James Gardner james-gardner

Backbone.js & Underscore.js Natural Sorting Algorithm

Backbone is great but I continually found the default sorting method limited due to the following:

Disc 1, Disc 2, … Disc 10 would become Disc 1, Disc 10, Disc 2

With the help of Jim Palmer's naturalSort.js, I was able to integrate natrual sorting into Backbone.Collection.

Backbone collections are automatically sorted and now, by simply adding sortType:"natural", your collections can be sorted naturally.

Most configuration really isn't about the app -- it's about where the app runs, what keys it needs to communicate with third party API's, the db password and username, etc... They're just deployment details -- and there are lots of tools to help manage environment variables -- not the least handy being a simple .env file with all your settings. Simply source the appropriate env before you launch the app in the given env (you could make it part of a launch script, for instance).

env files look like this:

SOMEVAR="somevalue"
ANOTHERVAR="anothervalue"

To source it:

$ source dev.env # or staging.env, or production.env, depending on where you're deploying to

	var db = mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/DB');

	// In middleware
	app.use(function (req, res, next) {

	// action after response
	var afterResponse = function() {
	logger.info({req: req}, "End request");

	// any other clean ups

	var WebSocketServer = require('ws').Server;
	var wss = new WebSocketServer({port: 8080});

	var jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

	/**
	The way I like to work with 'ws' is to convert everything to an event if possible.
	**/
	function toEvent (message) {
	try {

	source: http://www.markbrilman.nl/2011/08/howto-convert-a-pfx-to-a-seperate-key-crt-file/

	`openssl pkcs12 -in [yourfile.pfx] -nocerts -out [keyfile-encrypted.key]`

	What this command does is extract the private key from the .pfx file. Once entered you need to type in the importpassword of the .pfx file. This is the password that you used to protect your keypair when you created your .pfx file. If you cannot remember it anymore you can just throw your .pfx file away, cause you won’t be able to import it again, anywhere!. Once you entered the import password OpenSSL requests you to type in another password, twice!. This new password will protect your .key file.

	Now let’s extract the certificate:

	`openssl pkcs12 -in [yourfile.pfx] -clcerts -nokeys -out [certificate.crt]`

	// see this article: http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2012/05/10/modeling-explicit-workflow-with-code-in-javascript-and-backbone-apps/
	// replace the object literal in that example with a Marionette.Controller
	//
	// an example:

	var SomeProcess = Marionette.Controller.extend({
	initialize: function(options){
	this.region = options.region;
	this.model = options.model;
	},

	/* "Thunks, Trampolines, and Continuation Passing"
	* Python implementation from http://jtauber.com/blog/2008/03/30/
	* JavaScript implementation by Thomas Darr <[email protected]>.
	*/

	// thunk = lambda name: lambda args: lambda: name(args)
	var thunk = function thunk(fn) {
	return function _thunk() {
	var splat = Array.prototype.slice.apply(arguments);
	return function __thunk() { return fn.apply(this, splat); };

	# to generate your dhparam.pem file, run in the terminal
	openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparam.pem 2048

	#!/bin/sh
	# Pre-commit hook for git which removes trailing whitespace, converts tabs to spaces, and enforces a max line length.

	if git-rev-parse --verify HEAD >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
	against=HEAD
	else
	# Initial commit: diff against an empty tree object
	against=4b825dc642cb6eb9a060e54bf8d69288fbee4904
	fi