README.md

elm-basic-compile

An npm module which incorporates the elm-compiler built with GHCJS and presenting a simplified compilation interface. It is currently very rough, not well tested, and ripe for improvement.

The simple way to use it is like this:

var ebc = require('elm-basic-compile');
ebc.justCompile("import Html\nmain=Html.text \"hi\"").then(function(res) {
    if (res.error) {
        // error
    } else {
        // eval(res); // Javascript should be runnable.
    }
});

More details

The builder uses the same file formats as elm-make does, basically just elm-package.json and elm source files. You can use javascript inputs as well as Native modules in the usual way.

The builder has two parts:

a Retriever object which gets gets source code and json files. The default one, GithubSource, retrieves needed source files and version sets from github, as elm-make does, but does not strictly require that packages are acceptable by elm-package, and one could make their own or extend this one to support different sources. It has this shape:

type ProjectName = { user: string, project : string }
type ProjectSpec = { user: string, project: string, version: string }

interface Retriever {
    // Retrieves the version numbers of the package
    retrieveTags(projectName : ProjectName) : Promise<[string]>
    // Retrieves the elm-package.json of the package
    retrieveJson(projectSpec : ProjectSpec) : Promise<string>
    // Retrieves the indicated source file from the package.
    // Errors must be reported as {status: int, text: info} , and 404 is treated
    // as a non-fatal error since there might be multiple source directories in
    // an elm package.
    retrieveSource(projectSpec : ProjectSpec, srcDir : string, modname : [string], ext : string) : Promise<string>
}

The default retriever in this module is GithubSource which has some extra methods that allow you to put files in it for the compiler to use:

useJson(projectSpec : ProjectSpec, json : (string | dict)) : Unit
useSourceFile(projectSpec : ProjectSpec, modname : [string], content : string) : Unit

The compiler driver is called ElmPackage which has this shape:

class ElmPackage {
    constructor(retriever : Retriever, projectSpec : ProjectSpec)
    // Turn spammy diagnostics on or off
    debug(on : bool) : Unit
    // Ensure that dependencies are present in the cache for the exposed-modules
    // of the package plus any modules listed in the optional force argument.
    expandPackage(force : [string]?) : Promise<Unit>
    // Compile beginning with the given Main module.
    // If force is specified, the result will be cached in the object but not in
    // localStorage, and localStorage won't be queried for that module.
    compileModule(modname : string, force : bool) : Promise<Unit,{error: Error}>
    // Link the package, producing executable javascript.
    // targets specifies the modules that begin dependency analysis.
    link(targets : [string]) : Promise<String,Unit>
}

Usage example

This is from index.js from elm-basic-compile

/* The simplest possible compilation interface. */
module.exports.justCompile = function(source) {
    var packageSpec = {user: "prozacchiwawa", project: "test", version: "1.0.0"};
    var retriever = new gs.GithubSource();
    retriever.useSourceFile(packageSpec,["Main"],source);
    retriever.useJson(packageSpec,{
        "version": "1.0.0",
        "source-directories": ["src"],
        "repository": "https://github.com/prozacchiwawa/test.git",
        "exposed-modules": [],
        // If you want to compile with more dependencies, specify them here.
        // You could make your own retriever that would have more sources than
        // github.  Also this retriever doesn't require that the packages are
        // accepted by elm-package.
        "dependencies": {
            "elm-lang/core": "5.0.0 <= v < 6.0.0",
            "elm-lang/html": "2.0.0 <= v < 3.0.0"
        }
    });
    var epkg = new ep.ElmPackage(retriever,packageSpec);
    return epkg.expandPackage(["Main"]).then(function(reachable) {
        return epkg.compileModule("Main",true);
    }).then(function() {
        return epkg.link(["Main"]);
    }).fail(function(e) {
        console.error(e);
        return {error: e};
    });
} // -> The result is a Promise<string,{error: Error}>, which gives executable
  // javascript or an error from the elm compiler.