[Seaside] Repainting during AJAX callbacks

Sun Sep 12 02:44:28 UTC 2010

On Tue, 7 Sep 2010, Bart Gauquie wrote:

> Is the ax framework available? I'm only finding axannouncements on

No it's not. Maybe we can make it available, but it doesn't have much 
value because:
- it was our first Smalltalk framework (we were new to Smalltalk at the 
time)
- it uses Prototype + Seaside 2.8
- it's 4 years old
- IIRC it was only tested with Firefox

Levente

> squeaksource?
>
> Regards,
>
> Bart
>
> On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 12:23 AM, Levente Uzonyi <leves at elte.hu> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 3 Sep 2010, C. David Shaffer wrote:
>>
>>  Before I get too far let me say that I don't know, yet, whether this is
>>> an unnecessary hack or a worthwhile framework.  I'm using it now and
>>> like it but I'd be happy to replace it with something better is people
>>> can tell me what that better thing is :-).
>>>
>>> Here's the problem: During an AJAX callback (request, update or script)
>>> sometimes a component unrelated to the one making the callback needs to
>>> be repainted.  Normally this happens as the result of an announcement.
>>> While announcements serve to decouple the components they also prevent
>>> the source of the announcement from knowing to cause this other
>>> component to paint.
>>>
>>> Basically this motivates using Comet but I don't like Comet and find
>>> that I don't need Comet's level of "server push" for any of my
>>> applications.  What I need is simply the way tack a little extra
>>> javascript on the end of AJAX calls...
>>>
>>> My solution: Repaintable in the Cincom Public Store Repository.  (This
>>> package uses JQuery.)  It is a very simple framework so easily abandoned
>>> if it is the wrong thing to do :-)  Here's how it works:  Components
>>> subclass RPRepaintable (or you merge RPRepaintable's methods into your
>>> component hierarchy if that isn't possible).  You must also use
>>> RPSession or a subclass as your session class for your application.
>>> When a component wants to append javascript onto the end of the current
>>> response to an AJAX request it:
>>>
>>>   self repaint: 'some-jquery-selector' using: [:h | "h is a canvas"]
>>>
>>> The block with be invoked with a canvas.  Paint on it was you normally
>>> would.  Its contents will be loaded by jQuery into the element(s)
>>> indentified by 'some-jquery-selector' (normally an element id).
>>>
>>> To simplify things, if the component wants to be able to completely
>>> repaint itself it can implement the following trio of methods:
>>>
>>> renderContentOn: html
>>>   html div
>>>       id: self contentId;
>>>       with: [self paintOn: html]
>>>
>>> contentId
>>>   ^'some-unique-id'
>>>
>>> paintOn: html
>>>
>>>   html text: 'Put your normal renderContentOn: stuff here'
>>>
>>>
>>> Then, such a component just has to send itself #repaint to repaint its
>>> contents.  So, suppose you receive an announcement and you want to
>>> repaint yourself.  Just do "self repaint".  Its that simple.  It works
>>> whether the original AJAX request was "script" or "html" type.  Sending
>>> #repaint (#repaint:using) during a full-page repaint (normal HTTP
>>> request) does nothing...your component will be painted during the render
>>> phase anyway so normally this is not a problem.
>>>
>>> An example is provided in the Public Store Repository
>>> (Repaintable-example).  Some notes:
>>>
>>> 1) All AJAX requests must either be dataType 'script' or 'html'.  This
>>> means that cases when you don't render anything like:
>>>
>>> html div
>>>   onClick: ((html jQuery: #foo) ajax callback: [self foo])
>>>
>>> will have to modified to
>>>
>>> html div
>>>   onClick: ((html jQuery: #foo) ajax dataType: 'script'; callback:
>>> [self foo])
>>>
>>> I think that this this is the result of a bug in Repaintable but I can't
>>> tell.  In practice 99% of my AJAX requests are either html: or script:
>>> requests anyway.  In those cases you don't need to send dataType:.
>>>
>>> 2) If you are using AJAX for purposes other than sending back HTML or
>>> javascript you might end up with cruft being appended to your responses
>>> :-) as components try to repaint themselves.  This isn't a problem for
>>> me but it might be for those of you using JSON to transfer data etc.
>>> This could be fixed if it becomes a problem for anyone.
>>>
>>> So, garbage or pure genius (I know the answer already as it took me
>>> three attempts to spell genius)?
>>>
>>
>> :) This is how our AX framework worked (AXAnnouncements were extracted from
>> that). The demo is still available here:
>> http://axdemo.seasidehosting.st/seaside/ax
>>
>>
>> Levente
>>
>>
>>
>>> David
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> seaside mailing list
>>> seaside at lists.squeakfoundation.org
>>> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/seaside
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>> seaside mailing list
>> seaside at lists.squeakfoundation.org
>> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/seaside
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> imagination is more important than knowledge - Albert Einstein
> Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere -
> Albert Einstein
> Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing
> is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein
> The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. - Albert
> Einstein
> However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
> - Sir Winston Churchill
> It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's
> required. - Sir Winston Churchill
>