require 'set'
module ActionView
module Helpers
# Prototype[http://www.prototypejs.org/] is a JavaScript library that provides
# DOM[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_Object_Model] manipulation,
# Ajax[http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php]
# functionality, and more traditional object-oriented facilities for JavaScript.
# This module provides a set of helpers to make it more convenient to call
# functions from Prototype using Rails, including functionality to call remote
# Rails methods (that is, making a background request to a Rails action) using Ajax.
# This means that you can call actions in your controllers without
# reloading the page, but still update certain parts of it using
# injections into the DOM. A common use case is having a form that adds
# a new element to a list without reloading the page or updating a shopping
# cart total when a new item is added.
#
# == Usage
# To be able to use these helpers, you must first include the Prototype
# JavaScript framework in your pages.
#
# javascript_include_tag 'prototype'
#
# (See the documentation for
# ActionView::Helpers::JavaScriptHelper for more information on including
# this and other JavaScript files in your Rails templates.)
#
# Now you're ready to call a remote action either through a link...
#
# link_to_remote "Add to cart",
# :url => { :action => "add", :id => product.id },
# :update => { :success => "cart", :failure => "error" }
#
# ...through a form...
#
# <% form_remote_tag :url => '/shipping' do -%>
#
<%= submit_tag 'Recalculate Shipping' %>
# <% end -%>
#
# ...periodically...
#
# periodically_call_remote(:url => 'update', :frequency => '5', :update => 'ticker')
#
# ...or through an observer (i.e., a form or field that is observed and calls a remote
# action when changed).
#
# <%= observe_field(:searchbox,
# :url => { :action => :live_search }),
# :frequency => 0.5,
# :update => :hits,
# :with => 'query'
# %>
#
# As you can see, there are numerous ways to use Prototype's Ajax functions (and actually more than
# are listed here); check out the documentation for each method to find out more about its usage and options.
#
# === Common Options
# See link_to_remote for documentation of options common to all Ajax
# helpers; any of the options specified by link_to_remote can be used
# by the other helpers.
#
# == Designing your Rails actions for Ajax
# When building your action handlers (that is, the Rails actions that receive your background requests), it's
# important to remember a few things. First, whatever your action would normall return to the browser, it will
# return to the Ajax call. As such, you typically don't want to render with a layout. This call will cause
# the layout to be transmitted back to your page, and, if you have a full HTML/CSS, will likely mess a lot of things up.
# You can turn the layout off on particular actions by doing the following:
#
# class SiteController < ActionController::Base
# layout "standard", :except => [:ajax_method, :more_ajax, :another_ajax]
# end
#
# Optionally, you could do this in the method you wish to lack a layout:
#
# render :layout => false
#
# You can tell the type of request from within your action using the request.xhr? (XmlHttpRequest, the
# method that Ajax uses to make background requests) method.
# def name
# # Is this an XmlHttpRequest request?
# if (request.xhr?)
# render :text => @name.to_s
# else
# # No? Then render an action.
# render :action => 'view_attribute', :attr => @name
# end
# end
#
# The else clause can be left off and the current action will render with full layout and template. An extension
# to this solution was posted to Ryan Heneise's blog at ArtOfMission["http://www.artofmission.com/"].
#
# layout proc{ |c| c.request.xhr? ? false : "application" }
#
# Dropping this in your ApplicationController turns the layout off for every request that is an "xhr" request.
#
# If you are just returning a little data or don't want to build a template for your output, you may opt to simply
# render text output, like this:
#
# render :text => 'Return this from my method!'
#
# Since whatever the method returns is injected into the DOM, this will simply inject some text (or HTML, if you
# tell it to). This is usually how small updates, such updating a cart total or a file count, are handled.
#
# == Updating multiple elements
# See JavaScriptGenerator for information on updating multiple elements
# on the page in an Ajax response.
module PrototypeHelper
unless const_defined? :CALLBACKS
CALLBACKS = Set.new([ :uninitialized, :loading, :loaded,
:interactive, :complete, :failure, :success ] +
(100..599).to_a)
AJAX_OPTIONS = Set.new([ :before, :after, :condition, :url,
:asynchronous, :method, :insertion, :position,
:form, :with, :update, :script, :type ]).merge(CALLBACKS)
