IronNails

IronNails is a framework inspired by the Rails and rucola frameworks. It offers a rails-like way of developing applications with IronRuby and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). This framework uses the pattern Model - ViewModel - View - Controller (M-VM-V-C). It should eventually be able to run on both WPF and Silverlight but currently only works with WPF. The idea is that the views can be created using a design tool like Blend for example and just save that xaml as is. The designer should not need to use anything else than drag and drop to create a GUI design. The behaviors are then added to the view by using predefined behaviors in the framework or by defining your own behavior. The framework then generates a proxy for the view which will be used to transparently wire up the commands in the behaviors to controller actions.

In controllers, viewmodels, models and view proxies you now have the ability to log things in the same way Rails does.

You can run the application by giving the command rake run inside the application directory

You are now able to write the following code for a controller:

# file name: demo_controller.rb

class DemoController < IronNails::Controller::Base
  view_object :status_bar_message, "The status bar message"

  view_action :change_message

  def change_message
    @status_bar_message = "#@status_bar_message appended"
  end
end

# file name: demo.xaml

<Window 
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  xmlns:behaviors="clr-namespace:IronNails.Library.Behaviors;assembly=IronNails.Library"
  Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
  <StackPanel>
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding status_bar_message }" ></TextBlock>
      <Button Content="Click me" behaviors:ClickBehavior.LeftClick="{Binding change_message }" />
  </StackPanel>
</Window>

If you want to run the project: update IronRuby to the latest revision

ir -S gem install ironnails
ir -S ironnails my_cool_application
cd my_cool_application
rake

all help is welcome: ivan@flanders.co.nz

Help is wanted for implementing the following items a.o.

• RSpec stories

• Predefined behaviors

• Better xaml integration

• support for multiple views tied to a controller

• Create a host project in which is an application that hosts the ironruby runtime and executes our nails application.