flecks

Flecks is a dynamic, configuration-driven, fullstack application production system. Its purpose is to make application development a more joyful endeavor. Intelligent defaults combined with a highly dynamic structure encourage consistency while allowing you to easily express your own opinions.

For documentation, see the documentation page.

⚠️ PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK ⚠️

This is alpha software. There are undoubtedly many bugs that haven't yet been found.

You've been warned!

Table of Contents

1. Install
2. Introduction
3. Concepts

Install

Quickly scaffold a new application monorepo:

yarn create @flecks/app my-new-app

or with npm:

npx @flecks/create-app my-new-app

---

Quickly scaffold a new fleck:

yarn create @flecks/fleck my-new-fleck

or with npm:

npx @flecks/create-fleck my-new-fleck

Introduction

At its core, flecks is a collection of modules that use hooks to orchestrate everything from building your project to handling the minutia of what happens when your application starts, when a client connects, defining database models, and more.

All flecks projects, be they an application or another fleck, contain a build directory with a flecks.yml that defines the flecks use to compose the project, as well as build-time configuration.

Modern features you expect — like ESLint, Mocha tests, Hot Module Replacement (HMR), SSR — are baked in. Along with some you may not expect — like server-side HMR, the ability to define redux application state (and store enhancers/middleware) dynamically with hooks, REPL support, and much more.

Concepts

build directory

The build directory contains build directives and run commands. Examples of these would be:

• babel.config.js
• .eslint.defaults.js
• .neutrinorc.js
• webpack.config.js
• etc, etc, depending on which flecks you have enabled. Support for the aforementioned configuration comes stock in @flecks/core.

The build directory is a solution to the problem of "ejecting" that you run into with e.g. Create React App. Flecks doesn't force you into an all-or-nothing approach. If your project requires advanced configuration for one aspect, you can simply override that aspect of configuration in your build directory on a case-by-case basis.

Of course, flecks strives to provide powerful defaults that minimize the need to override configuration.

See the build directory documentation page for more details.

---

flecks.yml

The build directory also contains a special file, flecks.yml. This file is the heart of your flecks project's configuration and is how you orchestrate your project.

The structure of the file is an object whose keys are the flecks composing your application and whose values are the default configuration for those flecks.

# Specify configuration overrides for this fleck:
'my-fleck':
  some_value: 69
  some_other_value: 420
# Default configuration:
'some-other-fleck': {}

The simplest example of a flecks server application:

'@flecks/core': {}
'@flecks/server': {}

Yes, that's it! In fact, when you use yarn create @flecks/app, that's what is generated for you by default. Obviously, this doesn't do much on its own. It simply bootstraps flecks and runs a server application with no interesting work to do.

---

Hooks

Documentation page: (ADDME)

Hooks are how everything happens in flecks. There are many hooks and they will not be treated exhaustively here. See the documentation page above.

To define hooks (and turn your plain ol' boring JS modules into beautiful interesting flecks), you only have to import the Hooks symbol and key your default export:

import {Hooks} from '@flecks/core';

export default {
  [Hooks]: {
    '@flecks/core/starting': () => {
      console.log('hello, gorgeous');
    },
  },
};

Now add your newly-minted fleck to flecks.yml, and let your fledgling fleck treat you the way you deserve to be treated.

Just to give you an idea of the power of hooks, some will be listed here:

• @flecks/core/config:

  Define default configuration.

• @flecks/docker/containers:

  Define Docker containers to run alongside your application to develop e.g. DB models, redis commands, etc. without having to worry about installing stuff.

• @flecks/http/server/request.route:

  Define Express middleware that runs when an HTTP route is hit.

• @flecks/server/up:

  Do things when server comes up (e.g. DB connection, HTTP listener, make you coffee, etc).

...and so many more.

We didn't even touch on gather hooks, provider hooks, decorator hooks, and so many more. Please see the hook documentation page for the full rundown on all of the wonderful things hooks can do for you.