Gina

Gina was designed to be accessible, flexible, scalable and maintainable. Our main purpose was to allow developers to create easier and faster web applications.

Essential features are available at this moment, but most of the things we don't have yet can be replaced by some alternatives written in other languages like: Ruby, PHP, .net, Python or C++. You are free to use such alternatives until we implement similar features.

Compatibility

Gina works fine with the following versions of Node.js:

• v8.x.x,
• v7.x.x,
• v6.x.x (Between Node.js 5.x and 6.3, NPM is broken, use manual installation: by cloning),
• v5.x.x (Between Node.js 5.x and 6.3, NPM is broken, use manual installation: by cloning),
• v4.x.x,
• v0.12.x,
• v0.11.x,
• v0.10.x

Getting started with Gina I/O

Initializing a project

Let's create our first project and install Gina.
Type everything after the $

$ mkdir myproject

$ cd myproject

You can now install the framework using npm:

$ npm install gina@latest

OR by cloning (manual installation)

$ mkdir node_modules
$ mkdir node_modules/gina
$ git clone https://github.com/Rhinostone/gina.git ./node_modules/gina
$ node ./node_modules/gina/script/post_install.js

Then you need to initialize your project

On macOS or on Linux

$ ./gina.sh -i myproject

on Windows from the Windows CLI - YOU NEED TO BE ADMIN !!

$ gina -i myproject

NB: All gina commands are launched from the project root.

Creating a bundle (application)

A project is a set of bundles. Gina lets you create all kinds of bundles :

• API & web services
• Frontend & backend applications
• Command lines

Note that the default bundle type is API.

OK. Now let's do it !

$ ./gina.sh -a frontend

We have just created a frontend application that will host our homepage. You will find all bundle sources under myproject/src.

You can start the bundle with the following command:

$ ./gina.sh -s frontend dev

Now, visit http://127.0.0.1:3100/ to check your homepage. Isn't it sexy !?

If you need to stop it, just hit ctrl+c.

Adding views

The default bundle renders a JSON representation of a "Hello World" message.

Let's add views on our frontend

$ ./gina.sh -av frontend

Now edit the init action in src/frontend/controllers/controller.js so that you can have self.render(...) instead of self.renderJSON(...)

Once it's done, you just need to refresh your browser.

Gina is shipped with Swig as the default template engine. If you are more comfortable with another template engine, you can use your own.

Debugging in Gina

You can attach a remote debugger like Visual Studio Code to Gina.

1. Open your project
   
   

2. Click to the Debug tab
   

3. Open your configuration file and select Node.js
   
   

4. Select Attach and clean your configuration
   
   

5. Change the port number to match the one you will be listening from Gina (e.g.: 5959)
   

6. Save, and go back to your terminal to start your bundle with the debug argument: Before Node.js v8.x.x

$ ./gina.sh -s frontend dev --debug-brk=5959

After Node.js v8.x.x

$ ./gina.sh -s frontend dev --inspect-brk=5959

Gina will be waiting for you to launch the remote debugger.

7. Launch your remote debugger & have fun !
   
   Debugger in action

Troubleshooting

I can't start my bundle

Are you starting for the first time ?

• If you are a Windows user, make sure you are running your command line with sufficient permission; like "launching your terminal as administrator".

• If you have just cloned Gina from github, don't forget to run from the project root :

$ node node_modules/gina/script/post_install.js

• Have you noticed the environment argument ( dev ) ?

$ ./gina.sh -s frontend dev

Without the dev argument, Gina is going to understand that you want to use the production environment. If it's really what you want to achieve, just build :

$ ./gina.sh -b frontend prod

NB.: prod is optional here; if you don't add it, it will build for prod by default.

Are you trying to restart after a crash ?

Gina uses 2 processes today: one master, one slave (it will change very soon). Once an exception is thrown and the program crashes, one of the 2 processes can remain in the tasks/processes list. This has been mostly observed for Windows users.

• If you are on a POSIX OS, you should look for gina, then kill it !

• If you are on a Windows, look for node.exe or Event I/O Handler, then kill it !

After this, try again to start, it should run better.

I can't re install Gina

Are you trying to reinstall from the project root ?

• Go to your project root (where you can see env.json & project.json)
• Remove the file gina. This bug is related to npm since Node 0.12.x and only found on POSIX Operating Systems

$ rm ./gina

• You can now reinstall

$ npm install gina

More documentation and tutorials are coming !

License (MIT)

Copyright © 2009-2016 Rhinostone

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.