bdajax 1.4

Ajax convenience.

bdajax

AJAX convenience.

bdajax provides JavaScript helper functions and a simple dispatcher system driven by XML-attributes. Attributes are defined in its own XML namespace, placed in the XHTML markup.

The dispatcher basically provides two behaviors:

• trigger events

• perform actions

Behaviors are bound to JavaScript events.

This package bundles required resources for the use of bdajax inside a pyramid or zope application. It does NOT include the required server implementations. bdajax can be used with other Python or non-Python server backends too as long as action performing code is implemented and available through browser URL.

Contents

• bdajax

  • Dispatching

  • Attributes

  • Provide dependencies on server

  • Load dependencies in markup

  • Define namespace

  • Event binding

  • Trigger events

  • Perform actions

  • Multiple behaviors

  • Confirm actions

  • Overlays

• JavaScript API

  • Messages, Infos, Warnings and Errors

  • Overlay

  • Modal dialog

  • URL Operations

  • XMLHTTPRequest convenience

  • Perform action

  • Trigger events

  • AJAX Forms

  • 3rd Party Javascript

• Browsers

• Contributors

• Changes

  • 1.4

  • 1.3

  • 1.2.1

  • 1.2

  • 1.1

  • 1.0.2

  • 1.0.1

  • 1.0

  • 1.0b4

  • 1.0b3

  • 1.0b2

  • 1.0b1

• License

Dispatching

For those who know KSS (Kinetic Style Sheets) and TAL (Tag Attribute Language): The syntax reminds of TAL - attributes are interpreted by JS instead of a TAL interpreter - while the functionality is inspired by KSS.

The main paradigm is the use of an event/listener model. It enables bdajax to listen to events and trigger events on ajaxified DOM components.

Consider a navtree as example: the idea is to trigger an event when a navigation item gets clicked. Click semantically indicates a changed context. Then listen to this event on all DOM elements to get notified on changing server context.

This makes it possible to have completely decoupled “sub-applications” knowing nothing but an event contract from each other.

Attributes

Following attributes are available:

ajax:bind=”evt1 evt2”

Indicate bdajax behavior on DOM element and the event(s) triggering it/them.

ajax:event=”evt1:sel1 evt2:sel2”

Trigger event(s) on selector. The triggered event gets the target as additional parameter on event.ajaxtarget.

ajax:action=”name1:selector1:mode1 name2:selector2:mode2”

Perform AJAX action(s) on selector with mode. Selector points to target DOM element, mode defines how to modify the DOM tree. Possible mode values are inner and replace.

ajax:target=”http://fubar.org?param=value”

AJAX target definition. Consists out of target context URL and a query string used for requests on the target context. ajax:target is mandatory when ajax:event is defined, and optional when ajax:action is defined (depends on if event is triggered by bdajax or browser event). See below to get a clue what i am talking about.

ajax:confirm=”Do you really want to do this?”

Show confirmation dialog before actually executing actions and trigger events.

ajax:overlay=”actionname:selector:content_selector”

Renders ajax action to overlay with selector. selector is optional and defaults to #ajax-overlay. content_selector is optional to selector and defaults to .overlay_content.

Provide dependencies on server

This package already includes resource configuration for Zope and pyramid. This is done by ZCML. Include the following ZCML include statement to your ZCML configuration.:

<include package="bdajax" />

The expected ajaxaction view is not provided. Its intended to be provided by a custom implementation. See ‘Perform actions’ below.

Load dependencies in markup

Include dependencies jQuery (1.6.4) and jQuery Tools (1.2.6) to HTML Header.

Load bdajax related Scripts and CSS:

<script src="http://fubar.com/++resource++bdajax/bdajax.js"></script>
<link href="http://fubar.com/++resource++bdajax/bdajax.css"
      rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

Make sure the content of bdajax.pt is rendered in Markup.

Define namespace

In order to keep your XHTML valid when using the XML namespace extension define this namespace in the XHTML document:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:ajax="http://namesspaces.bluedynamics.eu/ajax">
    ...
</html>

Event binding

Indicate bdajax behavior on DOM element.:

<a href="http://fubar.com"
   ajax:bind="keydown click">
  fubar
</a>

Binds this element to events keydown and click.

