Clojure web development – state of the art

byPiotr Jagielski
September 17, 2015
4 minute read

It’s now more than a year that I’m getting familiar with Clojure and the more I dive into it, the more it becomes the language. Once you defeat the “parentheses fear”, everything else just makes the difference: tooling, community, good engineering practices. So it’s now time for me to convince others. In this post I’ll try to walktrough a simple web application from scratch to show key tools and libraries used to develop with Clojure in late 2015. Note for Clojurians: This material is rather elementary and may be useful for you if you already know Clojure a bit but never did anything bigger than hello world application. Note for Java developers: This material shows how to replace Spring, Angular, grunt, live-reload with a bunch of Clojure tools and libraries and a bit of code. The repo with final code and individual steps is here. Bootstrap I think all agreed that component is the industry standard for managing lifecycle of Clojure applications. If you are a Java developer you may think of it as a Spring (DI) replacement – you declare dependencies between “components” which are resolved on “system” startup. So you just say “my component needs a repository/database pool” and component library “injects” it for you. To keep things simple I like to start with duct web app template. It’s a nice starter component application following the 12-factor philosophy. So let’s start with it: lein new duct clojure-web-app +example The +example parameter tells duct to create an example endpoint with HTTP routes – this would be helpful. To finish bootstraping run lein setup inside clojure-web-app directory. Ok, let’s dive into the code. Component and injection related code should be in system.clj file: (defn new-system [config] (let [config (meta-merge base-config config)] (-> (component/system-map :app (handler-component (:app config)) :http (jetty-server (:http config)) :example (endpoint-component example-endpoint)) (component/system-using {:http [:app] :app [:example] :example []})))) In the first section you instantiate components without dependencies, which are resolved in the second section. So in this example, “http” component (server) requires “app” (application abstraction), which in turn is injected with “example” (actual routes). If your component needs others, you just can get then by names (precisely: by Clojure keywords). To start the system you must fire a REPL – interactive environment running within context of your application: lein repl After seeing prompt type (go). Application should start, you can visit http://localhost:3000 to see some example page. A huge benefit of using component approach is that you get fully reloadable application. When you change literally anything – configuration, endpoints, implementation, you can just type (reset) in REPL and your application is up-to-date with the code. It’s a feature of the language, no JRebel, Spring-reloaded needed. Adding REST endpoint Ok, in the next step let’s add some basic REST endpoint returning JSON. We need to add 2 dependencies in project.clj file: :dependencies ... [ring/ring-json "0.3.1"] [cheshire "5.1.1"] Ring-json adds support for JSON for your routes (in ring it’s called middleware) and cheshire is Clojure JSON parser (like Jackson in Java). Modifying project dependencies if one of the few tasks that require restarting the REPL, so hit CTRL-C and type lein repl again. To configure JSON middleware we have to add wrap-json-body and wrap-json-response just before wrap-defaults in system.clj: (:require ... [ring.middleware.json :refer [wrap-json-body wrap-json-response]]) (def base-config {:app {:middleware [[wrap-not-found :not-found] [wrap-json-body {:keywords? true}] [wrap-json-response] [wrap-defaults :defaults]] And finally, in endpoint/example.clj we must add some route with JSON response: (:require ... [ring.util.response :refer [response]])) (defn example-endpoint [config] (routes (GET "/hello" [] (response {:hello "world"})) ... Reload app with (reset) in REPL and test new route with curl: curl -v http://localhost:3000/hello < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 21:17:37 GMT < Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 < Set-Cookie: ring-session=37c337fb-6bbc-4e65-a060-1997718d03e0;Path=/;HttpOnly < X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block < X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN < X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff < Content-Length: 151 * Server Jetty(9.2.10.v20150310) is not blacklisted < Server: Jetty(9.2.10.v20150310) < * Connection #0 to host localhost left intact {"hello": "world"} It works! In case of any problems you can find working version in this commit. Adding frontend with figwheel Coding backend in Clojure is great, but what about the frontend? As you may already know, Clojure could be compiled not only to JVM bytecode, but also to Javascript. This may sound familiar if you used e.g. Coffescript. But ClojureScript philosophy is not only to provide some syntax sugar, but improve your development cycle with great tooling and fully interactive development. Let’s see how to achieve it. The best way to introduce ClojureScript to a project is figweel. First let’s add fighweel plugin and configuration to project.clj: :plugins ... [lein-figwheel "0.3.9"] And cljsbuild configuration: :cljsbuild {:builds [{:id "dev" :source-paths ["src-cljs"] :figwheel true :compiler {:main "clojure-web-app.core" :asset-path "js/out" :output-to "resources/public/js/clojure-web-app.js" :output-dir "resources/public/js/out"}}]} In short this tells ClojureScript compiler to take sources from src-cljs with figweel support and but resulting JavaScript into resources/public/js/clojure-web-app.js file. So we need to include this file in a simple HTML page: <!DOCTYPE html> <head> </head> <body> <div id="main"> </div> <script src="js/clojure-web-app.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </body> </html> To serve this static file we need to change some defaults and add corresponding route. In system.clj change api-defaults to site-defaults both in require section and base-config function. In example.clj add following route: (GET "/" [] (io/resource "public/index.html") Again (reset) in REPL window should reload everything. But where is our ClojureScript source file? Let’s create file core.cljs in src-cljs/clojure-web-app directory: (ns ^:figwheel-always clojure-web-app.core) (enable-console-print!) (println "hello from clojurescript") Open another terminal and run lein fighweel. It should compile ClojureScript and print ‘Prompt will show when figwheel connects to your application’. Open http://localhost:3000. Fighweel window should prompt: To quit, type: :cljs/quit cljs.user=> Type (js/alert "hello"). Boom! If everything worked you should see and alert in your browser. Open developers console in your browser. You should see hello from clojurescript printed on the console. Change it in core.cljs to (println "fighweel rocks") and save the file. Without reloading the page your should see updated message. Figweel rocks! Again, in case of any problems, refer to this commit. In the next post I’ll show how to fetch data from MongoDB, serve it with REST to the broser and write ReactJs/Om components to render it. Stay tuned!

