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reflex-platform

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A curated package set and set of tools that let you build Haskell packages so they can run on a variety of platforms. reflex-platform is built on top of the nix package manager.

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Reflex Platform
===============

Reflex Platform is a curated package set and set of tools that let you build Haskell packages so they can run on a variety of platforms.
Reflex Platform is built on top of the [nix](https://nixos.org/nix/) package manager.

There are five main reasons to use Reflex Platform:

1. It's curated: the core packages in Reflex Platform are known to work together and are tested together.

2. It's cached: the core packages in Reflex Platform are cached so you can download prebuilt binaries from the public cache instead of building from scratch.

3. It's consistent: nix locks down dependencies even outside the Haskell ecosystem (e.g., versions of C libraries that the Haskell code depends on), so you get completely reproducible builds.

4. It's cross-platform: Reflex Platform is designed to target iOS and Android on mobile, JavaScript on the web, and Linux and macOS on desktop. It's Haskell, everywhere.

5. It's convenient: Reflex Platform comes packaged with tools to make development easier, like a [hoogle](https://hoogle.haskell.org/) server that you can run locally to look up definitions.

To get started with Reflex development, follow the instructions below.

Try Reflex lets you set up an environment from which you can use [Reflex](https://github.com/ryantrinkle/reflex) with GHC or [GHCJS](https://github.com/ghcjs/ghcjs).

To use Reflex Platform as a build/development system for your own projects, refer to `HACKING.md`.

To see what platforms and build targets we support, refer to [platform-support.md](docs/platform-support.md)

To see what has changed since a previous version of Reflex Platform, see `ChangeLog.md`.

Important Notes
---------------

### Branches

The default branch for this git repo is `develop`, but the latest release is `master`.
End-users should prefer to use `master`, *not* `develop`.

The default branch is just `develop` to ensure new PRs go to the right place by default.

### OS Compatibility

If you're using one of these platforms, please take a look at notes before you begin:

* [macOS](notes/macOS.md)
* [NixOS](notes/NixOS.md)
* [Arch Linux](notes/ArchLinux.md)
* [Linux Mint](notes/LinuxMint.md)

If you encounter any problems that may be specific to your platform, please submit an issue or pull request so that we can add a note for future users.

#### Windows

Reflex Platform will not work on Windows because we rely on [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix/) to define and construct our environment. You may have some success by using the Windows Subsystem for Linux, but we do not provide support for this platform.

### Memory Requirements

GHCJS uses a lot of memory during compilation.
16GB of memory is recommended, with 8GB being pretty close to bare minimum.

Setup
-----
This process will install the [Nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix/).
If you prefer to install Nix yourself, you may do so any time prior to step 2.

1. Clone this repository:

```bash
    git clone https://github.com/reflex-frp/reflex-platform
    ```

1. Navigate into the `reflex-platform` folder and run the `try-reflex` command.
   This will install Nix, if you don't have it already, and use it to wrangle all the dependencies you'll need and drop you in an environment from which you can use Reflex.
   Be warned, this might take a little while the first time (but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes, if your binary cache is configured properly):

```bash
    cd reflex-platform
    ./try-reflex
    ```

1. From this nix-shell, you can compile any haskell source files you like.
   Replace `your-source-file.hs` with the name of the file you'd like to compile.
   For the most part, ghcjs supports the same options as ghc:

* GHC
     ```bash
     ghc --make your-source-file.hs
     ./your-source-file
     ```
     Compilation will produce a `your-source-file` native executable via [WebkitGtk](https://github.com/WebKit/webkit).
     Simply run it to launch your app.
Developer tools are available via `Inspect Element` in the right-click context menu.

* GHCJS
     ```bash
     ghcjs --make your-source-file.hs
     ```
     Compilation will produce a `your-source-file.jsexe` folder containing an `index.html` file.
     Open that in your browser to run your app.

**Don't use** `cabal install` to install libraries while inside the try-reflex shell - the resulting libraries may not be found properly by ghc or ghcjs.
Using Cabal to configure, build, test, and run a particular package, however, should work just fine.

