NOTE: this sample is now out of date. Please refer to the Quick Start

The ClojureScript REPL has been updated to work with multiple JavaScript evaluation environments. This readme and the example code in this project show how to use the new REPL. There are now two implemented environments: Rhino and the browser.

There are currently four steps in starting a ClojureScript REPL.

1. require cljs.repl
2. require the namespace which implements the desired evaluation environment
3. create a new evaluation environment
4. start the REPL with the created environment

A browser-connected REPL works in much the same way as a normal REPL: forms are read from the console, evaluated and return values are printed. A major and useful difference from normal REPL usage is that all side-effects occur in the browser. You can show alerts, manipulate the dom and interact with running applications.

The main benefit of using the browser as an evaluation environment is that the REPL is no longer limited to non-browser code. You get all the benefits of a REPL with all of your code.

The example below shows how to start a browser-connected REPL with an empty project. The same technique can be used to integrate a REPL into an existing project. In the future there may be an easier way to start a browser-connected REPL without a project.

This sample project contains an HTML file and single ClojureScript file which establishes the connection to the REPL from the browser. These are currently the minimum requirements for starting a browser-connected REPL.

To build the project, launch a Clojure REPL from this folder

cd samples/repl
../../script/repl

and evaluate the following forms:

(require '[cljs.closure :as cljsc])
(def opts {:output-to "main.js" :output-dir "out"})
(cljsc/build "src" opts)

Start the REPL using the browser as the evaluator (do it in "samples/repl"):

(require '[cljs.repl :as repl])
(require '[cljs.repl.browser :as browser])
(def env (browser/repl-env))
(repl/repl env)

Open http://localhost:9000/ in a browser. When this page is loaded it will connect to the REPL. Alternatively you can serve index.html from your own local webserver.

;; Evaluate some basic forms.
(+ 1 1)
{:a :b}
"hello"
(reduce + [1 2 3 4 5])
(js/alert "Hello World!")
 
;; Load a file, and use it.
(load-file "clojure/string.cljs")
(clojure.string/reverse "Hello")
 
;; Define functions and call them.
(defn sum [coll] (reduce + coll))
(sum [2 2 2 2])
 
;; Create dom elements.
(ns dom.testing (:require [clojure.browser.dom :as dom]))
(dom/append (dom/get-element "content")
            (dom/element "Hello World!"))