It’s now more than a year that I’m getting familiar with Clojure and the more I dive into it, the more it becomes the language. Once you defeat the “parentheses fear”, everything else just makes the difference: tooling, community, good engineering practices. So it’s now time for me to convince others. In this post I’ll try to walktrough a simple web application from scratch to show key tools and libraries used to develop with Clojure in late 2015.

Note for Clojurians: This material is rather elementary and may be useful for you if you already know Clojure a bit but never did anything bigger than hello world application.

Note for Java developers: This material shows how to replace Spring, Angular, grunt, live-reload with a bunch of Clojure tools and libraries and a bit of code.

The repo with final code and individual steps is here.

Bootstrap

I think all agreed that component is the industry standard for managing lifecycle of Clojure applications. If you are a Java developer you may think of it as a Spring (DI) replacement – you declare dependencies between “components” which are resolved on “system” startup. So you just say “my component needs a repository/database pool” and component library “injects” it for you.

To keep things simple I like to start with duct web app template. It’s a nice starter component application following the 12-factor philosophy. So let’s start with it:

lein new duct clojure-web-app +example

The +example parameter tells duct to create an example endpoint with HTTP routes – this would be helpful. To finish bootstraping run lein setup inside clojure-web-app directory.

Ok, let’s dive into the code. Component and injection related code should be in system.clj file:

(defn new-system [config] (let [config (meta-merge base-config config)] (-> (component/system-map :app (handler-component (:app config)) :http (jetty-server (:http config)) :example (endpoint-component example-endpoint)) (component/system-using {:http [:app] :app [:example] :example []}))))

In the first section you instantiate components without dependencies, which are resolved in the second section. So in this example, “http” component (server) requires “app” (application abstraction), which in turn is injected with “example” (actual routes). If your component needs others, you just can get then by names (precisely: by Clojure keywords).

To start the system you must fire a REPL – interactive environment running within context of your application:

lein repl

After seeing prompt type (go). Application should start, you can visit http://localhost:3000 to see some example page.

A huge benefit of using component approach is that you get fully reloadable application. When you change literally anything – configuration, endpoints, implementation, you can just type (reset) in REPL and your application is up-to-date with the code. It’s a feature of the language, no JRebel, Spring-reloaded needed.

Adding REST endpoint

Ok, in the next step let’s add some basic REST endpoint returning JSON. We need to add 2 dependencies in project.clj file:

:dependencies ... [ring/ring-json "0.3.1"] [cheshire "5.1.1"]

Ring-json adds support for JSON for your routes (in ring it’s called middleware) and cheshire is Clojure JSON parser (like Jackson in Java). Modifying project dependencies if one of the few tasks that require restarting the REPL, so hit CTRL-C and type lein repl again.

