Notes from the Introduction to Meteor.js Development Coursera

Course offered by University of London & Goldsmiths, University of London

Note : The version of meteor.js used in the course creates a simpler starter application than currently shipping versions

1 Course Home

Overview : learn how to create complete, multi-user web sites using the Meteor.js framework and MongoDB

2 Course Info

  • We’ll implement: user authentication, security features, reactive templates, and routing using iron router
  • We’ll carry out database operations: inserting, removing, updating, sorting, and filtering data
  • By the end of the course, we should be able to:
    • Install Meteor.js and create a template web app
    • Use the Meteor.js packaging system
    • Write Meteor.js templates that can reactively display data
    • Use MongoDB: insert, remove, and update operations
    • Use MongoDB filters to search for and sort data
    • Add user authentication functionality to a website
    • Control what is displayed on the page using iron:router
    • Implement basic security features
  • We’ll complete the following assignments:
    • A server install
    • A programming assignment
    • 4 quizzes
    • Practice quizzes
  • The course is built on top of material from two previous courses in the specialization. Prerequisites include basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

3 Grades

  • Each week has a quiz worth 12%
  • Each week has a peer-graded assignment worth 13%
  • Each week you need to review your peers for 13%
  • Oddly enough, this adds up to a good deal more than 100%
  • Week 1 has a grading lecture that correctly breaks things down Grading and Assessment Information (text)

4 Discussion Forums

  • Q : In grading, why does the total add up to more than 100%? Is it so you can get a perfect score without completing every assignment?
  • [2017-02-12 Sun] : checked the forums a bit, not much going on
  • [2017-02-19 Sun] : checked the forums a bit again, not much going on
  • [2017-02-28 Tue] : checked the forums a bit again, not much going on; submitted a question about DRYing out code
  • [2017-03-06 Mon] : checked the forums a bit again, not much going on; no answer to my previous question

5 Week 1

  • Estimated time = 4h 55m

5.1 Course Overview

5.1.1 Overview (video)

As per the overview: Meteor.js to build multi-user, interactive web apps

5.1.2 Course Outline (text)

As per the Course Info

5.1.3 Grading and Assessment Information (text)

  • After each lesson, there are practice quizzes
  • Practice quizzes don’t count towards your grade for the course
  • Grading breakdown:
    • Each quiz (x4) = 10%
    • Each peer assessment (x2) = 30%
    • Pass mark = 65%

5.1.4 Why Meteor? (text)

  • Applications in Javascript, CSS, and HTML – no other server-specific language required
  • Uses an adapted version of the handlebars template library (used in a previous course in the specialization)
  • Provides easy-to-install dev environment that includes a web server and a database server
  • Provides an easy-to-use packaging system
  • Provides reactive data sources with a distributed data model so that apps will feel snappy to multiple users
  • Includes the capability to generate native iOS and Android apps from the same Javascript code base
  • Implements an isomorphic model so that you can run the same code base on the server and the client
  • Apps can be deployed on any server with Node.js and MongoDB support

5.2 Introduction

5.2.1 Overview (video)

  • Get up and running with Meteor.js : install, get first app up and running, and check it out in the web browser; then explore templates; then add user interactivity

5.2.2 URL for This Module (text)

5.2.3 Code for this Module (text)

  • I downloaded the code
  • I installed meteor via the instructions on the meteor webpage
  • I ran meteor npm install
  • I ran meteor update --patch
  • I ran meteor et voila! Site available at localhost:3000

5.3 From One to Many Users

5.3.1 From one to many users (video)

  • Previous courses in this specialization have worked on sites for single users
  • Review of the stack so far: { HTML, CSS, Javascript + Templates, Data } -> Web Browser
  • New addition to the stack: the Server (with Meteor.js)

5.3.2 From one to many users (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

5.4 Install Meteor

5.4.1 URL for this lesson (text)

5.4.2 Install Meteor (video)

  • Start by installing meteor, create a starter application, and run the application
  • You can create a folder to create your application within; in there, you’d use: meteor create <application_name>
  • If you use meteor create, it’ll create a boilerplate application

