Sorry to hear you aren't enjoying the JsHelper. I've updated the
documentation examples for Ajax Pagination to include the omissions
you had trouble with (http://book.cakephp.org/view/1600/Ajax-
Pagination).
As for the complexity of making links, you could use JsHelper::link()
to make those a bit easier.
echo $this->Js->link(
$image,
array('controller' => 'characters', 'action' => 'display', $id),
array('update' => '#InfoBox1', 'before' => ''),
);
would create the <a> and the necessary javascript. What else did you
find lacking in the documentation for JsHelper? Hopefully, I can add
some more examples and clarify some of the missing information. For
some background on the helper, it wasn't intended to solve every
javascript need you could possibly have, as that's an impossible goal
to try and achieve. In the past there were numerous complaints about
how AjaxHelper was too tightly coupled to Prototype and that it would
be nice to have something that integrated with other libraries like
jQuery. JsHelper does solve that issue, and provides an extensible
interface for you to plug in Javascript generating functions. But it
doesn't and can't prevent you from having to write Javascript. Sorry
that it didn't meet your expectations on that front.
-Mark
On Sep 27, 3:56 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I needed a simple Ajax feature to load box with additional info and
> close it after reading. I am new to Ajax and seldom used JS scripts
> till now. I need your opinion/help on optimizing following piece of
> code. The JS helper documentation is terrible - I'll share my
> experience on this at the end of this post for these interested.
> Please advice on questions that follow the code.
>
> 1. I have 'ajaxInfoBox' element that is called with an ID of the
> object I want to display. I have a need of few on the page hence
> element - to keep unique div ids.
> 2. Element displays icons with arrows down (opens box when clicked)
> and up (closes box when clicked). Additionally they hide/show
> alternatively themselves. Also I have a hidden busy indicator on main
> layout that is copied and displayed within the box while the box data
> is being loaded.
> 3. The content of the box comes (Ajax request) from another
> controller, which prepares set of data and renders it through
> dedicated HTML view. To makes things simple (I am not efficient in JS)
> I prefer using HTML views rather then JSON and JQuery loaded by
> inclusions functions.
>
> Here is the 'ajaxInfoBox' element code (bare functionality, no
> exceptions):
>
> echo '<div class="AjaxCommands">';
> echo '<A href="#" id="OpenCommand'.$Id.'"
> alt="Info">'.$this->Html->image('icons/Colored/PNG/arrow_down.png').'</A>';
>
> echo $this->Js->get('#OpenCommand'.$Id)->event('click',
> $this->Js->request(array('controller' => 'Characters',
> 'action' =>
> 'displayCharacter', $Id), array (
> 'update' => '#InfoBox'.$Id,
> 'before'
> =>'$("#busy-indicator").clone().appendTo("#InfoBox'.
> $Id.'").show();'
> . '$("#InfoBox'.$Id.'").show();',
> ))
> );
> echo $this->Js->get('#OpenCommand'.$Id)->event('click', '$
> ("#OpenCommand'.$Id.'").hide();');
> echo $this->Js->get('#OpenCommand'.$Id)->event('click', '$
> ("#CloseCommand'.$Id.'").show();');
> echo '<A href="#" id="CloseCommand'.$Id.'" alt="Close"
> style="display: none">'.$this->Html->image('icons/Colored/PNG/
> arrow_top.png').'</A>';
> echo $this->Js->get('#CloseCommand'.$Id)->event('click', '$
> ("#InfoBox'.$Id.'").empty();');
> echo $this->Js->get('#CloseCommand'.$Id)->event('click', '$
> ("#CloseCommand'.$Id.'").hide();');
> echo $this->Js->get('#CloseCommand'.$Id)->event('click', '$
> ("#InfoBox'.$Id.'").hide();');
> echo $this->Js->get('#CloseCommand'.$Id)->event('click', '$
> ("#OpenCommand'.$Id.'").show();');
>
> echo '</div>';
> echo '<div class="InfoBox" id=InfoBox'.$Id.'></div>';
>
> Few problems I faced with the above:
> - I have not managed to deploy toggle() JQuery function through the JS
> helper hence so many separate lines
> - used many event JS helpers functions as concatenating actions after
> one get() did not work as expected.
> - did not use url attribute for HTML->img as id is tied to image not
> the link therefore hiding id hides image but leaves a pixel of the
> selected link
> - not sure if copying and placing busy-indicator div into box and
> replacing it with target content is a good idea
>
> ==
> Now for interested, I will share how terrible experience CakePHP
> serves its users with respect to JS Helper.
>
> There is not so bad documentation on Ajax and Javascript but these
> helpers are depreciated in 1.3. so I focused on JS Helper. I spent
> over a week researching how to implement above Ajax info box using
> this helper.
>
> I started with JS Helper - this got me nowhere. Not a single simple
> future (including Ajax Pagination) brought working examples
> (Pagination tutorial fails to note that you need to include
> RequestHandler helper for the Ajax layout to work properly). There are
> no easily reachable (googled few hours) examples beside some advanced
> troubleshooting discussions on this forum. Few 'know-hows' learned:
> - simple ajax test for views:
> echo '<Div>Text <A id="GoLink"
> href=#>Click</A></div>'.$this->Js->get('#GoLink')->event('click',
> 'alert("Works!")');
>
> - one needs to use RequestHandler helper (overlooked in all JS helper
> documentation) for Ajax layout to work properly
> - if using other then default Ajax layout one needs to call 'echo
> $js->writeBuffer();' at the end of Ajax rendered view or Ajax custom
>
> template
> - any link created should have url or href=# - otherwise mouse pointer
> will not detect this as a link (although it will work)
>
> Above lessons helped me started but are bare working examples that
> will not allow to do anything sensible without learning JQuery. Any
> sensible feature needs to be implemented as a JQuery code embedded
> into the cake-like JS helper code. Any more advanced JQuery code is a
> hell to work with within short strings cake functions provide. Any
> inclusions of additional files is fine if you want to start writing
> extensive JQuery functions, but with somehow dilutes the strength of
> CakePHP framework as a tool for weekend programmers. I am not into
> inclusion of JS files and functions implemented there.
Check out the new CakePHP Questions site http://cakeqs.org and help others with
their CakePHP related questions.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"CakePHP" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected] For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php?hl=en