Trigger events

Bind event behavior to DOM element:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:event="contextchanged:.contextsensitiv"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a">
  fubar
</a>

This causes the contextchanged event to be triggered on all DOM elements defining contextsensitiv css class. The extra attribute ajaxtarget gets written to the event before it is triggered, containing definitions from ajax:target.

Perform actions

An action performs a JSON request to the server and modifies the DOM tree as defined.

bdajax expects a resource (i.e a zope/pyramid view or some script) named ajaxaction on server. Resource is called on target url with target query parameters. Three additional arguments are passed:

bdajax.action

name of the action

bdajax.selector

given selector must be added to response. could be NONE, which means that no Markup is hooked after action (useful i.e. in combination with continuation actions and events).

bdajax.mode

the manipulation mode. Either inner or replace or NONE (see above).

The resource is responsible to return the requested resource as a JSON response in the format as follows.:

{
    mode: 'inner',             // the passed mode
    selector: '#someid',       // the passed selector
    payload: '<div>...</div>', // the rendered action
    continuation: [{}],        // continuation actions, events and messages
}

Action Continuation

The continuation value is an array of actions and/or events which should be performed after performed ajaxaction returns. Available continuation definitions are described below.

actions:

{
    'type': 'action',
    'target': 'http://example.com',
    'name': 'actionname',
    'mode': 'inner',
    'selector': '.foo',
}

events:

{
    'type': 'event',
    'target': 'http://example.com',
    'name': 'eventname',
    'selector': '.foo',
}

overlay:

{
    'type': 'overlay',
    'selector': '#ajax-overlay',
    'content_selector': '.overlay_content',
    'action': 'actionname',
    'target': 'http://example.com',
    'close': false,
}

Overlays dynamically get a close button. In order to keep overlay contents easily alterable inside the overlay element an element exists acting as overlay content container. content_selector defines the selector of this container.

Setting close to true closes overlay at selector. In this case action and target are ignored.

messages:

{
    'type': 'message',
    'payload': 'Text or <strong>Markup</strong>',
    'flavor': 'error',
    'selector': null,
}

Either flavor or selector must be given. Flavor could be one of ‘message’, ‘info’, ‘warning’, ‘error’ and map to the corresponding bdajax UI helper functions. Selector indicates to hook returned payload at a custom location in DOM tree instead of displaying a message. In this case, payload is set as contents of DOM element returned by selector.

If both flavor and selector are set, selector is ignored.

Be aware that you can provoke infinite loops with continuation actions and events, use this feature sparingly.

Trigger actions directly

Bind an action which is triggered directly.:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:action="renderfubar:.#fubar:replace"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a">
  fubar
</a>

On click the DOM element with id fubar will be replaced by the results of action renderfubar. Request context and request params are taken from ajax:target definition.

Trigger actions as event listener

Bind an action acting as event listener. See section ‘Trigger events’. A triggered event indicates change of context on target with params. Hereupon perform some action.:

<div id="content"
     class="contextsensitiv"
     ajax:bind="contextchanged"
     ajax:action="rendercontent:#content:inner">
  ...
</div>

Note: If binding actions as event listeners, there’s no need to define a target since it is passed along with the event.

Multiple behaviors

Bind multiple behaviors to the same DOM element:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:event="contextchanged:.contextsensitiv"
   ajax:action="rendersomething:.#something:replace"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a">
  fubar
</a>

In this example on click event contextchanged is triggered and action rendersomething is performed.

Confirm actions

Bdajax can display a confirmation dialog before performing actions or trigger events:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:event="contextchanged:.contextsensitiv"
   ajax:action="rendersomething:.#something:replace"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:confirm="Do you really want to do this?">
  fubar
</a>

If ajax:confirm is set, a modal dialog is displayed before dispatching is performed.

Overlays

Ajax actions can be rendered to overlay directly by using bdajax:overlay:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:overlay="acionname">
  fubar
</a>

This causes bdajax to perform action someaction on context defined in ajax:target and renders the result to an overlay element.

