Mojito: A Quick Tour¶

Before starting to develop Mojito applications, we would like to introduce some of the main features of Mojito. This simple introduction should give you the bird’s eye view of how Mojito works and what it can offer to developers.

Node.js¶

Node.js is not a feature of Mojito, but Mojito, as a Node.js module, greatly benefits from the speed and scalability of Node.js. Mojito also takes advantage of the core modules of Node.js: The Mojito framework uses the http, url, and querystring modules to handle requests and parse URLs, and the Mojito command line relies heavily on the util, fs, path, and vm modules. Mojito also leverages npm packages, such as the express package to create a server and parse cookies. Mojito application developers also use Node.js core modules and npm modules to their advantage. For example, your application could use the fs core module to cache data or use the connect package as network middleware.

Mojito Framework¶

The Mojito framework offers an extensive API with modules for executing code, making REST calls, handling cookies and assets, accessing parameters and configuration, and more. The framework can can detect the type of calling devices and serve the appropriate HTML markup.

Mojito Command-Line Tool¶

The Mojito command-line tool, besides being used to create and start applications, also offers developers with a variety of utilities. Developers can use the mojito command to run unit tests, create documentation, sanitize code with JSLint, and build projects for iOS and Android applications.

YUI 3¶

YUI 3 forms the backbone of Mojito. The models and controllers in the Mojito MVC use Y.Base, and the addons, which extend functionality in Mojito, are based on YUI Plugins. Many important features of Mojito, such as testing, logging, internationalization, and cookie handling are also derived from YUI 3. Because of the tight integration of Mojito with YUI 3, developers can easily extend the functionality of Mojito applications by adding YUI 3 modules.

Mojito Applications¶

Mojito applications are JavaScript applications that fuse configuration and MVC architecture. Because the application code is written in JavaScript, your applications are portable, being able to move freely from the server to the client or just execute on the server in the Node.js environment. Being on the client does not restrict your application because it can still communicate with the server through event-driven modules called binders. The binders make it simple to update content or dynamically change the page. Your application can also customize views for different devices by rendering HTML markup from templating systems such as Handlebars.