[html-formfu] Dojo and HTML::FormFu

[Ferruccio Zamuner]

Hello,

I'm trying to resume HTML::FormFu::Dojo from svn, it's old and it was 
not working anymore:

 - dojo has changed since last release
 - html::formfu has improved too

I've fixed DropdownDatePicker and at least it's rendering now pass the 
test and I've started to fix also Editor2 element,
but there are some things about html::formfu that I don't understand:

1) in render() it created an hash with some keys like javascript to use 
in string() to stringify element.
    Which is the hash key where to store xhtml rendered?

2) I like dojo (http://www.dojotoolkit.org/) for its declarative way to 
describe widgets like:

   <div dojoType="dijit.form.Button" label="foo">
    <script type="dojo/method" event="onClick">
      // some jascript code to handle click event on foo button.
    </script>
   </div>

   <input dojoType="dijit.form.ValidationTextBox" size="30" name="bar" 
required="true" invalidMessage="You need to fill this field" 
promptMessage="This is the bar field" />

   To make this happen I need to write some javascript in page head:

   <!-- the init part -->
    <script type="text/javascript">
       var djConfig={    parseOnLoad: true };
    </script>

  <script type="text/javascript"
    src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/dojo/1.3/dojo/dojo.xd.js">
  </script>
 
 <!-- end init part -->

 <!-- the variable part for each kind of widget I need -->

   <script type="text/javascript">
      dojo.require('dijit.form.Button');
      dojo.require('dijit.form.ValidationTextBox');
   </script>

   <!-- end of variable part -->

   Can I introduce another %render key for render the variable part?

3) the old HTML::FormFu::Dojo is quite old and it makes some trouble 
using programmatic inline javascript creation of widget:
    when the browser parses them, some part of dojo may be in loading 
phase yet and not ready.
    But programmatic creation of dojo widgets may be wanted (for 
validation issues for example) then it could be fine to make it
   possible placing a <script> section just at the end of the page body:

    ...
    <script type="text/javascript">
       dojo.addOnLoad(function () {
          var foo_button = new dijit.form.Button({label: 'foo'}, 
dojo.query('someCssSelectorHere'), 'after');
           // ... some code about foo_button handling
         var bar_input = new dijit.form.ValidationTextBox({name: 'bar', 
required: true, promptMessage: 'bar field'}, 
dojo.query('someOtherCssSelectorHere', 'after');
      });
    </script>
    </body>

    I suppose that it requires another key in the render hash too for 
delayed javascript insertion at end of the page, isn't it?


4) some dojo widgets are for layout only and they have not any form 
field element like dijit.TitlePane but they have children elements that 
can be form fields (dojox.widget.wizard for example), some other like 
dijit.form.ValidationTextBox are field and we need to html::formfu to 
process them.  I suppose that a process() function in elements with 
field can be enough to handle them.
Isn't it?

5) Another power of dojo is that it permits to define quite easy some 
custom and compound widgets, but they can be useless if
html::formfu don't permit to declare them easly.
Is there any quick guide about hot to write brand new html::formfu elements?
 

Best regards,                               \fer