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Wiki source code of ERPrototaculous

Version 117.1 by Ravi Mendis on 2010/03/01 17:07
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Ravi Mendis 100.1 1 == Introduction ==
2
3 ERPrototaculous was developed to provide the ajax functionality in ERDivaLook.
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5 === What is ERPrototaculous? ===
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7 Features include:
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Ravi Mendis 114.1 9 * 'Organic' support for Prototype and Scriptaculous in WebObjects.
Ravi Mendis 100.1 10 ** Light-weight dynamic elements to support Prototype
Ravi Mendis 116.1 11 ** Transparent API that don't hide or abstract Prototype and Scriptaculous
Ravi Mendis 114.1 12 ** No custom patches to Prototype
13 ** Sans extensions to Prototype
Ravi Mendis 100.1 14 * Use of [[Unobtrusive Javascript>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtrusive_JavaScript]].
15 * Pseudo-stateless ajax responses
16 * A set of widgets in the Prototype + Scriptaculous family.
17
18 ==== Unobtrusive Javascript in ERPrototaculous ====
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20 Unobtrusive javascript is used in contrast to on-demand style of ajax programming.
21 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.
22 This keeps the ajax responses compact and simple.
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24 The result is **faster** and more **reliable** ajax in WebObjects.
25
26 ==== Prototype WebObjects Elements ====
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28 ##Ajax.Updater## and ##Ajax.Request## have been implemented as WebObjects elements.
29
30 ===== Ajax.Updater =====
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32 Support for Prototype's [[Ajax.Updater>>http://www.prototypejs.org/api/ajax/updater]] is in the form of three elements:
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34 * AjaxUpdaterLink
35 * AjaxUpdaterButton
36 * AjaxUpdaterForm (with ##onsubmit## for ajax form submission)
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38 These components will update //any// **container** on the page:
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40 {{code value="javascript"}}
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42 new Ajax.Updater('container', url, {options});
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44 {{/code}}
45
46 ===== Ajax.Request =====
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48 Prototype's [[Ajax.Request>>http://www.prototypejs.org/api/ajax/request]] is in the form of:
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50 * AjaxRequestLink
51 * AjaxRequestButton
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53 These are used for strictly **background** ajax communication:
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55 {{code value="javascript"}}
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57 new Ajax.Request(url, {options});
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59 {{/code}}
60
61 ==== Prototype + Scriptaculous Widgets ====
62
63 * Accordion
64 * LightWindow
65 * ModalBox
66 * CalendarDateSelect
Ravi Mendis 114.1 67 * FileUpload
Ravi Mendis 100.1 68
69 Support for these widgets have been similarly implemented as **button** and **link** variants, depending whether it is used inside a form or not.
70
71 == Ajax Forms in ERPrototaculous ==
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73 Differences from using forms in WebObjects. i.e ##WOForm##:
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75 1. All ajax form controls must be named. This includes text fields, selects and buttons.
76 (WebObjects dynamically assigned names are not compatible with ERPrototaculous).
77 1. All ajax forms in an ERPrototaculous app need to be instances of ##AjaxUpdaterForm##.
78 1. Ajax form submit buttons can be a:
79 1*. Static ##<button>##.
80 1*. WOSubmitButton (if the result is to update whole page/app).
81 1*. AjaxUpdaterButton (to update a **container**). Or
82 1*. AjaxRequestButton (for a **background** ajax request).
83
84 So forms are different in Ajax.framework and ERPrototaculous.
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86 In ERPrototaculous you may still have typical WebObjects forms (i.e WOForm) as well as use ajax forms (i.e **AjaxUpdaterForm**).
87 They behave differently in that an AjaxUpdaterForm will update the contents of a container as opposed to the entire page.
88
89 {{warning title="Warning"}}
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91 You must *name your form controls*, otherwise under certain circumstances Prototype (ajax) form submission will break.
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93 {{/warning}}
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Ravi Mendis 114.1 95 == Ajax Response Handling in ERPrototaculous ==
Ravi Mendis 100.1 96
Ravi Mendis 114.1 97 One notable difference between the ERPrototaculous and Ajax frameworks is in the way they handle ajax responses.
Ravi Mendis 100.1 98 In ERPrototaculous, updates and actions break with //The WebObjects Way// by being pseudo-stateless.
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100 In a typical WebObjects application, when a user navigates to the previous page using the browser back button and subsequently clicks on a link in on that page, WebObjects needs to remember how to handle that action and to return the correct page. This is no longer necessary for ajax.
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102 A user never travels backwards or forwards through the ajax application history.
103 (i.e there is no forward/back buttons for ajax requests - just as there aren't forward/back buttons on desktop apps).
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105 So for ajax, the current state of the page fragment component is all that is necessary.
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107 {{info title="No More"}}
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109 A 100% ajax WO-app (like an [ERDivaLook|ERDivaLook] app) is no longer plagued by the well known _limitation_ of WebObjects - the browser *backtrack problem*.
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111 {{/info}}
112
113 == Ajax Actions in ERPrototaculous ==
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115 Typically, in a WebObjects application, an action would return the contents of the entire page.
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117 Ajax responses are mostly page fragments or just part of a page.
118 So you should make sure the actions in ERPrototaculous (or AjaxUpdaterButton and AjaxRequestButton) return the proper page fragment as opposed to the entire page.
Ravi Mendis 114.1 119 This breaks with WO-tradition (again), so this is where you need to be careful.
Ravi Mendis 100.1 120
121 {{note title="Note"}}
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123 ERPrototaculous actions *differ* from Ajax.framework actions - _They must return only the page fragment_.
124
125 {{/note}}
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127 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).
128
129 == Update Containers in ERPrototaculous ==
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131 Perhaps the only real similarity to Ajax.framework is the ajax update container.
132 **WXGenericContainer** is the ERPrototaculous update container.
133 It is similar to an AjaxUpdateContainer when it has the binding ##ajax = true##, otherwise it's pretty much like **WOGenericContainer**.
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135 It has been implemented as a utility or //convenience// for Prototype's ##Ajax.Updater##.
136 That is it can be used to update from a DOM //event// like popup //onchange//, or from a Prototype //callback// like //onComplete//, etc.
137
138 == Compatibility ==
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140 ERPrototaculous can not be used with WebObjects 5.3 as it is dependent on the hooks for ajax added to WebObjects with version 5.4.
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142 {{warning title="ERPrototaculous is WebObjects *5.4* compatible only"}}
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144
145 {{/warning}}