In addition a selector for the overlay can be defined. This is useful if someone needs to display multiple overlays:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:overlay="acionname:#custom-overlay">
  fubar
</a>

Optional to a custom overlay selector a content container selector can be defined:

<a href="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:bind="click"
   ajax:target="http://fubar.com/baz?a=a"
   ajax:overlay="acionname:#custom-overlay:.custom_overlay_content">
  fubar
</a>

JavaScript API

Messages, Infos, Warnings and Errors

bdajax displays application messages in a jQuery tools overlay.

bdajax.message displays a plain message. bdajax.info bdajax.warning and bdajax.error decorates message with appropriate icon.:

bdajax.message('I am an application Message');

Overlay

Load ajax action contents into an overlay.:

var overlay_api = bdajax.overlay({
    action: 'actionname',
    target: 'http://foobar.org?param=value',
    selector: '#ajax-overlay',
    content_selector: '.overlay_ontent'
});

selector is optional and defaults to #ajax-overlay. content_selector is optional to selector and defaults to overlay_ontent.

Optionally to target, url and params can be given as options to the function. If both, target and url/params are given, target rules.

Modal dialog

Render a modal dialog inside an overlay. The function expects an options object and a callback function, which gets executed if user confirms dialog. The callback gets passed the given options object as well. message is mandatory in options.:

var options = {
    message: 'I am an application Message'
};
bdajax.dialog(options, callback);

URL Operations

Parse hyperlinks for base URL or request parameters.:

bdajax.parseurl('http://fubar.org?param=value');

results in:

'http://fubar.org'

while:

bdajax.parsequery('http://fubar.org?param=value');

results in:

{ param: 'value' }

Do both at once by calling parsetarget:

bdajax.parsetarget('http://fubar.org?param=value');

This result in:

{
    url: 'http://fubar.org',
    params: { param: 'value' }
}

XMLHTTPRequest convenience

bdajax.request function is convenience for XMLHTTPRequests. By default it sends requests of type html and displays a bdajax.error message if request fails.:

bdajax.request({
    success: function(data) {
        // do something with data.
    },
    url: 'foo',
    params: {
        a: 'a',
        b: 'b'
    },
    type: 'json',
    error: function() {
        bdajax.error('Request failed');
    }
});

Given url might contain a query string. It gets parsed and written to request parameters. If same request parameter is defined in URL query AND params object, latter one rules.

Options:

success

Callback if request is successful.

url

Request url as string.

params (optional)

Query parameters for request as Object.

type (optional)

xml, json, script, or html.

error (optional)

Callback if request fails.

Success and error callback functions are wrapped in bdajax.request to consider ajax spinner handling automatically.

Perform action

Sometimes actions need to be performed inside JavaScript code. bdajax.action provides this.:

var target = bdajax.parsetarget('http://fubar.org?param=value');
bdajax.action({
    name: 'content',
    selector: '#content',
    mode: 'inner',
    url: target.url,
    params: target.params
});

Options:

name

Action name

selector

result selector

mode

action mode

url

target url

params

query params

Trigger events

Sometimes events need to be triggered manually. Since bdajax expects the attribute ajaxtarget on the received event a convenience is provided.:

var url = 'http://fubar.org?param=value';
bdajax.trigger('contextchanged', '.contextsensitiv', url)

AJAX Forms

To process ajax forms, a hidden iframe is used where the form gets triggered to. The form must be marked with CSS class ajax in order to be handled by bdajax. The server side must return a response like so:

<div id="ajaxform">
    <form class="ajax"
          method="post"
          action="http://example.com/myformaction"
          enctype="multipart/form-data">
      ...
    </form>
</div>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    var container = document.getElementById('ajaxform');
    var child = container.firstChild;
    while(child != null && child.nodeType == 3) {
        child = child.nextSibling;
    }
    parent.bdajax.render_ajax_form(child, '#form_selector', 'fiddle_mode');
    parent.bdajax.continuation({});
</script>

If div with id ajaxform contains markup, it gets rendered to #form_selector with fiddle_mode. This makes it possible to rerender forms on validation error or display a success page or similar. Further bdajax continuation definitions can be given to parent.bdajax.continuation.

Again, bdajax does not provide any server side implementation, it’s up to you providing this.

