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Dynaspan

Gem Version Code Climate

JSFiddle Demo

Dynaspan is an AJAX tool for Rails to update one field of any object without interfering with your website experience. The user will see the web page as normal text. Where ever you've placed a Dynaspan field people can click on the text and it transforms into text entry. As soon as the person moves away from that entry it sends the update to the server.

Dynaspan also accepts updating an attribute for a nested object, but only 1 level deep.

Installation

  • Add gem 'dynaspan' to your Gemfile
  • Run bundle
  • Next add include Dynaspan::ApplicationHelper inside your ApplicationHelper module
  • Add //= require dynaspan/dynaspan to your application.js file

And it's installed!

Usage

Simple example:

dynaspan_text_field(user, :name)

And that's it. As long as you have a User object with a name field, this will update through the UserController's update method. user is an User Object instance eg: user = User.first.

Polymorphic/Nested Example #1:

dynaspan_text_field(@article, comment, :note, '[edit]')

Polymorphic/Nested Example #2:

dynaspan_text_field(profile, profile.websites, :url, '[edit]',
                     {
                       hidden_fields: {page_name: 'page2'},
                       callback_on_update: "alert('Awesome!');"
                     }
                   )

This will show the value of note in the comment object as plain text. It can be clicked on to instantly become a text field input. And once unselected the @article object will update with its nested attribute object comment and its new value in the note attribute.

You can use either dynaspan_text_field or dynaspan_text_area in any of your views. There are two mandatory parameters. The first is a the main Object model instance you will be updating. And the other mandatory field is the symbol of the attribute to update. There are two optional fields. The first is the nested attribute object which will have its field updated. And the last is the optional text for [edit]-ing (clicking on to edit which is useful for blank fields).

dynaspan_text_field(Object,OptionalNestedObject,SymField,OptionalEditText,OptionalOptionsHash)
dynaspan_text_area(Object,OptionalNestedObject,SymField,OptionalEditText,OptionalOptionsHash)
dynaspan_select(Object,OptionalNestedObject,SymField,OptionalEditText,OptionsHash)

The order is important. And yes it does NOT change even if you just do:

dynaspan_text_field(Object,SymField)

It is unconventional but the order remains the same despite the optional fields.

Parameters

The first parameter will always be the Object that will have its update method called. It must be an instance of the Object. For example current_user being an instance of User.

The second parameter can be a symbol of the field you want to update on the main Object from the first parameter.

The second field can also be a has_one or has_many subset of the first argument moving the symbol to modify to the third argument. For example dynaspan_text_field(author, author.stories, :title). This works as a nested attribute so it includes Polymorphic Objects.

The last two parameters can be edit text, and then additional options (in that order). Both are optional. The edit text is a way to be able to click somewhere to open up the input to initially enter text.

The options Hash currently has these options.

  • :hidden_fields will put in as many hidden fields as you include in a Hash with key->value matching to name->value
  • :callback_on_update is a no frills callback. It runs whatever command you give it whenever Dynaspan submits an update to the server
  • :callback_with_values will allow you to put a JavaScript command you want called on update and include as many parameters as you'd like. It will dynamically append a last parameter which is a Hash of two values. The first is the CSS selector id of the Dynaspan block that just performed the action, the second value is the actual text that was entered. The keys in this Hash are ds_selector and ds_input
  • :unique_id allows custom ID labelling. This is no longer recommended to be used as the in-built method is thorough in its uniqeness.
  • :form_for allows adding or over-writing any form_for parameter (besides the object being written to). This takes a Hash of parameters just like you would give in a view for your form_for form. If you have a namespaced object to update use the url: option in the hash for the path to use in updating your object.
  • :html_options add your own html options to the input field. Includes ability to add additional classes with html_options: {class: "example"}. :id, :onfocus, and :onblur are reserved.
  • :choices used for dynaspan_select for the choices of the select box.
  • :options used for dynaspan_select for the options of the select box; such as :disabled, :prompt, or :include_blank.
  • &block used only with dynaspan_select for passing a block to Rails' form select method.

How it updates

The AJAX call will call the update method on your first Object parameter via PATCH. The optional nested attribute and the symbol for the field are all part of the main Object being updated. There is no expected AJAX reply. It's a silent set it and forget it method. If you don't have your update method configured with a .js response then it will successfully perform the update on the object, and then send a complaint about a response but no one will notice (unless maybe you look at the server logs). In other words the client experience is only good, and the server won't hiccup over it.

It's too easy!

You're welcome!

-- Daniel P. Clark

Styles

As of version 0.0.6 a class will be dynamically added/removed to a div tag containing the class "dyna-span". That class is "ds-content-present". The purpose of this class is to allow CSS content styles depending on whether your text exists or not. The '[edit]' text you can use as a parameter normally drops below the input box. If you don't want it to drop you can style it with the proper CSS selector for content present. E.G. .ds-content-present > dyna-span-edit-text { margin-top:-18px; } You can set the height to whatever your input field height is to maintain the position of the edit text.

In version 0.0.7 I've added a class to the parent div object for when the text field dialog is open. The class is "ds-dialog-open". This is also to use in CSS styles. This feature was added since CSS doesn't support calling parents with selectors. Example usage:

.ds-content-present > .dyna-span-edit-text {
  margin-top:-18px;
}

.ds-dialog-open > .dyna-span-edit-text {
  margin-top:-24px;
}

What's New

Version 0.1.4 & 0.1.5

Use display name rather than value from option. And enum behavior may be prone to change so added safeguard scenario.

Version 0.1.3

Changed :unique_id to work based on the object being rendered and some additional random characters in case the same object will be used more than once.

Added :html_options add your own html options to the input field. Includes ability to add additional classes with html_options: {class: "example"}. :id, :onfocus, and :onblur are reserved.

Added dynaspan_select for having a select box dynamically appear.

  • Added :choices used for dynaspan_select for the choices of the select box.
  • Added :options used for dynaspan_select for the options of the select box; such as :disabled, :prompt, or :include_blank.
  • Added &block used only with dynaspan_select for passing a block to Rails' form select method.

Version 0.1.2

Added unique_id parameter to the options Hash allowing custom ID labelling which is ideal for JavaScript generated usage.

Added form_for parameter to allow adding or over-writing any form_for parameter (besides the object being written to). If you have a namespaced object to update use the url: option in the hash for the path to use in updating your object.

Version 0.1.1

Added a JavaScript callback that will append a Hash/Dictionary of the updated Dynaspan Object to the end of your functions parameters. The method is named callback_with_values.

{
  callback_with_values: "console.log();"
}

This will be called everytime the Dynaspan field submits and it will inject the following result as the last parameter:

{
  ds_selector: "dyna_span_unique_label<#>",
  ds_input:    "the entered text from the input field"
}

Version 0.1.0

Added the same hidden_fields from version 0.0.8 to support non-nested Objects. You can use them now on anything.

Version 0.0.9

JavaScript callback option now available. Whenever the Dynaspan field is submitted you can have Dynaspan call your own JavaScript method.

{
  callback_on_update: "someMethod('some-relative-instance-value');"
}

Version 0.0.8

You can now provide an option hash as a last parameter. Current valid options only include:

{
  hidden_fields: { label: "value" }
}

You can add as many hidden fields to your Dynaspan objects as you'd like.

NOTE: In this version hidden fields only applies to nested attributes.

Also the id parameter will only be passed to the server if it exists. (No more empty string for id.) This allows you to create "new" polymorphic child objects with Dynaspan.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (C) 2014-2016 by Daniel P. Clark

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.