5.4.3 Install Meteor (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

5.5 Editing a Template

5.5.1 URL for this lesson (text)

5.5.2 Editing a template (video)

  • Finding out what the boilerplate files out, and how to implement templates the Meteor way
  • Template = SpaceBars, derived from HandleBars
  • I never knew that you could use open ./ to open Finder in the current directory your terminal is in
  • What does {{> hello}} mean? Should review handlebars. {{ triggers the template; > hello means find the hello template and render it
  • <template name="hello"> ... </template>
  • You can use the inspector in chrome to see exactly what was sent to the browser
  • In meteor, a “public” folder in the web application folder will hold static assets

5.5.3 Editing a template (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

5.6 Sending Data to Templates with Helpers

5.6.1 Sending data to templates with helpers (video)

  • Javascript -> HTML template
  • Tests for code running in client or in server
  • Template helpers send data to template
  • e.g. var image_data = { img_src: "laptops.jpg", img_alt: "some laptops" }; Template.images.helpers(image_data);
  • Then you could use {{> images}} and <img src="img_src" alt="img_alt" />
  • To pass an array in, you’d need to do something like Template.images.helpers({images:image_data})
  • Iteration via {{#each images }} ... {{/each}}

5.6.2 Sending data to templates with helpers (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

5.7 Convert to a Bootstrap Grid

5.7.1 URL for this lesson (text)

5.7.2 Convert to a Bootstrap Grid (video)

  • Additional functionality provided via packages
  • Like brew, package, etc.
  • We want to install the Bootstrap package!
  • meteor search . will download and display the latest list of packages
  • meteor search twbs will display packages that match the twbs terms (like the Twitter Bootstrap package)
  • Packages are added on a per-application basis
  • In our application, we use meteor add twbs:bootstrap
  • We don’t need to edit anything, bootstrap will automatically be used
  • Meteor checks your HTML and won’t run the app unless it’s valid

5.7.3 Convert to a Bootstrap Grid (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

5.8 Responding to User Actions

5.8.1 Responding to user actions (video)

  • Basic interactivity!
  • JS file where the “serious work” takes place
  • Add class to tag like class=”js-image”; might want to prefix interactive classes with js to indicate they’re not layout based
  • Template.images.events({'click .js-image':function(event){ ... }});
  • You can bind data and event listeners in templates
  • event.target lets you access the HTML tag in the DOM
  • You can use jQuery-style e.g. $(event.target).css("width", "50px");

5.8.2 Responding to user actions (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

5.9 Introduction to Meteor Summary

5.9.1 Introduction to Meteor Summary (video)

  • Brief recap

5.9.2 Introduction to Meteor Summary (quiz)

  • More substantial 10-question quiz
  • I filled the form out, but realized that I couldn’t submit it without paying

5.9.3 Peer-graded Assignment (assignment)

  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to submit the assignment
  • I DID, however, DO the assignment
  • I downloaded Meteor on my Mac via curl https://install.meteor.com/ | sh
  • I created my app via meteor create my_first_app, the resulting text in the console was:
        Created a new Meteor app in 'my_first_app'.   

        To run your new app:                          
        cd my_first_app                             
        meteor npm install                          
        meteor                                      
                
        If you are new to Meteor, try some of the learning resources here:
        https://www.meteor.com/learn                
                
        meteor create --bare to create an empty app.  
        meteor create --full to create a scaffolded app.
          
  • I ran the app via meteor (from within the app directory) and viewed it in my web browser by navigating to localhost:3000
  • It was crashing initially, I used meteor npm install --save babel-runtime and restarted my app with meteor et voila!
  • I edited the h1 tag in my application’s client/main.html file as per the instructions and reloaded my browser

5.9.4 Review Your Peers

  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to review my peers

6 Week 2

6.1 Learning Objectives:

  • Create a mongodb collection
  • Use mongodb find and insert operations
  • Operate a Bootstrap modal from Meteor
  • Use 3rd party Meteor packages to add functionality