`try-reflex` and `ghcjs --make` are not recommended for real-world projects — just as a quick and easy way to install Nix and experiment with `reflex-dom`.
If you need to use additional Haskell libraries (e.g. from Hackage), we recommend using the tools described in [project-development.rst](docs/project-development.rst) instead.

Haddock
----
If you've already set up nix, haddock documentation for the versions pinned by your current reflex-plaftorm can be browsed by running

```bash
./scripts/docs-for reflex
./scripts/docs-for reflex-dom
```

Tutorial
--------
In this example, we'll be following [Luite Stegemann's lead](http://weblog.luite.com/wordpress/?p=127) and building a simple functional reactive calculator to be used in a web browser.

### DOM Basics

Reflex's companion library, Reflex-DOM, contains a number of functions used to build and interact with the Document Object Model.
Let's start by getting a basic app up and running.

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex.Dom

> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ text "Welcome to Reflex"
```

Save this file as `source.hs` and compile it by running `ghcjs source.hs`.
If you've entered everything correctly, this will produce a folder named `source.jsexe` in the same directory as `source.hs`.
Navigate to this folder in your file manager and open `index.html` using your browser.
The browser should show a page with the text "Welcome to Reflex".

Most Reflex apps will start the same way: a call to `mainWidget` with a starting `Widget`.
A `Widget` is some DOM wrapped up for easy use with Reflex.
In our example, we are building the argument to `mainWidget`, (in other words, our starting `Widget`) on the same line.

`el` has the type signature:

```haskell
el :: DomBuilder t m => Text -> m a -> m a
```

The first argument to `el` is a `Text`, which will become the tag of the html element produced.
The second argument is a `Widget`, which will become the child of the element being produced.
We turned on the `OverloadedStrings` extension so that the literal string in our source file would be interpreted as the appropriate type (`Text` rather than `String`).

> #### Sidebar: Interpreting the DomBuilder type
 > FRP-enabled datatypes in Reflex take an argument `t`, which identifies the FRP subsystem being used.
 This ensures that wires don't get crossed if a single program uses Reflex in multiple different contexts.
 You can think of `t` as identifying a particular "timeline" of the FRP system.
 > Because most simple programs will only deal with a single timeline, we won't revisit the `t` parameters in this tutorial.
 As long as you make sure your `Event`, `Behavior`, and `Dynamic` values all get their `t` argument, it'll work itself out.

In our example, `el "div" $ text "Welcome to Reflex"`, the first argument to `el` was `"div"`, indicating that we are going to produce a div element.

The second argument to `el` was `text "Welcome to Reflex"`.
The type signature of `text` is:

```haskell
text :: DomBuilder t m => Text -> m ()
```

`text` takes a `Text` and produces a `Widget`.
The `Text` becomes a text DOM node in the parent element of the `text`.
Of course, instead of a `Text`, we could have used `el` here as well to continue building arbitrarily complex DOM.
For instance, if we wanted to make a unordered list:

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex.Dom

> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>  el "p" $ text "Reflex is:"
>  el "ul" $ do
>    el "li" $ text "Efficient"
>    el "li" $ text "Higher-order"
>    el "li" $ text "Glitch-free"
```

### Dynamics and Events
Of course, we want to do more than just view a static webpage.
Let's start by getting some user input and printing it.

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex.Dom

> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>   t <- inputElement def
>   dynText $ _inputElement_value t
```

Running this in your browser, you'll see that it produces a `div` containing an `input` element.
When you type into the `input` element, the text you enter appears inside the div as well.

`inputElement` is a function with the following type:

```haskell
inputElement :: DomBuilder t m
  => InputElementConfig er t (DomBuilderSpace m)
  -> m (InputElement er (DomBuilderSpace m) t)
```

It takes a `InputElementConfig` (given a default value in our example), and produces a `Widget` whose result is a `InputElement`.
The `InputElement` exposes the following functionality:

