Lua is a very fast and powerful scripting language that can be easily embeddable. It can be used to develop robust applications and has been shining in industries like game development, for example. Lua is also an excellent tool as a general purpose language. However, it's use in web development, despite its great potential and incredible benchmarks, needs to be more widespread. Having had experience as a web programmer, and aiming to learn more about this language, I started a marathon that produced Sailor 0.1, a web MVC framework completely written in Lua after only ten days. Once the quest was completed, the feedback was so interesting that I continued the development. Sailor keeps growing each day, also with the help of contributors. This talk presents the beginnings of Sailor framework, a comparison with other existing tools in Lua, the current stage of Sailor's development today, the official announcement of version 0.3 (Jupiter). This presentation also intends to start a debate on what we can do to spread the idea of using more Lua in web development.

1. Web development with Lua
Programming Language
Introducing Sailor, a web MVC framework in Lua
Etiene Dalcol
@etiene_d

2. @etiene_d

3. Sailor!
http://sailorproject.org
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

4. Lua Ladies
http://lualadies.org
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

5. Google Summer of Code
LabLua
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

6. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

7. Advantages
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

8. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

9. better reasons
• It looks cool
(I heard you could make games with it)
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

10. better reasons
• It looks cool
(I heard you could make games with it)
• It’s made in my home country
(In my university to be more precise)
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

11. better reasons
• It looks cool
(I heard you could make games with it)
• It’s made in my home country
(In my university to be more precise)
• It’s easy to learn
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

12. ?
?
?
?
?
?Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

13. Lua on the web
• Early stage
• cgilua ~ 1995
• Kepler Project ~ 2003
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

14. “ I have myself developed Web sites with pure C++, Java, C#, PHP, and
Python. The easiest way to go was definitely Python. If the libraries existed,
Lua would be not quite as easy to use as Python, but probably quite a bit more
efficient; I think it would become my first choice... if the libraries existed.”
Michael Gogins
“ Recently there was some discussion about mod_lua on the Apache
developers mailing list. I mentioned there that I feel Lua could replace PHP as
the number one web scripting language if mod_lua were stable (i.e. not still in
beta) and it were implemented well (not making some of PHP's mistakes such
as putting everything in the global scope with no consistent naming or
parameter schemes). I've wanted to use Lua for all the things I currently use
PHP for ever since I discovered it.” Rena
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

15. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

16. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

17. Web development with Lua @etiene_d

18. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

19. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

20. Why?
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

21. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

22. Servers
• Apache: mod_lua
• Nginx: OpenResty
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

23. Servers
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d
• Apache: mod_lua
• Nginx: OpenResty

24. Servers
• Apache: mod_lua
• Nginx: OpenResty
• Xavante
• Others
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

25. Frameworks
• Orbit (2007)
Least known
No significant updates since 2010
MVC
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

26. Frameworks
• Orbit (2007)
Least known
No significant updates since 2010
MVC
• Luvit (2011)
Most popular
Intense development
node.js port 2-4x faster
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

27. Frameworks
• Lapis (2012)
Intense development
Moonscript and Lua
Very well documented
Templater
OpenResty only
Not MVC
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

28. Frameworks
• Lapis (2012)
Intense development
Moonscript and Lua
Very well documented
Templater
OpenResty only
Not MVC
• Others
Complicated, abandoned, poorly documented, license
issues or I never heard about it...
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

29. Sailor!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

30. Sailor!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

31. Sailor!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

32. Sailor!
0.1
(Venus)
0.2
(Mars)
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

33. What exactly is Sailor?
• It’s an MVC web framework
• Completely written in Lua
• Compatible with Apache (mod_lua), Nginx (OpenResty),
Mongoose, Xavante and Lwan
• Compatible with Linux, Windows and Mac
• Compatible with different databases
• MIT License
• Pre alpha v0.2 (Mars)
• 0.3 (Jupiter) will be released TODAY!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

34. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

35. What (else) is cool about Sailor?
• Routing and friendly URLs
• Session, cookies, include, redirect…
• Lua Pages parsing
• Mail sending
• Simple Object Relational-Mapping
• Validation (valua)
• Basic login and authentication modules
• Form generation
• Themes (Bootstrap integration out of the box)
• App generator (Linux and Mac only)
• Model and CRUD generator
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

36. • Routing and friendly URLs
• Session, cookies, include, redirect…
• Lua Pages parsing
• Mail sending
• Simple Object Relational-Mapping
• Validation (valua)
• Basic login and authentication modules
• Form generation
• Themes (Bootstrap integration out of the box)
• App generator (Linux and Mac only)
• Model and CRUD generator
• Lua at client
What (else) is cool about Sailor?
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

37. Not so great things
• It’s still in early development
• Things are changing fast
• It lacks features
• Documentation
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

38. How to get Sailor!
$ luarocks install sailor
$ sailor_create ‘My App’ /var/www
$ cd /var/www/my_app
$ lua start-server.lua
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

39. Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

40. How to get Sailor!
$ luarocks install sailor
$ sailor_create ‘My App’ /var/www
$ cd /var/www/my_app
$ lua start-server.lua
$ luarocks install luasql-mysqlOptional
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

41. /conf
/controllers
/models
/pub
/runtime
/themes
/views
App structure
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

42. Example!
-- /controllers/site.lua
local site = {}
function site.index(page)
local msg = “Hello World”
page:render(‘index’, { msg = msg } )
end
function site.notindex(page)
page:write(“I’m different!”)
end
return site
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

43. Example!
<!-- /views/site/index.lp -->
<p>
A message from the server:
<?lua page:print(msg) ?>
<br/>
The message again:
<%= msg %> <!-- same thing as above —>
</p>
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

44. Example!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

45. Example!
<?lua@server -- Code here runs on the server ?>
<?lua -- Same as above ?>
<?lua@client -- Runs at the client ?>
<?lua@both -- Runs at the server and the client ?>
<?lua@both
another_msg = “Another message”
?>
<?lua page:print(another_msg) ?>
<?lua@client
js.window.alert(another_msg)
?>
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

46. Example!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

47. Example!
local user = {}
local v = require “valua” -- validation module
user.attributes = {
{ id = “safe” },
{ name = v:new().not_empty() }
}
user.db = {
key = ‘id’,
table = ‘users’
}
user.relations = {
posts = { -- u.posts
relation = “HAS_MANY”, model = “post”, attribute = “author_id”
}
}
return user
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

48. Example!
-- /controllers/site.lua
local site = {}
function site.index(page)
local User = sailor.model(‘user’)
local u = User:new()
u.name = ‘Arnold’
local msg
if u:save() then
msg = ‘Success’
else
msg = table.unpack(u.errors)
end
local users = User:find_all()
page:render(‘index’, { msg = msg, users = users } )
end
return site
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

49. sailorproject.org
github.com/Etiene/sailor
dalcol@etiene.net
@etiene_d

50. Example!
Web development with Lua @ GeeCON 2015 @etiene_d

51. sailorproject.org
github.com/Etiene/sailor
dalcol@etiene.net
@etiene_d