end
# Returns a link to a remote action defined by options[:url]
# (using the url_for format) that's called in the background using
# XMLHttpRequest. The result of that request can then be inserted into a
# DOM object whose id can be specified with options[:update].
# Usually, the result would be a partial prepared by the controller with
# render :partial.
#
# Examples:
# # Generates: Delete this post
# link_to_remote "Delete this post", :update => "posts",
# :url => { :action => "destroy", :id => post.id }
#
# # Generates:
# link_to_remote(image_tag("refresh"), :update => "emails",
# :url => { :action => "list_emails" })
#
# You can override the generated HTML options by specifying a hash in
# options[:html].
#
# link_to_remote "Delete this post", :update => "posts",
# :url => post_url(@post), :method => :delete,
# :html => { :class => "destructive" }
#
# You can also specify a hash for options[:update] to allow for
# easy redirection of output to an other DOM element if a server-side
# error occurs:
#
# Example:
# # Generates: Delete this post
# link_to_remote "Delete this post",
# :url => { :action => "destroy", :id => post.id },
# :update => { :success => "posts", :failure => "error" }
#
# Optionally, you can use the options[:position] parameter to
# influence how the target DOM element is updated. It must be one of
# :before, :top, :bottom, or :after.
#
# The method used is by default POST. You can also specify GET or you
# can simulate PUT or DELETE over POST. All specified with options[:method]
#
# Example:
# # Generates: Destroy
# link_to_remote "Destroy", :url => person_url(:id => person), :method => :delete
#
# By default, these remote requests are processed asynchronous during
# which various JavaScript callbacks can be triggered (for progress
# indicators and the likes). All callbacks get access to the
# request object, which holds the underlying XMLHttpRequest.
#
# To access the server response, use request.responseText, to
# find out the HTTP status, use request.status.
#
# Example:
# # Generates: hello
# word = 'hello'
# link_to_remote word,
# :url => { :action => "undo", :n => word_counter },
# :complete => "undoRequestCompleted(request)"
#
# The callbacks that may be specified are (in order):
#
# :loading:: Called when the remote document is being
# loaded with data by the browser.
# :loaded:: Called when the browser has finished loading
# the remote document.
# :interactive:: Called when the user can interact with the
# remote document, even though it has not
# finished loading.
# :success:: Called when the XMLHttpRequest is completed,
# and the HTTP status code is in the 2XX range.
# :failure:: Called when the XMLHttpRequest is completed,
# and the HTTP status code is not in the 2XX
# range.
# :complete:: Called when the XMLHttpRequest is complete
# (fires after success/failure if they are
# present).
#
# You can further refine :success and :failure by
# adding additional callbacks for specific status codes.
#
# Example:
# # Generates: hello
# link_to_remote word,
# :url => { :action => "action" },
# 404 => "alert('Not found...? Wrong URL...?')",
# :failure => "alert('HTTP Error ' + request.status + '!')"
#
# A status code callback overrides the success/failure handlers if
# present.
#
# If you for some reason or another need synchronous processing (that'll
# block the browser while the request is happening), you can specify
# options[:type] = :synchronous.
#
# You can customize further browser side call logic by passing in
# JavaScript code snippets via some optional parameters. In their order
# of use these are:
#
# :confirm:: Adds confirmation dialog.
# :condition:: Perform remote request conditionally
# by this expression. Use this to
# describe browser-side conditions when
# request should not be initiated.
# :before:: Called before request is initiated.
# :after:: Called immediately after request was
# initiated and before :loading.
# :submit:: Specifies the DOM element ID that's used
# as the parent of the form elements. By
# default this is the current form, but
# it could just as well be the ID of a
# table row or any other DOM element.
# :with:: A JavaScript expression specifying
# the parameters for the XMLHttpRequest.
# Any expressions should return a valid
# URL query string.
#
# Example:
#
# :with => "'name=' + $('name').value"
#
# You can generate a link that uses AJAX in the general case, while
# degrading gracefully to plain link behavior in the absence of
# JavaScript by setting html_options[:href] to an alternate URL.
# Note the extra curly braces around the options hash separate
# it as the second parameter from html_options, the third.
#
# Example:
# link_to_remote "Delete this post",
# { :update => "posts", :url => { :action => "destroy", :id => post.id } },
# :href => url_for(:action => "destroy", :id => post.id)
def link_to_remote(name, options = {}, html_options = nil)
link_to_function(name, remote_function(options), html_options || options.delete(:html))
