Colour Code Challenge

The aim of the colour challenge is to create a script to randomly generate an RGB colour every hour and programmatically name it with an adjective + noun.

The challenge was created as a way to compare the syntax between languages with a commonly themed application.

Demo

View a demonstration.

Node.js Colour Code Challenge

This version is written in Node.js and available as a package to download from NPM.

Methodology

The application follows MVC principles:

• All data is read and written through functions within the util module ./lib/util.js. The data is stored within a JSON file.
• The view is located at ./views/log.mst written in HTML5 using mustache templating
• Three controllers provide the operations, these are ./lib/add.js, ./lib/server.js and ./lib/clear.js

Each operation is accessed through ./lib/cli.js which acts as the command line interface. They can also be accessed through ./bin/cli which NPM adds to the users path as colour-challenge when installed.

To log the data hourly colour-challenge add should be defined as a cron job.

Installation

The application requires Node.js and npm to be installed, instructions can be found at nodejs.org.

With Node installed use the following to install the application globally.

npm install -g colour-challenge

Alternatively install direct from the repository.

npm install -g https://github.com/StudioLE/node-colour-challenge.git

Configuration

The app uses node-config so it's highly configurable. I recommend copying the ./config/default.json file to ./config/local.json and editing that so that your changes are not overwritten by future updates.

cd /usr/lib/node_modules/colour-challenge
cp config/default.json config/local.json
nano config/local.json

Usage

Add a single colour to the log

colour-challenge add

Add multiple colours to the log

colour-challenge add 10

Clear all previous logs

colour-challenge clear

Spin up a server to view the logs

colour-challenge server

Cron Setup

To run the script on the hour every hour you will want to configure a cron job similar to the following:

0 * * * * colour-challenge add

Participate

Now you've seen how it's done why don't you take a shot in the language of your own choice? Or perhaps there's a framework you've been dying to try out? Give it a go and send us a link to your repository. The challenge is great for participants of all levels of experience.