Using helpers

Summary

In this lesson, we enhanced our blog application by introducing a status field for articles, allowing them to be public, private, or unlisted. Public articles are visible to everyone, private ones are only visible to the author, and unlisted ones are not shown on the homepage.

We updated the Article model to include this status field, ensuring it only accepts predefined values and defaults to public if not specified. We then modified the article creation form to allow users to select a status when submitting a new article.

Next, we updated the homepage and article listing pages to filter articles based on their status, displaying only public articles.

To make our code reusable, we introduced Sails Helpers, creating a helper called publicArticlesCount to count the number of public articles. This helper was then used in multiple parts of the application, such as the homepage and articles page, to dynamically display the count of public articles.

By the end of the lesson, we successfully implemented article statuses and leveraged Sails Helpers for cleaner and more reusable code. 🚀

Transcript

Our blog application is coming together, and in this lesson, we will explore how to use a mechanism called Sails Helpers to enhance it. Before doing that, we will add a small functionality to our blog application: the ability to set an article's visibility status.

Adding Article Status

We want to allow blog articles to be:

• Public – Visible to everyone.

• Private – Visible only to the author.

• Unlisted – Visible only to the author and not listed on the homepage.

To achieve this, we update the Article model:

1. Add a new field called status.

2. Set the type to string.

3. Use isIn to define an array of allowed values: ['public', 'private', 'unlisted'].

4. Set a default value of public.

This ensures that any attempt to store an invalid status will throw an error.

Updating article creation

In the create-article action:

• Add status as an optional field.

• If not provided, it defaults to public.

Next, update the article form:

• Add a new <select> field for status.

• Provide options for Public, Private, and Unlisted.

• Set Public as the default selected option.

Filtering Articles by Status

To ensure that only public articles appear on the homepage:

1. Update the homepage view logic to filter articles where status is public.

2. Apply the same filter to the articles list view.

After implementing this, private articles do not show up on the homepage, simulating a drafts or restricted visibility feature similar to Medium.

Introducing Sails Helpers

To reuse logic across different parts of our application, we create a helper. Helpers in Sails allow us to encapsulate common logic and use it in multiple places.

Creating a Helper

Run:

sails generate helper public-articles-count

This generates a helper file in the helpers/ folder.

Implementing the Helper

Inside helpers/public-articles-count.js, modify the function:

module.exports = async function () {
  return await Article.count({ status: 'public' });
};

This function returns the count of public articles.

Using the Helper

In the view-home action:

const articlesCount = await sails.helpers.publicArticlesCount();

Pass articlesCount to the homepage view and display it:

<p><strong>{{articlesCount}}</strong> articles and counting.</p>

Restart Sails to apply the changes:

sails lift

Now, the homepage correctly displays the count of public articles.

Reusing the Helper in Other Views

In the view-articles action:

const articlesCount = await sails.helpers.publicArticlesCount();

Pass articlesCount to the articles page and display it there as well.

Now, our blog supports article status and efficiently reuses logic using Sails Helpers!