6.2 Introduction

6.2.1 Overview (video)

  • 3 key operations in using databases: insertion, update, and deletion
  • Using mongodb (built in with Meteor.js)

6.2.2 URL for this module (text)

6.2.3 Code for this module (text)

  • I downloaded the two zip files

6.3 Meteor Distributed Data Model

6.3.1 Meteor distributed data model (video)

  • Meteor apps are slightly different from most other web applications with respect to data models
  • Each user has their own local copy of the data: people will see data changes in pseudo-realtime
  • Changes by a user are propagated back to the central database (reactive)
  • Then propagations go back out to all other users

6.3.2 Meteor distributed data model (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

6.4 Create a Collection of Images

6.4.1 Create a collection of images (video)

  • See the theory in practice: store image data in a database
  • In mongo, data are called collections
  • e.g. Images = new Mongo.Collection("images");
  • e.g. console.log(Images.find().count());
  • We can put starter data in the database
  • We can create a new file called startup.js
  • In startup.js, we check if we’re running on the server, if there’s nothing in the collection, we’ll add some starter data (but only when the app is starting up)
  • if( Meteor.isServer ){ Meteor.startup(function(){ etc. }); }
  • meteor reset from the command line will wipe all of your databases (!careful!)

6.4.2 Create a collection of images (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

6.5 Better Start-Up Script, Removing Items From a Collection

6.5.1 Better start-up script, removing items from a collection (video)

  • The lecturer DRY’d out the previous startup.js code : loop to add images to collections
  • Next up : allow template to access the data
  • In image_share.js : we use Template.images.helpers({images:Images.find()})
  • Lecturer modified CSS file to style thumbnail (min & max height = 500px)
  • Lecturer went to template in image_share.html and added a “delete” button; class=”js-del-image btn btn-warning”
  • The “js-del-image” lets us know that we need to tie that to an event handler
  • In image_share.js, we enable the delete functionality via:
        Template.images.events({
        'click .js-image':function(event){
        $(event.target).css("width", "50px");
        },
        'click .js-image-del':function(event){
        var image_id = this._id; // this refers to the data the template was displaying; _id is a unique identifier auto-added by mongo
        console.log( image_id );
        Images.remove({ "_id" : image_id }); // this is a mongo filter
        }
        })
          
  • We want to use some jQuery to better indicate to the user what’s happening when they click delete
  • We add the ID into the template : <div class="col-xs-12 col-md-3" id="{{_id}}">
  • Now, here’s how we hide the component :
        $("#" + image_id ).hide('slow', function(){
        Images.remove({ "_id" : image_id });
        }
          
  • Note that we move the remove command into the hide function

6.5.2 Better start-up script, removing items from a collection (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

6.6 Add An Image Rating Function: Updating and Sorting

6.6.1 URL for this lesson (text)

6.6.2 Add an image rating function: updating and sorting (video)

  • Let user rate images by setting the number of stars
  • Sort images so that highest-rated images are shown first
  • 1st : HTML to template (for rating widget); is there a package on atmospherejs? Yup!
  • To add the package, we use: meteor add barbatus:stars-rating
  • Then we add a sub-template below our image (the package has given us the template for free)
        <p>
        {{>starsRating mutable=true class="js-rate-image" id=_id }}
        </p>
          
  • _id is the unique id that mongo gives to the image; the star sub-template is within the image template, so we have access to the data from the images
  • Now we need to add the star ratings to the database
  • We’ll add an event listener
        Template.images.events({
        ...
        'click .js-rate-image':function(event){
        console.log("you clicked a star");
        var rating = $(event.currentTarget).data("userrating");
        console.log(rating);
        var image_id = this.id;
        console.log(image_id);
        Images.update({_id:image_id}, {$set: {rating:rating}})); // Images is the mongodb collection
        // Images.update takes two arguments: the ID of the image you want to change and the property / value that you want to change
        }
        })
          
  • this refers to the data in the template
  • Now let’s sort the images by rating in this client portion
        Images.find({}, {sort:{rating:-1}});
          

