[Catalyst] Prototype help

[Alan Humphrey]

Thanks for the tip!  SACK is very easy to use, very lightweight.


-----Original Message-----
From: catalyst-bounces at lists.rawmode.org
[mailto:catalyst-bounces at lists.rawmode.org] On Behalf Of samwyse
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 9:49 AM
To: The elegant MVC web framework
Subject: Re: [Catalyst] Prototype help

On 7/25/05, Alan Humphrey <alan.humphrey at comcast.net> wrote:
> All - 
> This list has been a lifesaver in the past, I'm hoping it can come through
> again.  I'm trying to use Prototype/Ajax and I'm running into a brick
wall. 
> Here's the (simplified) scenario: 
>
> User comes to a page with a form with two entry fields.  One field is
ISBN,
> the other is Title. 
>
> User enters an ISBN.  On tabbing out of the field we do a look up to see
if
> the ISBN is already on file. 
> 
> If the ISBN is on file we return the title and display it in the Title
> field.  Otherwise we display a message above the title field asking for
> input. 
>
> After making changes/additions the user pressing the "save" button and the
> form is processed normally, saving the data to the database. 
>
> Part of my problem is that I'm new to JavaScript.  However, I have figured
> out how to declare a JS function and get it called from an 'onchange'
event.
>  So far so good.  My function extracts the current ISBN value from the
form.
>  Now: 
>             1 - How do I get that value passed to the server? 
>             2 - What does my server function have to do to return data? 
>             3 - How do I define the callback to deal with the returned
data?
> I see function names in Prototype that look promising, e.g.
> update_element_function, but I haven't been able to figure out how to
string
> them all together to get the job done. 
> 
> Pointers, help, advice - all are welcome! 

HTML::Prototype is certainly one way to go, but if you are looking for
something simpler you can also try SACK: 
http://twilightuniverse.com/2005/05/sack-of-ajax/