ema/docs/guide/model.md

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Defining your model

A "model" in Ema represents the state to use to generate your site. It could be as simple as a variable, or it could be a list of parsed Markdown files (as in the case of a weblog). Ema's model is also conceptually similar to Elm's model, in that - changing the model automatically changes the view.

Here's an example model:

newtype BlogPosts = BlogPosts (Map Slug Text}

Here BlogPosts is the model type. If we are generating a weblog site, then all the "data" we need is loaded into memory as a value of BlogPosts.

Modifying the model

Ema's dev server supports hot reload; it will observe changes to your model, in addition to code. To facilitate this you will manage your model as a LVar. The runEma function (described here) takes an IO action that gets LVar model as an argument.

For example,

runEma render $ \model ->
  forever $ do
    LVar.set model =<< liftIO getCurrentTime
    liftIO $ threadDelay $ 1 * 1000000

In this contrived example (full code here), we are using UTCTime as the model. We set the initial value using LVar.set, and then continually update the current time every second. Every time the model gets updated, the web browser will hot reload to display the up to date value. For the BlogPosts model, you would typically use fsnotify to monitor changes to the underlying Markdown files, but note that Ema provides a helper for that.

{.last} [Next]{.next}, we will talk about routes.