6.6.3 Add an image rating function: updating and sorting (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

6.7 Implement Image Adding With A Bootstrap Modal

6.7.1 Implement image adding with a Bootstrap Modal, part 1 (video)

  • Allow users to add content directly into database
  • Add form as new template:
        <body>
        {{> image_add_form }}
        ...
        </body>

        <template name="image_add_form">
        <form class="js-add-image">
        <input type="text" name="img_src" />
        <input type="text" name="img_alt" />
        <button class="btn btn-success">save</button>
        </form>
        </template>
          
  • Next step, create an event listener so that the server does something when the user submits the form
        Template.image_add_form.events({
        'submit .js-add-image':function(event){
        var img_src, img_alt;
        img_src = event.target.img_src.value; // not jQuery because it's a form so we have access to the data more readily
        img_src = event.target.img_alt.value;

        Images.insert( { img_src:img_src, img_alt:img_alt, createdOn:new Date() } );
        console.log("src: " + img_src + " alt: " + img_alt );
        return false;
        }
        });
          
  • By default, submit will overwrite console (return false prevents this)
  • From the user perspective, it might be confusing because the image went to the bottom of the list; we’ll use createdOn to help with this
        Template.images.helpers({ 
        images: Images.find({}, 
        {sort:{createdOn: -1, rating: -1}})
        });
          

6.7.2 Implement image adding with a Bootstrap Modal, part 2 (video)

  • The form should look a little bit nicer and be a little more interactive
  • We’ll convert the form to sit in a bootstrap modal so that he user can hit a button and the form will appear, then disappear when the user’s done with it
        <template name="image_add_form">
        <div class="modal fade" id="image_add_form">
        <div class="modal-dialog">
        <div class="modal-content">
                <div class="modal-header">
                <div class="modal-title">
                </div>
                </div>
                <div class="modal-body">
                <!-- form goes here -->
                </div>
                <div class="modal-footer">
                <button class=""btn btn-warning" data-dismiss="modal">cancel</button>
                </div>
        </div>
        </div>
        </div>
        </template>
          
  • This starts hidden, so we need to add a button to the images template
        <template name="images">
        <button class="btn btn-success js-show-image-form">add image</button>
        ...
        </template>

        Template.image_add_form.events({

        ...

        'submit .js-add-image':function(event){
        ...
        $("#image_add_form").modal('hide'); // or show?!
        return false;

        }

        'click .js-show-image-form:function(event){
        $("#image_add_form").modal('show');
        }
        })
          
  • Should go onto the bootstrap site to style the form a bit better

6.7.3 Implement image adding with a Bootstrap Modal (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

6.8 Databases and collections summary

6.8.1 Databases and collections summary (video)

  • Recap of week 2!

6.8.2 Databases and collections summary (quiz)

  • More substantial 10-question quiz
  • I filled the form out, but still can’t submit it without paying

6.8.3 Peer-graded Assignment : Siteace part 1 : edit an event and a template

  • Project will be called siteace
  • Project will be used in weeks 3 and 4
  • Project will become a site that allows users to add web pages they find interesting
  • Task this week = complete the implementation of some event code so that websites are saved to the database, edit a template to make website links click-able
  • I downloaded and unzipped the starter code
  • I ran meteor npm install --save babel-runtime in the folder
  • No errors!
  • I ran meteor in the folder
  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to submit the assignment
  • I DID, however, DO the assignment
  • My main.js modification looked like this:
        'click .js-add-site':function(event){
        var url = $('#url_input').val();// get the form value using jquery...
        var site = {"url":url};// create a simple object to insert to the collection
        console.log("You need to put some code in here that calls insert on the Websites collection");
        Websites.insert({site:site});
        return false;
        }
          
  • My main.html modification looked like this:
        <li><a href="http://{{site.url}}">{{site.url}}</a></li>
          

I think I completed this assignment a little incorrectly:

  1. After adding the insert command, sites weren’t automatically showing up in the list, I think this is because I added site, which has a url sub-field instead of just adding url directly
  2. If you add sites without http[s], then it’ll automatically try to create a local link. I fixed this by prefixing the href with http. That’s brittle.

