how does Apotomo handle Ajax and JavaScript?
framework abstraction with JavascriptGenerator

no manual AJAX-routes for dozens of controllers, one generic route to rule them all

= Apotomo

Apotomo is a stateful widget component framework for Rails.

It is good for you if you
It is perfect for building AJAXed Rich Client Applications.
It is suitable for iGoogle-like widgets, dashboards, portals, or even full-blown interactive web apps.
* Development Teams, where separate teams can work on separate components

== Widgets

=== Widget Trees


== Events

=== Event Handlers

== AJAX

== Statefulness vs. Stateless



A stateful WHAT?

Well, you know that. In Rails, people tend to have fat controllers. One controller action renders the complete page. While many programmers try to separate their code into helpers, controller actions, RJS logic and partials, it is still the controller that has to care about when to update what, and how!


In Apotomo, it is the opposite. Widgets are small, autonomous components that look and feel like controllers. These tiny monsters listen to events and thus keep updating themselves on the page via AJAX. However, there's no JavaScript for you - they're pure Ruby.


== Man, gimme code!

Let's use the famous and tiresome counter example.

 class CounterCell < Apotomo::StatefulWidget
   transition :from => :display, :to => :increment
   
   def display
     respond_to_event :counterClick, :with => :increment
  	  
     @count = 0
     render		# renders display.html.erb
   end

   def increment
     @count += 1	# @count is simply there - that's stateful.
     render :view => :display
   end
 end
  
Since this widget calls <tt>render</tt> it surely needs a view.

 <!-- I'm display.html.erb -->
  
 <h1><%= @count %></h1>
 
 <%= link_to_event "Increment me!", :counterClick %>


We now plug the widget in a page.

 class ExistingController < ApplicationController
   include Apotomo::ControllerHelper

   def some_action
     # do what you want...
     
     use_widgets do |root|
       root << cell(:counter, :display, 'my_first_counter')
     end
   end
 end

As soon as the widget is rendered it will jump to its <tt>:display</tt> state which initializes the counter and renders itself.

Speaking of rendering: how do we place the widget in our controller?

  <!-- I'm some_action.html.erb -->
  <p>
  	<%= render_widget 'my_first_counter' %>

Ok, so this renders the widget in our controller page.

When clicking the link it updates automatically on the screen showing the incremented value. Wow.


== That's cool!
Yes, it is.

== Is there more?
Apotomo got a load of features.

[Composability]     Widgets can range from small standalone components to nested widget trees like dashboards or forms. Remember that each widget can have any number of children.
  
[Bubbling events]   Widgets can trigger events and watch out for them. While events bubble up from their triggering source to root they can be observed, providing a way to implement loosely coupled, distributable components.
  
[Deep Linking]      Apotomo deals with deep links (or url fragments) out-of-the-box while using SWFAddress. Components that register for deep linking will update as soon as the deep link changes. That makes your application back-button-safe!
  
[Testing]           Needless to say that it is simply easier to test small components instead of fat do-it-all controllers.


Give it a try- you will love the power and simplicity of real stateful components!


== Bugs, Community
Please visit http://apotomo.de, the official project page with <em>lots</em> of examples.
Join the mailing list and visit us in the IRC channel. More information is
here[http://apotomo.de/download].


== License
Copyright (c) 2007-2010 Nick Sutterer <apotonick@gmail.com>

The MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.