To configure JSON middleware we have to add wrap-json-body and wrap-json-response just before wrap-defaults in system.clj:

(:require ... [ring.middleware.json :refer [wrap-json-body wrap-json-response]]) (def base-config {:app {:middleware [[wrap-not-found :not-found] [wrap-json-body {:keywords? true}] [wrap-json-response] [wrap-defaults :defaults]]

And finally, in endpoint/example.clj we must add some route with JSON response:

(:require ... [ring.util.response :refer [response]])) (defn example-endpoint [config] (routes (GET "/hello" [] (response {:hello "world"})) ...

Reload app with (reset) in REPL and test new route with curl:

curl -v http://localhost:3000/hello < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 21:17:37 GMT < Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 < Set-Cookie: ring-session=37c337fb-6bbc-4e65-a060-1997718d03e0;Path=/;HttpOnly < X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block < X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN < X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff < Content-Length: 151 * Server Jetty(9.2.10.v20150310) is not blacklisted < Server: Jetty(9.2.10.v20150310) < * Connection #0 to host localhost left intact {"hello": "world"}

It works! In case of any problems you can find working version in this commit.

Adding frontend with figwheel

Coding backend in Clojure is great, but what about the frontend? As you may already know, Clojure could be compiled not only to JVM bytecode, but also to Javascript. This may sound familiar if you used e.g. Coffeescript. But ClojureScript philosophy is not only to provide some syntax sugar, but improve your development cycle with great tooling and fully interactive development. Let’s see how to achieve it.

The best way to introduce ClojureScript to a project is figweel. First let’s add fighweel plugin and configuration to project.clj:

:plugins ... [lein-figwheel "0.3.9"]

And cljsbuild configuration:

:cljsbuild {:builds [{:id "dev" :source-paths ["src-cljs"] :figwheel true :compiler {:main "clojure-web-app.core" :asset-path "js/out" :output-to "resources/public/js/clojure-web-app.js" :output-dir "resources/public/js/out"}}]}

In short this tells ClojureScript compiler to take sources from src-cljs with figweel support and put resulting JavaScript into resources/public/js/clojure-web-app.js file. So we need to include this file in a simple HTML page:

To serve this static file we need to change some defaults and add corresponding route. In system.clj change api-defaults to site-defaults both in require section and base-config function. In example.clj add following route:

(GET "/" [] (io/resource "public/index.html"))

Again (reset) in REPL window should reload everything.

id="main">

But where is our ClojureScript source file? Let’s create file core.cljs in src-cljs/clojure-web-app directory:

(ns ^:figwheel-always clojure-web-app.core) (enable-console-print!) (println "hello from clojurescript")

Open another terminal and run lein figwheel. It should compile ClojureScript and print ‘Prompt will show when figwheel connects to your application’. Open http://localhost:3000. Fighweel window should prompt:To quit, type: :cljs/quit cljs.user=>

To quit, type: :cljs/quit cljs.user=>

Type (js/alert "hello"). Boom! If everything worked you should see and alert in your browser. Open developers console in your browser. You should see hello from clojurescript printed on the console. Change it in core.cljs to (println "fighweel rocks") and save the file. Without reloading the page your should see updated message. Fighweel rocks! Again, in case of any problems, refer to this commit.

UPDATE: In the latest duct release, there is an +cljs option which make it possible to use reloaded repl and fighweel in a single REPL. Highly recommended!

In the next post I’ll show how to fetch data from MongoDB, serve it with REST to the browser and write ReactJs/Om components to render it. Stay tuned!

Piotr Jagielski

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Thought static method can’t be easy to mock, stub nor track? Wrong!

byTomasz Przybysz
April 6, 2013

No matter why, no matter is it a good idea. Sometimes one just wants to check or it's necessary to be done. Mock a static method, woot? Impossibru!

In pure Java world it is still a struggle. But Groovy allows you to do that really simple. Well, not groovy alone, but with a great support of Spock.

