Cast helps you build beautiful, animated grid layouts. Supply an array of attributes, select a layout mode, supply a template, and get a grid-view. It's vanilla Javascript and it's inspired by Isotope. It works in IE9+, and IE8 with bind and indexOf polyfills.

Check out the demonstration built with Meteor.

The easiest way to use Cast is to use the cast.js located in the dist folder, and require this script in your html page. Cast will then be available under the global variable cast'.

Alternatively, Cast can be used as a component.

$ component install bmcmahen/cast

var Cast = require('cast');

var docs = [{name: 'ben'}, {name: 'kit'}, {name: 'rick'}, {name: 'james'}];
var container = document.getElementById('#wrapper');

function render(attr, el, block){
	el.innerHTML = '<p>' + attr.name + '</p>';
}

// Create our cast
var grid = new Cast(container)
	.render(render)
	.data(docs, 'name')
	.sortBy('name')
	.justify(50, 50, 10, 10)
	.draw();

container should be the element that you want your cast to appear in.

Render will be called whenever a new element is rendered in the cast layout. This should be called before adding documents to your cast. For example:

var layout = new Cast(container)
	.render(function(attr, el, block){
		el.innerHTML = template(attr);
	})
	.data(docs, 'name');

Supply Cast with an array of documents. Use the callback function to supply a unique identifer for each field, which will allow Cast to update, remove, and add attributes on subsequent calls. Alternatively, supply the key of the unique identifer ('_id', 'id', etc.).

cast.data(docs, function(attr){
	return attr._id;
});

cast.data(docs, '_id');

Calculates grid positions to maintain a container left & right padding of zero. Grid item width and height remain constant, while grid-item-padding is dyanimc. If #draw has been called, #justify will automatically rerender your views.

Calculates the grid with dynamic width on the left and right side of the wrapper. Grid item width, height, paddingWidth, and paddingHeight are constant. If #draw has been called, #center will automatically rerender your views.

Calculates the grid with a constant paddingWidth and paddingHeight, and a dynamic boxWidth and boxHeight. If #draw has been called, #dynamic will automatically rerender your views.

Calculates the grid as a list, with one object per line.

var json = cast.data(docs).justify(40, 40, 10, 10).toJSON();

Resets the Cast object with the supplied array. Use the callback to provide a unique, constant value for the field.

cast.reset(docs, function(attr){
	return attr._id;
});

cast.reset(docs, 'id');

Appends docs to the Cast object.

cast.remove('34');

Sorts the collection based on a field.

cast.sortBy('name', -1).center(50, 50, 10, 10);

Simple utility function to append the cast layout to the container element.

 cast.on('enter', function(model){ });

See an example app here. Include the standalone cast.js file in your client-side folder structure, and Meteor should automatically load it into your application. Create a template that will act as your cast wrapper.

{{#constant}}
<div id='cast'></div>
{{/constant}}

In your code, you'll want to create a simple template function that will be used to render each cast item. Here's a simple example:

function renderTemplate(obj){
	return '<p>' + obj.title + '</p>';
}

Inside your templat rendered callback, instantiate a new cast and attach the data to the cast, specifying the layout that you want. Putting your data attachment function inside of an autorun will automatically update your cast layout any time the collection changes.

Template.cast.rendered = function(){

	var el = document.getElementById('#cast');

	var mycast = cast(el, renderTemplate);
	mycast.draw();

	this.handle = Meteor.autorun(function(){
		var videos = Videos.find().fetch();
		mycast
			.data(videos, '_id')
			.dynamic(150, 150, 10, 10);
	});
}

MIT