3rd Party Javascript

When writing applications, one might use its own set of custom JavaScripts where some actions need to be bound in the markup. Therefore the binders object on bdajax is intended. Hooking a binding callback to this object results in a call every time bdajax hooks some markup.:

mybinder = function (context) {
    jQuery('mysel').bind('click', function() { ... });
}
bdajax.binders.mybinder = mybinder;

Browsers

bdajax is tested with:

• Firefox 3.5, 3.6 and up

• IE 7, 8

• Chome 7

• Safari 5

Contributors

• Robert Niederreiter

• Attila Oláh

Changes

1.4

• Nicer spinner image. [rnix, 2012-05-21]

• Add overlay continuation support. [rnix, 2012-05-04]

• Extend ajax:overlay to accept an optional overlay and content selector. [rnix, 2012-05-04]

• Add AJAX form support. [rnix, 2012-05-04]

1.3

• All overlays not positional fixed for now. [rnix, 2011-12-02]

• jQuery 1.6.4 and jQuery Tools 1.2.6. [rnix, 2011-12-01]

• Add ajax:overlay functionality. [rnix, 2011-11-30]

• Call event.stopPropagation in bdajax._dispatching_handler. [rnix, 2011-11-23]

1.2.1

• Use CSS ‘min-width’ instead of ‘width’ for messages. [rnix, 2011-09-07]

1.2

• Add bdajax.fiddle function. [rnix, 2011-04-28]

• Delete overlay data from DOM element before reinitializing. [rnix, 2011-04-21]

• Add ajax:confirm functionality. [rnix, 2011-04-20]

• Strip trailing ‘/’ in bdajax.parseurl to avoid double slashes. [rnix, 2011-04-19]

• Add continuation messages. [rnix, 2011-04-12]

1.1

• Set focus on ok button for dialog boxes, so a user can dismiss the button by pressing return key. [aatiis, 2011-03-25]

• Don’t define a default error callback twice, just rely on the default handler prowided by bdajax.request. [aatiis, 2011-03-25]

• Add default 403 error page redirect. [aatiis, 2011-03-25]

• Hide spinner after ‘Empty response’ message. [aatiis, 2011-03-25]

• Used request.status and request.statusText in default error if they are defined. [aatiis, 2011-03-25]

• Continuation action and event support for ajaxaction. [rnix, 2011-03-21]

• Better default error output. [rnix, 2011-03-13]

• Remove ajaxerrors and ajaxerror from bdajax. [rnix, 2011-03-13]

• Remove bfg.zcml and zope.zcml, switch to pyramid in configure.zcml with conditional resource registration. [rnix, 2011-02-07]

1.0.2

• Rebind bdajax global if element is not found by selector after replace action. [rnix, 2011-01-14]

1.0.1

• Add spinner handling. [rnix, 2010-12-13]

• Return jquery context by jQuery.bdajax. [rnix, 2010-12-13]

1.0

• Remove call behaviour. [rnix, 2010-12-04]

• Browser testing. [rnix, 2010-12-04]

1.0b4

• Add configure.zcml containing all configuration using zcml:condition. [rnix, 2010-11-16]

• Remove overlay data of modal dialog before reloading. otherwise callback options are cached. [rnix, 2010-11-09]

• Disable ajax request caching by default in bdajax.request. [rnix, 2010-11-09]

• Add modal dialog to bdajax. [rnix, 2010-11-09]

• Mark ajax:call API deprecated. Will be removed for 1.0 final. [rnix, 2010-11-09]

1.0b3

• Add class allowMultiSubmit to fit a plone JS contract. [rnix, 2010-07-01]

• Fix bug in bdajax.request when finding url including query params. [rnix, 2010-07-01]

1.0b2

• Switch to jQuery tools 1.2.3. [rnix, 2010-07-01]

• Call binders with correct context. [rnix, 2010-05-16]

• Add overlay helper function and corresponding styles. [rnix, 2010-05-16]

1.0b1

• Make it work. [rnix]

License

Copyright (c) 2010, BlueDynamics Alliance, Austria All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

• Neither the name of the BlueDynamics Alliance nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY BlueDynamics Alliance AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL BlueDynamics Alliance BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.