Is development going into AJAX?

(Daniel Kolvik) #1

Hi,


since many operations are POST based I'm starting to belive that using AJAX would speed up those parts.



Is this something that are in the pipe for 4.0+ maybe?

(Avi Miller) #2

Yes. In fact, you'll notice that a lot of functions in the Administration Interface in v3.6 (and moreso in v3.8) already use AJAX functionality.

(Daniel Kolvik) #3

Ok… already in 3.6…? Do you have any example?




Think you should pitch that more! It's a good sell point these days.

(Greg Sherwood) #4

In a word, yes, but no details yet.

(Avi Miller) #5

[quote]Ok… already in 3.6…? Do you have any example?
[right][post=“9116”]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]



There are a few places where you can select more than one asset type (for example) that uses a mix of DHTML and AJAX to expand the selection boxes.



We also use AJAX to update the Inbox while you’re reading Matrix messages.



Those are a few that I remembered.

(Daniel Kolvik) #6

Ok,


I was more thinking of when Acquiring/release locks, and when HIPO jobs are runnig.

(Marcus Nyeholt) #7

Frontend wise you can use ajax in your implementations yourself… there's a JsHttpConnector.js file that you can reference via <system_root_url>/__lib/js/JsHttpConnector.js. Take a look through that file for how to use it, but if you're careful with how you set up your assets, you should be able to do things like assetlist pagination or searches using ajax.

(Daniel Kolvik) #8

Thanks for the tip!


I'll check that out.

(Andrew Lill) #9

I've tried using the AJAX functionality included in Matrix with mixed success.


I can modify the example file to reference pages on a static website, for example to www.example.org/__filesystem/index.html, but I can't include a page from within Matrix. In this case I get a javascript transmit error - unknown runtime error.



Has anyone had any success with this?

(Avi Miller) #10

Interesting. I've never tried it before, myself. :slight_smile:

(Andrew Lill) #11

I did manage to get this working after simplifying things a bit.

(Daniel Kolvik) #12

Hi,


please post more info on how you got it working.



I'm really interested in this module.

(Andrew Lill) #13

To get it up and running in a basic fashion, create a page that includes the external javascript at /__lib/js/JsHttpConnector.js


Then follow the instructions in <system root>/docs/example_code/JsHttpConnectorDemo.html to include another file within a div on your page.

(P Moulding) #14

Is there a move toward a standard Ajax library such as jQuery? :rolleyes: The libraries take a few minutes longer to learn and then offer heaps of advantages, including working in every useful browser.


I prefer jQuery because jQuery selectors include CSS and XPath which means you do not have to learn a proprietary selection language. You can use Ajax, Ahah, and Json in any mixture. Matrix specific actions could easily be added as a library wrapped around jQuery.



jQuery is available under both GPL and MIT licenses which means jQuery can be buried in Matrix without requiring a separate download.

(P Moulding) #15

http://nordiskmat.se/ is a nice looking site. I was becoming hungry for all the lovely food until the moose appeared.


I notice most of the image tags are correctly formatted while some have no closing slash:

<IMG height=104 alt=Stenar src=“http://nordiskmat.se/__data/assets/image/113/stenar.jpg” width=182 border=0>



A good content editor could create the correct format for the element. If the content editor is enhanced with Ajax, it could look up the height, width, alt and other attributes for the image so that none of the attributes are missing. Is Matrix 4.0 content creation headed that way?



Using the above image as an example, an Ajax enhanced editor could accept a couple of letters, st, then autocomplete to stenar.jpg and update an image preview box. If the editor and Ajax library are both GPL and MIT, they can be shared by Matrix, IPB, and everything else on a site which means content contributors, forum users, comment creation, and email editing can all look and work the same.

(Avi Miller) #16

HTML Tidy should be used to ensure that all the code is XHTML compliant. HTML Tidy has not been enabled on that site.

We are not going to be changing the WYSIWYG Editor that is used in MySource Matrix. The next version (MySource 4.0) will ship with its own, new, unique WYSIWYG editor.