The intent of this guide is to get you started with ElixirScript. It will give you instructions on using ElixirScript. I will go over the three ways you can use ElixirScript:

• As an escript
• As a mix task
• As a library in your application

macOS: Elixirscript can be installed via homebrew brew install elixirscript. For everyone else, plase read below

• Step 1: Get escript

  You can download the elixirscript escript from the releases page on github. It is a tar file named elixirscript.tar.gz.

• Step 2: Untar

  Next, untar elixirscript.tar.gz

  tar -xvzf elixirscript.tar.gz

  You will want to put the bin folder from the uncompressed folder into your path. This should allow you to use the elixirscript escript.

• Step 3: Use

  This is the help output of elixirscript

  usage: elixirscript <input> [options]
  <input> path to elixir files or the elixir code string if the -ex flag is used
  
  options:
  -o  --output [path]   places output at the given path
  -ex --elixir          read input as elixir code string
  --std-lib [path]      outputs the elixirscript standard library JavaScript files to the specified path
  --full-build          informs the compiler to do a full build instead of an incremental one
  only used when output is specified
  --core-path    es6 import path to the elixirscript standard lib
  only used with the [output] option. When used, Elixir.js is not exported
  -v  --version         the current version number
  -h  --help            this message

  the <input> is the elixir code string or file path you want to convert from elixir to javascript. Below is an example of using a code string and turning it into JavaScript

  $ elixirscript ":atom" -ex
  Symbol.for('atom')

  The elixirscript escript changed the elixir code, :atom into the JavaScript code Symbol.for('atom'). The -ex parameter lets the script know that the input is an Elixir code string instead of a file.

  elixirscript also takes a path to your .ex and .exjs files as well:

  $ elixirscript "src" -o "dist"

  If you look in the dist folder, you should see 2 folders. One, app, contains your code and the other, elixir contains the elixirscript standard library files.

• Step 1: Get dependency

  The first step is getting the dependency. In your mix.exs file for your elixir project, add elixir_script to your deps.

  {:elixir_script, "~> 0.23"}

• Step 2: Now download the dep

  $ mix deps.get

  Now you should have the mix task, elixirscript.

• Step 3: Use

  $ mix elixirscript "src" -o "dist"

  What you will notice is that the parameters are exactly the same as the escript.

• Step 1: Get dependency

  The first step is getting the dependency. In your mix.exs file for your elixir project, add elixir_script to your deps.

  {:elixir_script, "~> 0.23"}

• Step 2: Now download the dep

  $ mix deps.get

• Step 3: Use Now you will be able to use the ElixirScript module within your code.

  ElixirScript.compile(":atom")

  The is also compile_path/2 and compile_quoted/2. Each of the functions take an options keyword list.

Macros can be used in Elixirscript just like in Elixir. The only exception is that defmacrop is unsupported

Elixirscript has a couple of ways of interacting with JavaScript.

To call functions in JavaScript in the global scope, such as those defined on window, use the erlang module syntax

# Calling alert
:window.alert("hi")

# console
:console.log("hello")

# document
:document.getElementById("main")

To call globally scoped modules defined in JavaScript, you can call them just like you would an Elixir module

Date.now()

Only works if module begins with a captial letter

To import ES modules, first you must require the JS module. Then import the module using JS.import

defmodule MyModule do
    require JS
    JS.import React, "react"

    def func() do
        React.render(my_component)
    end
end

The JS module has a number of other functions and macros. For more information, check out the docs.

There is an elixirscript frontend boilerplate project. This setup uses gulp and webpack to build and bundle assets.

There is an Brunch plugin, ElixirScript-Brunch. There are instructions there on how to use it with Phoenix.