaded using the JS.require() function, passing in the name of the object(s) you want to use and a callback to run once they’re ready.

JS.require('JS.Hash', 'JS.Observable', function(Hash, Observable) {
    // ...
});

The JS.require() function is aware of dependencies and will load everything you need to use the objects you want. One some platforms, package loading is asynchronous, and you should be aware of that when structuring your code. If an object you want to use is already loaded, JS.require() will not reload it.

You’re now ready to start using jsclass. Dive into the reference documentation linked on the left of this page, and find out how you can use the jsclass package system to manage dependencies in your own projects.