shunter

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A Node.js application built to read JSON and translate it into HTML

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# ![Shunter](docs/shunter-logo.png) Shunter is a [Node.js][node] module built to read JSON and translate it into HTML. It helps you create a loosely-coupled front end application 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. ![Diagram of Shunter intercepting a JSON backend reply](docs/img/shunter-json-intercept.png) 2. If the back end wishes to serve the response, it omits the header and Shunter proxies the request back to the client. ![Diagram of Shunter proxying a backend reply](docs/img/shunter-backend-proxy.png) 3. Shunter is also able to serve resources like CSS, JS, or images bundled with the templates as part of your application. ![Diagram of Shunter serving a bundled asset](docs/img/shunter-assets.png) [![NPM version][shield-npm]][info-npm] [![Node.js version support][shield-node]][info-node] ![GH Actions build status badge](https://github.com/springernature/shunter/actions/workflows/test-on-push-and-pull.yml/badge.svg) [![LGPL-3.0 licensed][shield-license]][info-license] ## Key features * Allows the creation of templates loosely coupled to the underlying back end applications. * Enables multiple back end applications to use the same unified front end. * Makes full site redesigns or swapping out back end applications very easy. * Completely technology-agnostic; if your application outputs JSON, it can work with Shunter. * Asset concatenation, minification, cache-busting, and other performance optimisations built-in. * Can output any type of content you like, e.g. HTML, RSS, RDF, etc. ## Getting started You can find all the details about how to use Shunter in our [documentation](docs/index.md). 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. ## Requirements The latest version of Shunter requires [Node.js][node] v12-16. See the [Getting started documentation](docs/getting-started.md#prerequisites) for more information on Shunter's requirements. Instructions for [installing Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/download) are available on their website. ## Support and migration Shunter supports various versions of Node.js: | Major Version | Last Feature Release | Node Versions Supported | | :------------ | :------------------- | :--------------- | | 5 | N/A | >=12 <=16 | | 4 | 4.13 | >=4 <=8 | | 3 | 3.8 | >=0.10 <=5 | _Versions 1 and 2 of Shunter were not public releases._ If you're migrating between major versions of Shunter, we maintain a [migration guide](docs/migration/index.md) to help you. 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]. ## Contributing We'd love for you to contribute to Shunter. We maintain a [guide to help developers](docs/developer-guide.md) get started with working on Shunter itself. It outlines the structure of the library 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 © 2025, Springer Nature [brew]: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ [node]: https://nodejs.org/ [npm]: https://www.npmjs.com/ [nvm]: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm [starter-issues]: https://github.com/springernature/shunter/labels/good-starter-issue [support]: https://github.com/springernature/frontend-playbook/blob/main/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 [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-10–14-brightgreen.svg [shield-npm]: https://img.shields.io/npm/v/shunter.svg