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Last modified by Pascal Robert on 2007/09/03 20:53
From version 8.1
edited by Marc Guenther
on 2007/08/28 08:59
Change comment: small reformat to make more readable
To version 6.1
edited by Quinton Dolan
on 2007/08/28 18:00
Change comment: There is no comment for this version

Summary

Details

Page properties
Author
... ... @@ -1,1 +1,1 @@
1 -XWiki.marc
1 +XWiki.qdolan
Content
... ... @@ -22,12 +22,12 @@
22 22  
23 23  {{code}}
24 24  
25 - textarea: WOText
26 - {
27 - id='wysiwyg';
28 - name='wysiwyg';
29 - value=textValue;
30 - }
25 +textarea: WOText
26 +{
27 + id='wysiwyg';
28 + name='wysiwyg';
29 + value=textValue;
30 +}
31 31  
32 32  {{/code}}
33 33  
... ... @@ -41,12 +41,12 @@
41 41  
42 42  We haven't used a lot of JavaScript at www.marketocracy.com, for a very simple reason: We don't have the testing staff to fire up 10 different browser variations to test the site. And lets face it, programming in JavaScript sucks.
43 43  
44 -Since someone invented that cool acronym though, that's changing. You would think it shouldn't matter that something has a name, but it does. I remember when the GoF Design Patterns book came out. There was nothing in there I hadn't figured out on my own, but now they had a name!//I//could//say//"Singleton"//to//my//co-workers//and//they//would//know//what//I//was//talking//about.//I//could//buy//a//junior//engineer//the//book,//and//he//would//soon//be//programming//at//a//much//higher//level.//
44 +Since someone invented that cool acronym though, that's changing. You would think it shouldn't matter that something has a name, but it does. I remember when the GoF Design Patterns book came out. There was nothing in there I hadn't figured out on my own, but now they had a name! I could say "Singleton" to my co-workers and they would know what I was talking about.
45 45  
46 -So//having//a//name//helped,//and//the//result//is//that//there//are//a//lot//of//cool//toolkits//out//there.//Since//someone//else//wrote//the//JavaScript,//that//means//I//don't//need//to//test//10//different//browser//variations.//
46 +I could buy a junior engineer the book, and he would soon be programming at a much higher level.
47 +So having a name helped, and the result is that there are a lot of cool toolkits out there. Since someone else wrote the JavaScript, that means I don't need to test 10 different browser variations.
48 +Which means I can make the site much easier to use and more interactive. Huzzah!
47 47  
48 -Which//means//I//can//make//the//site//much//easier//to//use//and//more//interactive.//Huzzah!
49 -
50 50  ==== Research ====
51 51  
52 52  So the first thing I did was that I'd heard that Rails was cool and made Ajax easy. I'd heard that before, but that was when the version number was 0.13... So I went out and bought the Rails books and you know what I found?
... ... @@ -53,22 +53,22 @@
53 53  
54 54  It's not that Rails rocks with Ajax, its that the Prototype Javascript library rocks. The documentation makes a big deal about doing Ajax with one line of code.
55 55  
56 -{{code}}
56 +{{code value="xml"}}
57 57  
58 - <div id='<= posting.id'>
59 - <%= link_to_remote [div to update] [link options] -> %>
60 - </div>
58 +<div id='<= posting.id'>
59 + <%= link_to_remote [div to update] [link options] -> %>
60 +</div>
61 61  
62 62  {{/code}}
63 63  
64 64  The reality is that all Rails is doing is writing one line of JavaScript. From the Ajaxy "rating" code I've been adding to my app, look at the following:
65 65  
66 -{{code}}
66 +{{code value="xml"}}
67 67  
68 - <div id='<WEBOBJECT name=postingID></WEBBOBJECT>'>
69 - <a href="#" onclick="new Ajax.Updater('<WEBOBJECT name=postingID></WEBBOBJECT>',
70 - '<WEBOBJECT name=ratePosting></WEBOBJECT>', {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true}); return false;">1</a>
71 - </div>
68 +<div id='<WEBOBJECT name=postingID></WEBBOBJECT>'>
69 + <a href="#" onclick="new Ajax.Updater('<WEBOBJECT name=postingID></WEBBOBJECT>',
70 + '<WEBOBJECT name=ratePosting></WEBOBJECT>', {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true}); return false;">1</a>
71 +</div>
72 72  
73 73  {{/code}}
74 74  
... ... @@ -80,7 +80,7 @@
80 80  
81 81  {{code}}
82 82  
83 - new Ajax.Updater( elementid, url, options)
83 +new Ajax.Updater( elementid, url, options)
84 84  
85 85  {{/code}}
86 86  
... ... @@ -90,8 +90,8 @@
90 90  
91 91  {{code}}
92 92  
93 - postingID: WOString { currentPosting.primaryKeyString; }
94 - ratePosting: WOActionURL { see discussion }
93 +postingID: WOString { currentPosting.primaryKeyString; }
94 +ratePosting: WOActionURL { see discussion }
95 95  
96 96  {{/code}}
97 97  
... ... @@ -99,21 +99,21 @@
99 99  
100 100  {{code}}
101 101  
102 - ratePosting :WOActionURL
103 - {
104 - directActionName="PostingRater";
105 - ?pkey=currentPosting.primaryKey;
106 - ?rating=cRating;
107 - ?wosid=NO;
108 - }
102 +ratePosting :WOActionURL
103 +{
104 + directActionName="PostingRater";
105 + ?pkey=currentPosting.primaryKey;
106 + ?rating=cRating;
107 + ?wosid=NO;
108 +}
109 109  
110 110  {{/code}}
111 111  
112 112  This produces a result similar to Rails, because in rails you have to define an action for each class of link. In my case I tie directactions to pages/components, so my "PostingRater" page would return component-level HTML (minus any HEAD/BODY tags) that matched the existing <div> definition. Since we're using WebObjects, that turns out to be trivially easy if we build the enclosing <div> tag with a component PostingRater can just look like:
113 113  
114 -{{code}}
114 +{{code value="xml"}}
115 115  
116 - <WEBOBJECT name=RatingDiv></WEBOBJECT>
116 +<WEBOBJECT name=RatingDiv></WEBOBJECT>
117 117  
118 118  {{/code}}
119 119  
... ... @@ -121,7 +121,7 @@
121 121  
122 122  {{code}}
123 123  
124 - ratePosting: WOActionURL { action=ratePosting;}
124 +ratePosting: WOActionURL { action=ratePosting;}
125 125  
126 126  {{/code}}
127 127  
... ... @@ -129,14 +129,14 @@
129 129  
130 130  {{code}}
131 131  
132 - public WOReponse ratePosting
133 - {
134 - currentPosting.ratePosting(currentRating);
135 - return self; // since this is called from JavaScript
136 - // return just myself, not self.page
137 - // this will tell WO to render only
138 - // this as a result.
139 - }
132 +public WOReponse ratePosting
133 +{
134 + currentPosting.ratePosting(currentRating);
135 + return self; // since this is called from JavaScript
136 + // return just myself, not self.page
137 + // this will tell WO to render only
138 + // this as a result.
139 +}
140 140  
141 141  {{/code}}
142 142