6.8.4 Review your peers : Siteace part 1 : edit an event and a template

  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to review my peers

7 Week 3

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 Overview (video)

  • Authentication!

7.1.2 Code for this module (text)

  • I downloaded the two zip files

7.2 User authentication with Meteor.js

7.2.1 User authentication with Meteor.js (video)

  • Allows a user to log in, and customize the experience for them
  • Standard feature for most websites
  • A few packages: most basic form = store user accounts in local database
  • meteor add accounts-ui accounts-password
  • accounts-ui : templates for typical user behaviors (log in, reminders)
  • accounts-password : handles database aspect (user records)
  • In image_share.html, we can add one of the templates we get with accounts-ui
        {{> loginButtons }}
          
  • We also get things like emails (on the test server, it’ll be printed to the console)

7.2.2 User authentication with Meteor.js (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.3 Tidying up the design with a navbar

7.3.1 Tidying up the design with a navbar (video)

  • Housekeeping!
  • Place login functionality in navbar
        <nav class="navbar navbar-default navbar-fixed-top">
        <div class="container">
        {{> loginButtons}}
        </div>
        </nav>
          
  • navbar-default : basic styling
  • navbar-fixed-top : will always be visible at the top of the page
  • Make sure navbar doesn’t lay over things:
        body {
        padding-top: 60px;
        }
          

7.3.2 Tidying up the design with a navbar (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.4 Accessing user information

7.4.1 URL for this lesson (text)

7.4.2 Accessing user information (video)

  • Dig deeper into user authentication
  • We can display the username via something like:
        <h1>Welcome to image share, {{username}}!</h1>
          
  • Doesn’t work, yet. Need to provide a template helper function. In image_js:
        Template.body.helpers({username:function(){
        if(Meteor.user){
        return Meteor.users().emails[0].address;
        } else {
        return "anonymous internet user";
        }
        }
        });
          
  • The template helper will run twice: as soon as meteor can (in which case the user object won’t exist yet, so it’ll error); and after a user’s logged in, it’ll update that template
  • The user will be able to see the anonymous internet user thing briefly
  • Next we want to only display the add image button when the user’s logged in:
        {{#if currentUser}}
        <button class="btn btn-success js-show-image-form">add image</button>
        {{/if}}
          
  • Normally, currentUser would have to be bound to a template, but Meteor binds it to every template for us

7.4.3 Accessing user information (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.5 Customizing the user registration form

7.5.2 Customizing the user registration form (video)

  • Modifying the user registration form with a username
  • We can pass an argument into the account package to do so:
        Accounts.ui.config({
        passwordSignupFields: "USERNAME_AND_EMAIL"
        });
          
  • Now we want to greet the user by their username instead of their email:
        Template.body.helpers({
        username: function(){
        if( Meteor.user ){
        return Meteor.user.username;
        } else {
        return "anonymous internet user";
        }
        }
        });
          

7.5.3 Customizing the user registration form (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.6 Attaching users to images

7.6.1 Attaching users to images (video)

  • Attach a user account to an image so we know, for each image, which user uploaded it
  • In image_share.js:
        Template.image_add_form.events({
        'submit .js-add-image':function(){
        var img_src, img_alt;

        img_src = event.target.img_src.value;
        img_alt = event.target.img_alt.value;

        if( Meteor.user ){
        Images.insert({
        img_src: img_src,
        img_alt: img_alt,
        createdOn: new Date(),
        createdBy: Meteor.user()._id;
        });
        }
        $("#image_add_form").modal("hide");
        return false;
        }
        });
          
  • Javascript notion of truthy (e.g. non-false) and falsey (e.g. non-true, not usable data)
  • Now, we want to make sure the user information has been added, so we’ll display it in the image template:
        <div class="thumbnail">
        ...
        <div class="caption">
        ...
        <p>User: {{getUser createdBy}}</p>
        ...
        </div>
        </div>
          
        Template.images.helpers({
        images:...
        getUser:function(user_id){
        var user = Meteor.users.findOne({ _id:user_id });
        if( user ){
        return user.username;
        } else {
        return "anon";
        }
        }
        });
          
  • We access users differently than images – even though both are collections – because Meteor handles users slightly differently (security, etc.)

