#back-end #prototypes #system #demo #html #dead-simple #file

app bertrand

A dead-simple demo system for backend prototypes

2 releases

0.1.1 Oct 29, 2024
0.1.0 Oct 26, 2024

#100 in HTTP server

47 downloads per month

Custom license

13KB
138 lines

Bertrand

Building prototypes for backend systems isn't always easy, so Bertrand lets you define a simple HTML file like this one:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Bertrand Test</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="bertrand bertrand-init bstate:stateA">
        <p>This is state A!</p>
    </div>
    <div class="bertrand bstate:stateB">
        <p>This is state B!</p>
    </div>
    <div class="bertrand bstate:stateC">
        <p>This is state C!</p>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

We've got a few divs with the classes bertrand and bstate:<some-state>. When we run bertrand example.html, we'll have a local file server started (you can customise where with --host and -p/--port) which will, when the index is loaded in a browser, initially display This is state A!, because that was bertrand-init. However, we can send messages to it with a command like the following:

curl -X POST -d "stateB" http://localhost:8080/api/send

And that will be relayed by the server to all connected clients, who will switch to displaying the bstate:stateB div. That's pretty much all there is to it!

This lets you easily create state-based demos of backend systems by linking up your backend to Bertrand, and then displaying a browser-based representation of what's going on. In my personal experience, this resonates much more than a CLI demo!

Note: you can provide either a single HTML file or a directory containing an index.html to Bertrand, and it will serve everything in there.

Installation

You'll need a Rust toolchain to install Bertrand, and then you can run:

cargo install bertrand

License

See LICENSE.

Dependencies

~9–16MB
~210K SLoC