How to use HotDrink

The purpose of this document collection is to explain how to use the HotDrink library. It is not intended to showcase HotDrink, but rather to lay the groundwork for a solid grasp of how to get the most out of the library. Thus, instead of beginning with the most interesting features of HotDrink, it begins with fundamental concepts and works its way up from there.

Most chapters in these documents begin with a working example which illustrates the new concepts of that chapter. The rest of the chapter explains why the example works, and gives any further information needed.

We use software to inject the source code of the example directly into the how-to documents. Thus, you can see the results of the example code together with the code itself. Note, however, that these examples will only work if the file hotdrink.min.js is in the same directory as the how-to.

1. Introduction to HotDrink — This document explains the basic concepts behind HotDrink and how to include it in your web application. You should start here.
2. Basic HotDrink Usage — This document explains the basics of using HotDrink: specifying a constraint system and binding to the view. You should read this second.
3. Advanced Binding Concepts — This document goes into the binding system in more depth: customizing binders and creating your own. Read this if you need more control over how your data is displayed in the web page.
4. Asynchronous Methods — This document explains HotDrink's support for asynchronous methods and how it can respond to unused values. Read this if you need to write methods which run asynchronously or perform asynchronous server calls, or methods which may not use all of their inputs.
5. Programming Guide — This document explains programming idioms used by HotDrink and gets you set up to write your own translators, view adapters and asynchronous methods. You should read this last, and only if the default mechanisms provided by HotDrink are not cutting it for you.