7.6.2 Attaching users to images (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.7 Filtering images by user

7.7.2 Filtering images by user (video)

  • Filter to control which images are being displayed (e.g. by a particular user)
  • Make username click-able (in template)
        <div class="caption"> 
        ...
        <p>
        User: <a href="#" class="js-set-image-filter">{{getUser createdBy}}</a>
        </p>
        </div>
          
  • Add event listener in Javascript
        Template.images.events({
        ...
        'click .js-set-image-filter':function(event){
        Session.set("userFilter", this.createdBy);
        }
        })
          
  • Session is a reactive data source that allows us to store temporary variables in key-value pair format
        Template.images.helpers({
        ...
        images:function(){
        if( Session.get("userFilter") ){
        return Images.find({createdBy:Session.get("userFilter")}, {sort: {createdOn:-1, rating:-1}});
        } else  {
        return Images.find({}, {sort: {createdOn:-1, rating:-1}});
        }
        },
        ...
        })
          

7.7.3 Filtering images by user (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.8 Removing the image filter

7.8.1 Removing the image filter (video)

  • No new techniques here: just more examples of previously used ones

7.8.2 Removing the image filter (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.9 Infinite scroll

7.9.1 Infinite scroll (video)

  • Load data as needed
  • Simplest way of implementing an infinite scroll in the image gallery
  • Want to capture a scroll event from the browser; hard in the standard meteor way
  • We’ll use some slightly hacky jQuery; we also want to limit the initial number of images we show:
        if (Meteor.isClient) {

        Session. set("imageLimit", 8);
        lastScrollTop = 0;

        $(window).scroll(function(event){
        var scrollTop = $(this).scrollTop();

        // test if we're near the bottom of the window
        if( $(window).scrollTop() + $(window).height() > $(document).height() - 100 ){
        // test if we are going down
        var scrollTop = $(this).scrollTop();
        if (scrollTop > lastScrollTop ) {
        Session.set("imageLimit", Session.get("imageLimit") + 4 );
        }
        lastScrollTop = scrollTop;
        }
        });
        }

        ...

        return Images.find({}, {sort:{createdOn: -1, rating: -1 }, limit:Session.get("imageLimit")});
          

7.9.2 Infinite scroll (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

7.10 User authentication summary

7.10.1 User authentication summary (video)

  • Recap of week 3!

7.10.2 User authentication summary (quiz)

  • More substantial 10-question quiz
  • I filled the form out, but still can’t submit it without paying

7.10.3 Peer-graded Assignment : Siteace part 2 : user authentication

  • I downloaded and unzipped the starter code
  • I ran meteor npm install --save babel-runtime in the folder
  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to submit the assignment
  • I DID, however, DO the assignment
  • I found the assignment very straightforward and not very challenging

7.10.4 Review your peers : Siteace part 2 : user authentication

  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to submit the assignment

8 Week 4

8.1 Introduction

8.1.1 Overview (video)

  • Find out how to deploy sites; “hack” into our own sites to examine security problems; implement security; routing

8.1.2 Code for this module (text)

  • I downloaded the two zip files

8.2 How to organize your code

8.2.1 How to organize your code (video)

  • As application grows, having all your code in one file becomes hard to maintain
  • We can set up special folders which the framework knows about
  • public folder used for public / static assets (e.g. images)
  • client and server are two more folders that meteor knows about
  • client folder would contain all of the info in the Meteor.isClient block
  • server folder would contain all of the info in the Meteor.isServer block
  • I think Meteor applications are set up like this by default now
  • You can use shared that will have files in use on both (but it’s not a special folder by default)
  • Collections are shared, so both client and server need access to them
  • Other special folders:
    • private only server needs to see them and it needs to use the assets API to access them
    • tests is just a playground and it won’t be sent to the client or the server

8.2.2 How to organize your code (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

8.3 Hack into your site!

8.3.1 Hack into your site! (video)

  • Topic = basic security!
  • Some examples of behavior that users shouldn’t have access to (e.g. using the Javascript console to delete all the images in the image database)

