Impulse is an instantaneous web application starter kit. It is NOT a framework-- there are no new programming or markup languages to learn. To create a new web application, simply copy and paste the project contents into a new folder.

There are three ways to run an Impulse instance out-of-the-box.

The easiest way to launch an Impulse application is to simply open the main.html file directly within your browser as a local file. Specific support varies between browsers:

• Firefox will work with Impulse applications out-of-the-box
• Chrome will work once you have told it to allow local pages access to local files; otherwise, you will receive a cross-domain scriping error. The most effective way to do this is by appending the "--allow-file-access-from-files" flag when the Chrome executable is launched.
• Neither Internet Explorer or Edge support Impulse apps. Blame Microsoft.

The server.js file in the top level of an Impulse application defines a Node.js server that hosts web application content. If you have Node.js installed, simply invoke the interpreter on the server.js file:

node server.js

You can then browse to the specified IP address and port to view hosted content. The IP address and port used can be changed by modifying the values of the "hostIp" and "portNumber" variables defined in server.js.

The server.py file in the top level of an Impulse application defines a CherryPy server that hosts web application content. If you have Python and CherryPy installed, simply invoke Python on the server.py file:

python server.py

You can then browse to the specified IP address and port to view hosted content. The IP address and port used can be changed by modifying the values of the "hostIp" and "portNumber" variables defined in server.py.

Impulse-based web applications focus on client-side development, but files are organized the same way from the server and client perspective. The main.html file defines the main browser entry point, whereas application execution begins in the main.js file. With the exception of the server.js, server.py, and main.html files, an application is divided into a classic MVC layout.

The 'controls' folder contains JavaScript code defining the application logic and any package dependencies. Within this folder, 'main.js' defines the primary entry point for application logic, executed once the basic window has been loaded. The 'require.js' file defines a basic Node.js-like "require()" function used to load dependency packages from this folder, as well.

Dependency packages are defined as NPM-compatible folders (npm can be used to retrieve and install new packages within this folder to add desired behaviors to the application that can then be utilized within the client-side application). By default, the basic Impulse application includes the following packages:

• Handlebars, to provide basic templating capabilities
• elsel, which provides a lightweight replacement for jQuery- and Prototype.js-like like $() behavior for selecting and manipulating DOM elements.
• fetch, which provides a lightweight AJAX behavior for loading arbitrary content from the server to the client.

Application data can be provided to the client by any arbitrary REST-ful data server, but data loaded from the server itself can be organized under the 'models' folder. This commonly includes .JSON files, but could also be extended on the server-side to provide a REST-ful interface to other data storage mechanisms like SQLite.

A typical web application requires a number of different resources to define the ways in which content is presented. This can include HTML templates (for usage with Handlebars, for example), CSS stylesheets, and images.

Enjoy!