app.js

/*

    This is the main entry point for the U413 application.
    U413 uses the Express MVC framework even though we only ever render a single view.
    In the future if there is a need to add additional pages to U413 it will be extremely simple.

*/

// Dependencies
var simpledb = require('mongoose-simpledb'),
    fs = require('fs'),
    http = require('http'),
    jade = require('jade'),
    stylus = require('stylus'),
    nodeStatic = require('node-static'),
    path = require('path'),
    extend = require('extend'),
    shellFunctions = require('./utilities/shellFunctions');

// Register prototype helpers.
require('./utilities/prototypeHelpers')();

// Get connection string.
var connectionString = process.env.CONNECTION_STRING || 'mongodb://localhost/u413';

// Initialize the database module.
simpledb.init(connectionString, function (err, db) {
    if (err) return console.error(err);
    // Initialize node-static, a static file serving module.
    var file = new nodeStatic.Server('./public'),
        port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
    // Create basic http server.
    var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) {
        // Add a helper function to the response for easy redirections.
        response.redirect = function (url) {
            response.writeHead(301, { 'location': url });
            response.end();
        };

        // If the request is for "www." then redirect to bare domain.
        if (request.url.match(/^www/)) {
            response.writeHead(301, { 'location': redirect });
        }

        // When the request is finished, serve files.
        request.addListener('end', function () {
            // If the request is for the root URL then compile the index Jade view and serve it...
            if (request.url === '/') {
                var jadeFn = jade.compile(
                    fs.readFileSync(path.resolve('views', 'index.jade')),
                    { filename: path.resolve('views', 'index.jade') }
                );
                response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/html" });
                response.end(jadeFn());
            }
            else if (request.url === '/styles.css') {
                var stylusFile = fs.readFileSync(path.resolve('public', 'styles.styl'));
                stylus(stylusFile.toString()).render(function(err, css) {
                    if (err) return console.error(err);
                    response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/css" });
                    response.end(css);
                });
            }
            // ...otherwise let node-static match the request to static files in the "public" directory.
            else
                file.serve(request, response);
        }).resume();
    }).listen(port, function () {
        console.log("Listening at http://localhost:%s", port);
    });

    // Configure shotgun and shotgun-client modules.
    var shotgun = require('shotgun'),
        shell = new shotgun.Shell({
            debug: process.env.DEBUG,
            // Rather than define access functions on each command module we will specify the default access for all
            // command modules on the shell and set them to the shell helper function we created for checking command access.
            defaultCmdAccess: function (shell, cmdName) {
                return shell.canAccessCmd(cmdName);
            }
        }),
        shotgunClient = require('shotgun-client');

    // Attach custom functions to the shell so they can be used in our command modules for U413.
    extend(shell, shellFunctions);
    shell.db = db;

    // Attach shotgun-client to the http server so it can listen for connections.
    shotgunClient.attach(server, shell);

    shell.io.set('transports', ['xhr-polling']);
});