8.3.2 Hack into your site! (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

8.4 Make your site more secure

8.4.1 URL for this lesson (text)

8.4.2 Make your site more secure (video)

  • Securing your application : the basics
  • By default, Meteor puts a package in that helps you get up-and-running, but isn’t necessary for us
  • We use meteor remove insecure to remove the “insecure” package
  • By default, you’re then stopped from doing certain things with the database (e.g. adding pictures)
  • We create a lib folder; things in lib will be run first; it’s run on BOTH the client and server
  • We can put a collections.js file in there, along with security information:
        Images = new Mongo.Collection("images");

        // Set up security
        Images.allow({
        insert:function(userId, doc){
        if (Meteor.user()){
        doc.createdBy = userId; // force the image to be owned by the current user
        if( userId != doc.createdBy ){ 
        return false; }
        else {
        return true;
        }
        } else {
        return false;
        }
        },
        remove:function(userId, doc){
        if (Meteor.user()){
        return true;
        }
        }
        })
          

8.4.3 Make your site more secure (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

8.5 Tidy up the project

8.5.1 Tidy up the project (video)

  • Cleaning up!
  • E.g. server doesn’t need any CSS or HTML files, so we make sure they’re all in the client folder
  • E.g. we can get rid of if (Meteor.isServer) if it’s in the server folder; ditto with client

8.5.2 Tidy up the project (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

8.6 Routing with iron:router

8.6.1 URL for this lesson (text)

8.6.2 Routing with iron:router (video)

  • Adding a new feature: routing
  • Routing allows you to control which components of the application are shown at any given time
  • meteor add iron:router
  • We can define different places that the user can visit in the application, and we can define different things that’ll be displayed at each point
  • We’ll create templates to simplify things: e.g. for the navbar, etc:
        <template name="navbar">
        ...
        </template>
          
  • The body tag will be empty; we’ll modify our routes
        Router.route('/', function() {
        this.render('navbar');
        });

        Router.route('/images', function() {
        this.render('images');
        });
          
  • Next up, rendering multiple templates into a single page

8.6.3 Routing with iron:router (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

8.7 Better routing

8.7.1 Better routing (video)

  • Welcome page, single image, and back again using routing and templates
  • In main.js:
        Router.configure({
        layoutTemplate: 'ApplicationLayout' // default template for layout is ApplicationLayout
        });

        Router.route('/', function() {
        this.render('welcome', { to: "main" });
        });

        Router.route('/images', function() {
        this.render('navbar', { to: "navbar" });
        this.render('images', { to: "main" });
        });

        Router.route('/image/:_id', function() {
        this.render('navbar', { to: "navbar" });
        this.render('image', { to: "main", data: function(){ return Images.findOne({_id:this.params._id}); }});
        });
          
        <template name="ApplicationLayout">
        {{> yield "navbar" }}
        {{> yield "main" }}
        </template>

        <template name="welcome">
        <div class="container">
        <div class="jumbotron">
        ...
        </div>
        </div>
        </template>

        <template name="image>
        <div class="container">
        <h2>{{img_alt}}</h2>
        <a href="/images"><img class="single-img" src="/{{img_src}}" /></a>
        </div>
        </template>
          
  • Routes will make the browser back/forward buttons work properly

8.7.2 Better routing (quiz)

  • Simple, 2-question quiz

8.8 Security and routing summary

8.8.1 Security and routing summary (video)

  • Recap of week 4!

8.8.2 Security and routing summary (quiz)

  • More substantial 9-question quiz
  • I filled the form out, but still can’t submit it without paying

8.8.3 Peer-graded Assignment : Siteace : implementing discussions

  • I downloaded and unzipped the starter code
  • I ran meteor npm install in the folder
  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to submit the assignment
  • I DID, however, DO the assignment
  • I found the assignment very straightforward and not very challenging

8.8.4 Review your peers : Siteace : implementing discussions

  • I haven’t upgraded, so I won’t be able to submit the assignment

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