Skip to Content

Changes for page ERPrototaculous

Last modified by Ravi Mendis on 2010/11/18 05:07
From version 201.1
edited by Ravi Mendis
on 2009/07/16 08:59
Change comment: There is no comment for this version
To version 195.1
edited by Ravi Mendis
on 2009/07/17 06:29
Change comment: Change heading name

Summary

Details

Page properties
Content
... ... @@ -7,17 +7,56 @@
7 7  Features include:
8 8  
9 9  * 'Organic' support for Prototype and Scriptaculous in WebObjects.
10 -* No custom Prototype extensions
11 -* A set of widgets in the Prototype + Scriptaculous family.
10 +** Light-weight dynamic elements to support Prototype
11 +** No custom patches to Prototype
12 +** Sans the need to extend Prototype
12 12  * Use of [[Unobtrusive Javascript>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtrusive_JavaScript]].
14 +* Pseudo-stateless ajax responses
15 +* A set of widgets in the Prototype + Scriptaculous family.
13 13  
14 14  ==== Unobtrusive Javascript in ERPrototaculous ====
15 15  
16 16  Unobtrusive javascript is used in contrast to on-demand style of ajax programming.
17 -By including Javascript as well as CSS globally in the page wrapper, CSS and/or Javascript doesn't have to load inside ajax requests.
20 +By including Javascript as well as CSS globally in the page wrapper, CSS and Javascript don't have to load inside each and every ajax requests.
21 +This keeps the ajax responses compact and granular.
18 18  
19 -The result is **faster** and more **reliable** ajax in WebObjects applications.
23 +The result is **faster** and more **reliable** ajax in WebObjects.
20 20  
25 +==== Prototype WebObjects Elements ====
26 +
27 +##Ajax.Updater## and ##Ajax.Request## have been implemented as WebObjects dynamic elements.
28 +
29 +===== Ajax.Updater =====
30 +
31 +Support for Prototype's [[Ajax.Updater>>http://www.prototypejs.org/api/ajax/updater]] is in the form of three components:
32 +
33 +* AjaxUpdaterLink
34 +* AjaxUpdaterButton
35 +* AjaxUpdaterForm (with ##onsubmit## for ajax form submission)
36 +
37 +These components will update a **container** on the page:
38 +
39 +{{code value="javascript"}}
40 +
41 + new Ajax.Updater('container', url, {options});
42 +
43 +{{/code}}
44 +
45 +===== Ajax.Request =====
46 +
47 +Prototype's [[Ajax.Request>>http://www.prototypejs.org/api/ajax/request]] is in the form of:
48 +
49 +* AjaxRequestLink
50 +* AjaxRequestButton
51 +
52 +These are used for strictly **background** ajax communication:
53 +
54 +{{code value="javascript"}}
55 +
56 + new Ajax.Request(url, {options});
57 +
58 +{{/code}}
59 +
21 21  ==== Prototype + Scriptaculous Widgets ====
22 22  
23 23  * Accordion
... ... @@ -26,15 +26,61 @@
26 26  * CalendarDateSelect
27 27  * FileUpload
28 28  
68 +Support for these widgets have been similarly implemented as **button** and **link** variants, depending whether it is used inside a form or not.
69 +
29 29  == Forms in ERPrototaculous ==
30 30  
31 31  Differences from using forms in WebObjects. i.e ##WOForm##:
32 32  
33 -* All form controls must be named. This includes text fields, selects and buttons.
74 +1. All form controls must be named. This includes text fields, selects and buttons.
34 34  (WebObjects dynamically assigned names are not compatible with ERPrototaculous).
35 -* All forms in an ERPrototaculous app are instances of ##AjaxUpdaterForm##.
36 -* Form submits can be the form of:
37 -** Static ##<button>##
38 -** WOSubmitButton (if the result is to update whole page/app.
76 +1. All ajax forms in an ERPrototaculous app need to be instances of ##AjaxUpdaterForm##.
77 +1. Form submit buttons can be a:
78 +
79 +*
80 +** Static ##<button>##.
81 +** WOSubmitButton (if the result is to update whole page/app).
39 39  ** AjaxUpdaterButton (to update a **container**). Or
40 -** AjaxRequestButton (for a background ajax request)
83 +** AjaxRequestButton (for a **background** ajax request).
84 +
85 +So forms are different in Ajax.framework and ERPrototaculous.
86 +
87 +In ERPrototaculous you may still have typical WebObjects forms (i.e WOForm) as well as use ajax forms (i.e **AjaxUpdaterForm**).
88 +They behave differently in that an AjaxUpdaterForm will update the contents of a container as opposed to the entire page.
89 +
90 +== Ajax Response Handling in ERPrototaculous ==
91 +
92 +One notable difference between the ERPrototaculous and Ajax frameworks is in the way they handle ajax responses.
93 +In ERPrototaculous, updates and actions break with "The WebObjects Way" by being pseudo-stateless.
94 +
95 +WebObjects typically vends a fresh response for each and every action. With ajax, this is not necessary.
96 +
97 +In a typical WebObjects application, when a user clicks on the back button and clicks on a link in on that page in the browser history, WebObjects needs to remember how to handle that action and to return the correct page. This is no longer true for ajax.
98 +The reason is a user never travels backwards or forwards through the ajax application history.
99 +(i.e there is no forward/back buttons in a 100% ajax app - as there aren't in desktop apps).
100 +
101 +So for ajax, the current state of the page fragment component is all that is necessary.
102 +
103 +== Actions in ERPrototaculous ==
104 +
105 +Typically, in a WebObjects application, an action would return the contents of the entire page.
106 +
107 +Ajax responses are mostly page fragments or just part of a page.
108 +So you should make sure the actions in ERPrototaculous (or AjaxUpdaterButton and AjaxRequestButton) return the proper page fragment as opposed to the entire page.
109 +This breaks with WO-tradition, so this is where you need to be careful.
110 +
111 +{{note title="Actions"}}
112 +
113 +ERPrototaculous actions *differ* from Ajax.framework actions - _They must return only the page fragment_.
114 +
115 +{{/note}}
116 +
117 +To assist with page fragments inside **forms**, you can make your ajax action responses a subclass of **WXPageFragment** (a utility to handle the forms processing between Prototype and WebObjects).
118 +
119 +== Update Containers in ERPrototaculous ==
120 +
121 +Perhaps the only real similarity to Ajax.framework is the ajax update container.
122 +**WXGenericContainer** is the ERPrototaculous update container.
123 +It is similar to an AjaxUpdateContainer when it has the binding ##ajax = true##, otherwise it's pretty much like **WOGenericContainer**.
124 +
125 +It has been implemented as a utility or //convenience// for Prototype's ##Ajax.Updater##.