config file syntax proposal

[mauritslamers]

Currently, there are two separate syntax models used in the config files:

BT.addFramework(BT.Framework.extend({
  path: "path/to/framework"
})

and

var myApp = BT.AppBuilder.create({
  name: "myApp",
  frameworks: ['myAppFw']
});

I think it would be nice to have a single syntax model, which would not exclude the options mentioned above but add to them:

BT.addFramework({
  ref: 'myframework'
  path: 'frameworks/myframework'
});
BT.addTheme({
  ref: 'mytheme',
  path: 'themes/mytheme'
});
BT.addApp({
  name: 'myApp',
  path: 'apps/my_app',
  theme: 'mytheme'
});

Thoughts?

[topherfangio]

Can you discuss the difference between the ref and name parameters? Unless there is a very good reason not to, I would make those the same.

[topherfangio]

Any more thoughts on this, or any discussion we can have that will help move this forward?

[mauritslamers]

The difference is that a ref translates to a path, and a name to an url.
As an example: sproutcore:runtime refers to a path frameworks/sproutcore/frameworks/runtime, where the name of an app is used only to decide at what url in the dev-server things are going to be served, as well as the directory name the app will be built at.

The reason is that when an app requires a framework, the ref can be used to search for the framework if a class with this ref doesn't yet exist.