Lets move on straight to the example. To catch some context we have an abstract for the example needs. A marketing project with a set of offers. One to many.

import spock.lang.Specification

class OfferFacadeSpec extends Specification {

    OfferFacade facade = new OfferFacade()

    def setup() {
        GroovyMock(Project, global: true)
    }

    def 'delegates an add offer call to the domain with proper params'() {
        given:
            Map params = [projId: projectId, name: offerName]

        when:
            Offer returnedOffer = facade.add(params)

        then:
            1 * Project.addOffer(projectId, _) >> { projId, offer -> offer }
            returnedOffer.name == params.name

        where:
            projectId | offerName
            1         | 'an Offer'
            15        | 'whasup!?'
            123       | 'doskonała oferta - kup teraz!'
    }
}

So we test a facade responsible for handling "add offer to the project" call triggered somewhere in a GUI.
We want to ensure that static method Project.addOffer(long, Offer) will receive correct params when java.util.Map with user form input comes to the facade.add(params).
This is unit test, so how Project.addOffer() works is out of scope. Thus we want to stub it.

The most important is a GroovyMock(Project, global: true) statement.
What it does is modifing Project class to behave like a Spock's mock.
GroovyMock() itself is a method inherited from Specification. The global flag is necessary to enable mocking static methods.
However when one comes to the need of mocking static method, author of Spock Framework advice to consider redesigning of implementation. It's not a bad advice, I must say.

Another important thing are assertions at then: block. First one checks an interaction, if the Project.addOffer() method was called exactly once, with a 1st argument equal to the projectId and some other param (we don't have an object instance yet to assert anything about it).
Right shit operator leads us to the stub which replaces original method implementation by such statement.
As a good stub it does nothing. The original method definition has return type Offer. The stub needs to do the same. So an offer passed as the 2nd argument is just returned.
Thanks to this we can assert about name property if it's equal with the value from params. If no return was designed the name could be checked inside the stub Closure, prefixed with an assert keyword.

Worth of mentioning is that if you want to track interactions of original static method implementation without replacing it, then you should try using GroovySpy instead of GroovyMock.

Unfortunately static methods declared at Java object can't be treated in such ways. Though regular mocks and whole goodness of Spock can be used to test pure Java code, which is awesome anyway :)No matter why, no matter is it a good idea. Sometimes one just wants to check or it's necessary to be done. Mock a static method, woot? Impossibru!

In pure Java world it is still a struggle. But Groovy allows you to do that really simple. Well, not groovy alone, but with a great support of Spock.

Lets move on straight to the example. To catch some context we have an abstract for the example needs. A marketing project with a set of offers. One to many.

import spock.lang.Specification

class OfferFacadeSpec extends Specification {

    OfferFacade facade = new OfferFacade()

    def setup() {
        GroovyMock(Project, global: true)
    }

    def 'delegates an add offer call to the domain with proper params'() {
        given:
            Map params = [projId: projectId, name: offerName]

        when:
            Offer returnedOffer = facade.add(params)

        then:
            1 * Project.addOffer(projectId, _) >> { projId, offer -> offer }
            returnedOffer.name == params.name

        where:
            projectId | offerName
            1         | 'an Offer'
            15        | 'whasup!?'
            123       | 'doskonała oferta - kup teraz!'
    }
}

DDevelopment & Design

Spring Security by example: securing methods

byJakub Nabrdalik
March 30, 2011

This is a part of a simple Spring Security tutorial:

1. Set up and form authentication
2. User in the backend (getting logged user, authentication, testing)
3. Securing web resources
4. Securing methods
5. OpenID (login via gmail)
6. OAuth2 (login via Facebook)
7. Writing on Facebook wall with Spring Social

Securing web resources is all nice and cool, but in a well designed application it's more natural to secure methods (for example on backend facade or even domain objects). While we may get away with role-based authorization in many intranet business applications, nobody will ever handle assigning roles to users in a public, free to use Internet service. We need authorization based on rules described in our domain.

For example: there is a service AlterStory, that allows cooperative writing of stories, where one user is a director (like a movie director), deciding which chapter proposed by other authors should make it to the final story.

The method for accepting chapters, looks like this:

DDevelopment & Design

GWT Designer for Eclipse 3.6 can cause project compile freeze

byBartek Zdanowski
March 31, 2011

Lately I installed GWT Designer for Eclipse Helios (3.6). I wanted to check it's features. They aren't so cool I've expected but that's other story. The problem was that suddenly my main GWT enabled project began to freeze during compilation. The...Lately I installed GWT Designer for Eclipse Helios (3.6). I wanted to check it's features. They aren't so cool I've expected but that's other story. The problem was that suddenly my main GWT enabled project began to freeze during compilation. The...