```haskell
data InputElement er d t
   = InputElement { _inputElement_value :: Dynamic t Text
                  , _inputElement_checked :: Dynamic t Bool
                  , _inputElement_checkedChange :: Event t Bool
                  , _inputElement_input :: Event t Text
                  , _inputElement_hasFocus :: Dynamic t Bool
                  , _inputElement_element :: Element er d t
                  , _inputElement_raw :: RawInputElement d
                  , _inputElement_files :: Dynamic t [RawFile d]
                  }
```

Here we are using `_inputElement_value` to access the `Dynamic Text` value of the `InputElement`.
Conveniently, `dynText` takes a `Dynamic Text` and displays it.
It is the dynamic version of `text`.

### A Number Input
A calculator was promised, I know.
We'll start building the calculator by creating an input for numbers.

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex
> import Reflex.Dom
> import Data.Map (Map)
> import qualified Data.Map as Map

> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>   t <- inputElement $ def
>     & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
>     & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ ("type" =: "number")
>   dynText $ _inputElement_value t
```

The code above overrides some of the default values of the `InputElementConfig`.
We provide a `Map Text Text` value for the `inputElementConfig_elementConfig`'s `elementConfig_initialAttributes`, specifying the html input element's `type` attribute to `number`.

Next, we override the default initial value of the `InputElement`.
We gave it `"0"`.
Even though we're making an html `input` element with the attribute `type=number`, the result is still a `Text`.
We'll convert this later.

Let's do more than just take the input value and print it out.
First, let's make sure the input is actually a number:

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex.Dom
> import Data.Map (Map)
> import qualified Data.Map as Map
> import Data.Text (pack, unpack)
> import Text.Read (readMaybe)

> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>   x <- numberInput
>   let numberString = fmap (pack . show) x
>   dynText numberString

> numberInput :: DomBuilder t m => m (Dynamic t (Maybe Double))
> numberInput = do
>   n <- inputElement $ def
>     & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
>     & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ ("type" =: "number")
>   return . fmap (readMaybe . unpack) $ _inputElement_value n
```

We've defined a function `numberInput` that both handles the creation of the `InputElement` and reads its value.
Recall that `_inputElement_value` gives us a `Dynamic Text`.
The final line of code in `numberInput` uses `fmap` to apply the function `readMaybe .
unpack` to the `Dynamic` value of the `InputElement`.
This produces a `Dynamic (Maybe Double)`.
Our `main` function uses `fmap` to map over the `Dynamic (Maybe Double)` produced by `numberInput` and `pack .
show` the value it contains.
We store the new `Dynamic Text` in `numberString` and feed that into `dynText` to actually display the `Text`

Running the app at this point should produce an input and some text showing the `Maybe Double`.
Typing in a number should produce output like `Just 12.0` and typing in other text should produce the output `Nothing`.

### Adding
Now that we have `numberInput` we can put together a couple inputs to make a basic calculator.

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex
> import Reflex.Dom
> import Data.Map (Map)
> import qualified Data.Map as Map
> import Data.Text (pack, unpack)
> import Text.Read (readMaybe)
>
> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>   nx <- numberInput
>   text " + "
>   ny <- numberInput
>   text " = "
>   let result = zipDynWith (\x y -> (+) <$> x <*> y) nx ny
>       resultString = fmap (pack . show) result
>   dynText resultString

`numberInput` hasn't changed here.
Our `main` function now creates two inputs.
`zipDynWith` is used to produce the actual sum of the values of the inputs.
The type signature of `zipDynWith` is:

```haskell
zipDynWith :: Reflex t => (a -> b -> c) -> Dynamic t a -> Dynamic t b -> Dynamic t c
```

You can see that it takes a function that combines two pure values and produces some other pure value, and two `Dynamic`s, and produces a `Dynamic`.

In our case, `zipDynWith` is combining the results of our two `numberInput`s (with a little help from `<$>` and `<*>`) into a sum.

We use `fmap` again to apply `pack . show` to `result` (a `Dynamic (Maybe Double)`) resulting in a `Dynamic Text`.
This `resultText` is then displayed using `dynText`.

### Supporting Multiple Operations
Next, we'll add support for other operations.
We're going to add a dropdown so that the user can select the operation to apply.
The function `dropdown` has the type:

```haskell
dropdown :: (DomBuilder t m, MonadFix m, MonadHold t m, PostBuild t m, Ord k) => k -> Dynamic t (Map k Text) -> DropdownConfig t k -> m (Dropdown t k)
```

The first argument is the initial value of the `Dropdown`.
The second argument is a `Dynamic (Map k Text)` that represents the options in the dropdown.
The `Text` values of the `Map` are the strings that will be displayed to the user.
If the initial key is not in the `Map`, it is added and given a `Text` value of `""`.
The final argument is a `DropdownConfig`.

Our supported operations will be:

```haskell
data Op = Plus | Minus | Times | Divide deriving (Eq, Ord)

ops = Map.fromList [(Plus, "+"), (Minus, "-"), (Times, "*"), (Divide, "/")]
```

We'll use this as an argument to `dropdown`:

```haskell
d <- dropdown Times (constDyn ops) def
```

We are using `constDyn` again here to turn our `Map` of operations into a `Dynamic`.
Using `def`, we provide the default `DropdownConfig`.
The result, `d`, will be a `Dropdown`.
We can retrieve the `Dynamic` selection of a `Dropdown` by using `_dropdown_value`.

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> import Reflex
> import Reflex.Dom
> import Data.Map (Map)
> import qualified Data.Map as Map
> import Data.Text (pack, unpack, Text)
> import Text.Read (readMaybe)
>
> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>   nx <- numberInput
>   d <- dropdown Times (constDyn ops) def
>   ny <- numberInput
>   let values = zipDynWith (,) nx ny
>       result = zipDynWith (\o (x,y) -> runOp o <$> x <*> y) (_dropdown_value d) values
>       resultText = fmap (pack . show) result
>   text " = "
>   dynText resultText
>
> numberInput :: DomBuilder t m => m (Dynamic t (Maybe Double))
> numberInput = do
>   n <- inputElement $ def
>     & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
>     & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ ("type" =: "number")
>   return . fmap (readMaybe . unpack) $ _inputElement_value n
>
> data Op = Plus | Minus | Times | Divide deriving (Eq, Ord)
>
> ops :: Map Op Text
> ops = Map.fromList [(Plus, "+"), (Minus, "-"), (Times, "*"), (Divide, "/")]
>
> runOp :: Fractional a => Op -> a -> a -> a
> runOp s = case s of
>             Plus -> (+)
>             Minus -> (-)
>             Times -> (*)
>             Divide -> (/)
```

This is our complete program.
We've added an uninteresting function `runOp` that takes an `Op` and returns an operation.
The keys of the `Map` we used to create the `Dropdown` had the type `Op`.
When we retrieve the value of `Dropdown`, we'll use `runOp` to turn the `Dropdown` selection into the function we need to apply to our numbers.

After creating the two `numberInput`s, we combine them using `zipDynWith` applying `(,)`, making a tuple of type `Dynamic (Maybe Double, Maybe Double)` and binding it to `values`.

Next, we call `zipDynWith` again, combining the `_dropdown_value` and `values`.
Now, instead of applying `(+)` to our `Double` values, we use `runOp` to select an operation based on the `Dynamic` value of our `Dropdown`.

Running the app at this point will give us our two number inputs with a dropdown of operations sandwiched between them.
Multiplication should be pre-selected when the page loads.

### Dynamic Element Attributes
Let's spare a thought for the user of our calculator and add a little UI styling.
Our number input currently looks like this:

```haskell
numberInput :: DomBuilder t m => m (Dynamic t (Maybe Double))
numberInput = do
  n <- inputElement $ def
    & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
    & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ ("type" =: "number")
  return . fmap (readMaybe . unpack) $ _inputElement_value n
```

Let's give it some html attributes to work with:

```haskell
numberInput :: DomBuilder t m => m (Dynamic t (Maybe Double))
numberInput = do
  let initAttrs = (("type" =: "number") <> ("style" =: "border-color: blue"))
  n <- inputElement $ def
    & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
    & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ initAttrs
  return . fmap (readMaybe . unpack) $ _inputElement_value n
```

Here, we've used a `(Map Text Text)`.
This `Map` represents the html attributes of our inputs.