end
# Periodically calls the specified url (options[:url]) every
# options[:frequency] seconds (default is 10). Usually used to
# update a specified div (options[:update]) with the results
# of the remote call. The options for specifying the target with :url
# and defining callbacks is the same as link_to_remote.
# Examples:
# # Call get_averages and put its results in 'avg' every 10 seconds
# # Generates:
# # new PeriodicalExecuter(function() {new Ajax.Updater('avg', '/grades/get_averages',
# # {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true})}, 10)
# periodically_call_remote(:url => { :action => 'get_averages' }, :update => 'avg')
#
# # Call invoice every 10 seconds with the id of the customer
# # If it succeeds, update the invoice DIV; if it fails, update the error DIV
# # Generates:
# # new PeriodicalExecuter(function() {new Ajax.Updater({success:'invoice',failure:'error'},
# # '/testing/invoice/16', {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true})}, 10)
# periodically_call_remote(:url => { :action => 'invoice', :id => customer.id },
# :update => { :success => "invoice", :failure => "error" }
#
# # Call update every 20 seconds and update the new_block DIV
# # Generates:
# # new PeriodicalExecuter(function() {new Ajax.Updater('news_block', 'update', {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true})}, 20)
# periodically_call_remote(:url => 'update', :frequency => '20', :update => 'news_block')
#
def periodically_call_remote(options = {})
frequency = options[:frequency] || 10 # every ten seconds by default
code = "new PeriodicalExecuter(function() {#{remote_function(options)}}, #{frequency})"
javascript_tag(code)
end
# Returns a form tag that will submit using XMLHttpRequest in the
# background instead of the regular reloading POST arrangement. Even
# though it's using JavaScript to serialize the form elements, the form
# submission will work just like a regular submission as viewed by the
# receiving side (all elements available in params). The options for
# specifying the target with :url and defining callbacks is the same as
# +link_to_remote+.
#
# A "fall-through" target for browsers that doesn't do JavaScript can be
# specified with the :action/:method options on :html.
#
# Example:
# # Generates:
# #
# <% form_remote_tag :url => '/posts' do -%>
#
<%= submit_tag 'Save' %>
# <% end -%>
def form_remote_tag(options = {}, &block)
options[:form] = true
options[:html] ||= {}
options[:html][:onsubmit] =
(options[:html][:onsubmit] ? options[:html][:onsubmit] + "; " : "") +
"#{remote_function(options)}; return false;"
form_tag(options[:html].delete(:action) || url_for(options[:url]), options[:html], &block)
end
# Creates a form that will submit using XMLHttpRequest in the background
# instead of the regular reloading POST arrangement and a scope around a
# specific resource that is used as a base for questioning about
# values for the fields.
#
# === Resource
#
# Example:
# <% remote_form_for(@post) do |f| %>
# ...
# <% end %>
#
# This will expand to be the same as:
#
# <% remote_form_for :post, @post, :url => post_path(@post), :html => { :method => :put, :class => "edit_post", :id => "edit_post_45" } do |f| %>
# ...
# <% end %>
#
# === Nested Resource
#
# Example:
# <% remote_form_for([@post, @comment]) do |f| %>
# ...
# <% end %>
#
# This will expand to be the same as:
#
# <% remote_form_for :comment, @comment, :url => post_comment_path(@post, @comment), :html => { :method => :put, :class => "edit_comment", :id => "edit_comment_45" } do |f| %>
# ...
# <% end %>
#
# If you don't need to attach a form to a resource, then check out form_remote_tag.
#
# See FormHelper#form_for for additional semantics.
def remote_form_for(record_or_name_or_array, *args, &proc)
options = args.extract_options!
case record_or_name_or_array
when String, Symbol
object_name = record_or_name_or_array
when Array
object = record_or_name_or_array.last
object_name = ActionController::RecordIdentifier.singular_class_name(object)
apply_form_for_options!(record_or_name_or_array, options)
args.unshift object
else
object = record_or_name_or_array
object_name = ActionController::RecordIdentifier.singular_class_name(record_or_name_or_array)
apply_form_for_options!(object, options)
args.unshift object
end
concat(form_remote_tag(options), proc.binding)
fields_for(object_name, *(args << options), &proc)
concat('', proc.binding)
end
alias_method :form_remote_for, :remote_form_for
# Returns a button input tag with the element name of +name+ and a value (i.e., display text) of +value+
# that will submit form using XMLHttpRequest in the background instead of a regular POST request that
# reloads the page.
#
# # Create a button that submits to the create action
# #
# # Generates:
# <%= submit_to_remote 'create_btn', 'Create', :url => { :action => 'create' } %>
#
# # Submit to the remote action update and update the DIV succeed or fail based
# # on the success or failure of the request
# #
# # Generates:
# <%= submit_to_remote 'update_btn', 'Update', :url => { :action => 'update' },
# :update => { :success => "succeed", :failure => "fail" }
#
# options argument is the same as in form_remote_tag.
def submit_to_remote(name, value, options = {})
options[:with] ||= 'Form.serialize(this.form)'
options[:html] ||= {}
options[:html][:type] = 'button'
options[:html][:onclick] = "#{remote_function(options)}; return false;"
options[:html][:name] = name
options[:html][:value] = value
tag("input", options[:html], false)
end
# Returns 'eval(request.responseText)' which is the JavaScript function
# that +form_remote_tag+ can call in :complete to evaluate a multiple
# update return document using +update_element_function+ calls.
def evaluate_remote_response
"eval(request.responseText)"
end
# Returns the JavaScript needed for a remote function.
# Takes the same arguments as link_to_remote.
#
# Example:
# # Generates: