Get started with Total.js 5

Total.js 5 · total5@0.0.19 guideinstallfirst app Executed against Total.js 5

Total.js 5 is the npm package total5. You need Node.js (the examples of this site run on Node.js 24) and an empty folder. Create the project and install the package:

mkdir hello && cd hello
npm init -y
npm install total5

The start script is a file named index.js in the root of the project. It loads the framework and starts the server:

require('total5');

Total.run({ port: 8000 });

That is all the code you write to start. The files in the folders of the project (see the project structure page) are loaded automatically. Create these three files.

A controller declares the routes. ROUTE('GET /') with no handler would show the view with the same name; here the handler renders views/index.html with a model:

controllers/index.js

exports.install = function() {
	ROUTE('GET /', home);
	ROUTE('POST /greet/ --> *Greet/say');
};

function home($) {
	$.view('index', { title: 'Hello Total.js' });
}

An action has its own validation. The route above runs Greet/say with the JSON body of the request, and the framework rejects a body that does not match input:

definitions/greet.js

NEWACTION('Greet/say', {
	name: 'Say hello',
	input: '*name:String',
	action: function($, model) {
		$.callback({ message: 'Hello, ' + model.name + '!' });
	}
});

A view is HTML with @{...} blocks. views/layout.html wraps every view and @{body} is the place of the view:

views/layout.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><meta charset="utf-8" /><title>Hello</title></head>
<body>@{body}</body>
</html>

views/index.html

<h1>@{model.title}</h1>

Start the application with node index.js. In debug mode (the default) the application restarts when you change a file and the address is printed in the terminal. To run it like on a server use node index.js --release, and read the release mode page for what changes.