shunter/README.md

# ![Shunter](docs/shunter-logo.png)

Shunter is a [Node.js][node] application built to read JSON and translate it into HTML.

It helps you create a loosely-coupled front end which can serve traffic from one or more back end applications - great for use in multi-language, multi-disciplinary teams or just to make your project more flexible and future-proofed.

Shunter does not contain an API client, or any Controller logic (in the [MVC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) sense). Instead, Shunter simply proxies requests to a back end server, then:

1. If the back end wants Shunter to render the response, it returns the application state as JSON, served with a certain HTTP header. This initiates the templating process in Shunter.
2. If the back end wishes to serve the response, it omits the header and Shunter proxies the request back to the client.

[![NPM version][shield-npm]][info-npm]
[![Node.js version support][shield-node]][info-node]
[![Build status][shield-build]][info-build]
[![Dependencies][shield-dependencies]][info-dependencies]
[![LGPL-3.0 licensed][shield-license]][info-license]

## Key Features
- Enforces decoupling of templates from underlying applications
- Enables multiple applications to use the same unified front end
- Makes full site redesigns or swapping out back end applications a doddle
- Completely technology-agnostic; if your application outputs JSON, it can work with Shunter
- Asset concatenation, minification, cache-busting, and other performance optimisations built-in
- Outputs any type of content you like, e.g. HTML, RSS, RDF
- Well-tested and supported, serving [Scientific American](http://www.scientificamerican.com) as well as [many](http://www.nature.com/npjscilearn/) [high-traffic](http://www.nature.com/srep) [sites](http://www.nature.com/search) across nature.com


## Getting Started

If you're new to Shunter, we recommend reading the [Getting Started Guide](docs/getting-started.md). This will teach you the basics, and how to create your first Shunter-based application.

Once you're familiar with Shunter's basics you can refer to the [API Documentation](docs/usage/index.md) for a full breakdown about how to work with Shunter.


## Requirements

Shunter requires [Node.js][node] 4.x–6.x. This should be easy to get running on Mac and Linux.

One of Shunter's dependencies is a native addon module so it requires a working C compiler. Windows doesn't come with one by default so you may find the following links helpful:

- [node-gyp on Windows][node-gyp-on-windows]
- [node-gyp Visual Studio 2010 Setup][node-gyp-vs]
- [contextify – Specified platform toolset (v110) is not installed or invalid][contextify]

See the [Getting started documentation](docs/getting-started.md#prerequisites)
 for more information on Shunter's requirements.


## Support and Migration

The last major version of Shunter is version 4. Old major versions are supported for 6 months after a new major version is released. This means that patch-level changes will be added and bugs will be fixed. We maintain a [support guide](docs/support.md) which documents the major versions and their support levels.

If you'd like to know more about how we support our open source projects, including the full release process, check out our [support practices document][support].

If you're migrating between major versions of Shunter, we maintain a [migration guide](docs/migration/index.md) to help you.


## Contributing

We'd love for you to contribute to Shunter. We maintain a [developer guide](docs/developer-guide.md) to help people get started with working on Shunter itself. It outlines the structure of the application and some of the development practices we uphold.

We also label [issues that might be a good starting-point][starter-issues] for new developers to the project.


## License

Shunter is licensed under the [Lesser General Public License (LGPL-3.0)][info-license].  
Copyright © 2015, Springer Nature



[contextify]: http://zxtech.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/contextify-specified-platform-toolset-v110-is-not-installed-or-invalid/
[node]: https://nodejs.org/
[node-gyp-on-windows]: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows
[node-gyp-vs]: https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp/wiki/Visual-Studio-2010-Setup
[npm]: https://www.npmjs.com/
[starter-issues]: https://github.com/springernature/shunter/labels/good-starter-issue
[support]: https://github.com/springernature/frontend/blob/master/practices/open-source-support.md

[info-coverage]: https://coveralls.io/github/springernature/shunter
[info-dependencies]: https://gemnasium.com/springernature/shunter
[info-license]: LICENSE
[info-node]: package.json
[info-npm]: https://www.npmjs.com/package/shunter
[info-build]: https://travis-ci.org/springernature/shunter
[shield-coverage]: https://img.shields.io/coveralls/springernature/shunter.svg
[shield-dependencies]: https://img.shields.io/gemnasium/springernature/shunter.svg
[shield-license]: https://img.shields.io/badge/license-LGPL%203.0-blue.svg
[shield-node]: https://img.shields.io/badge/node.js%20support-4–6-brightgreen.svg
[shield-npm]: https://img.shields.io/npm/v/shunter.svg
[shield-build]: https://img.shields.io/travis/springernature/shunter/master.svg