Static attributes are useful and quite common, but attributes will often need to change.
Instead of just making the `InputElement` blue, let's change it's color based on whether the input successfully parses to a `Double`:

```haskell
{-# LANGUAGE RecursiveDo #-}
import Control.Monad.Fix (MonadFix)

numberInput :: (DomBuilder t m, MonadFix m) => m (Dynamic t (Maybe Double))
numberInput = do
  let initAttrs = ("type" =: "number") <> (style False)
      color error = if error then "red" else "green"
      style error = "style" =: ("border-color: " <> color error)
      styleChange :: Maybe Double -> Map AttributeName (Maybe Text)
      styleChange result = case result of
        (Just _) -> fmap Just (style False)
        (Nothing) -> fmap Just (style True)

rec
    n <- inputElement $ def
      & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
      & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ initAttrs
      & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_modifyAttributes .~ modAttrEv
    let result = fmap (readMaybe . unpack) $ _inputElement_value n
        modAttrEv  = fmap styleChange (updated result)
  return result
```

Note that we need to add a language pragma here to enable the `RecursiveDo` language extension, and then we need to import `MonadFix`.
Here `style` function takes a `Bool` value, whether input is correct or not, and it gives a `Map` of attributes with green or red color respectively.
The next function `styleChange` actually produces a `Map` which tells which attribute to change.
If the value of a key in the `Map` is a `Just` value then the attribute is either added or modified.
If the value of key is `Nothing`, then that attribute is removed.
An `Event` of this `Map` is specified in the `elementConfig_modifyAttributes`.

In the first line of the `rec`, we have supplied this `Event` as argument `modAttrEv`.
The `Dynamic` value of the input is bound to `result`.
The code for parsing this value has not changed.

After we bind `result`, we use `fmap` again to apply a switching function to the `updated result` `Event`.
The switching function checks whether the value was successfully parsed and gives the corresponding `Event` to modify the attributes.

The complete program now looks like this:

```haskell
> {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
> {-# LANGUAGE RecursiveDo       #-}
> import Reflex
> import Reflex.Dom
> import Data.Map (Map)
> import qualified Data.Map as Map
> import Data.Text (pack, unpack, Text)
> import Text.Read (readMaybe)
> import Control.Monad.Fix (MonadFix)
>
> main = mainWidget $ el "div" $ do
>   nx <- numberInput
>   d <- dropdown Times (constDyn ops) def
>   ny <- numberInput
>   let values = zipDynWith (,) nx ny
>       result = zipDynWith (\o (x,y) -> runOp o <$> x <*> y) (_dropdown_value d) values
>       resultText = fmap (pack . show) result
>   text " = "
>   dynText resultText
>
> numberInput :: (DomBuilder t m, MonadFix m) => m (Dynamic t (Maybe Double))
> numberInput = do
>   let initAttrs = ("type" =: "number") <> (style False)
>       color error = if error then "red" else "green"
>       style error = "style" =: ("border-color: " <> color error)
>       styleChange :: Maybe Double -> Map AttributeName (Maybe Text)
>       styleChange result = case result of
>         (Just _) -> fmap Just (style False)
>         (Nothing) -> fmap Just (style True)
>
>   rec
>     n <- inputElement $ def
>       & inputElementConfig_initialValue .~ "0"
>       & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_initialAttributes .~ initAttrs
>       & inputElementConfig_elementConfig . elementConfig_modifyAttributes .~ modAttrEv
>     let result = fmap (readMaybe . unpack) $ _inputElement_value n
>         modAttrEv  = fmap styleChange (updated result)
>   return result
>
> data Op = Plus | Minus | Times | Divide deriving (Eq, Ord)
>
> ops :: Map Op Text
> ops = Map.fromList [(Plus, "+"), (Minus, "-"), (Times, "*"), (Divide, "/")]
>
> runOp :: Fractional a => Op -> a -> a -> a
> runOp s = case s of
>             Plus -> (+)
>             Minus -> (-)
>             Times -> (*)
>             Divide -> (/)
```

The input border colors will now change depending on their value.

reflex-platform

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