Creating a component that requires a callback:

Hi, I'm pretty new to seaside, and it's only parttime, but well, I'm
anyway trying to implement some sort of AMChartsComponent
(www.amcharts.com) (I find it nicer and better than PlotKit)

It should't be tricky, however, two things are making my process very slow:

I have the flash component rendered already, with some javascript code
to configure it, however, one of the arguments I need to supply to a
javascript call is a URL to an XML file. Maybe I can make this XML file
be static, and then use AMChartsLibrary / #something, but maybe I need
to dynamically create this XML, and hence I want to have some sort of
callback: mechanism, so Seaside creates a dynamic URL, and the block
answers with the XML. My question is, how do I create a component like
this? suppose my renderContentOn: today looks something like:

html script: 'doSomethingRequiringURL("http://localhost/seaside/blah");'

I guess I could somehow turn it into:

html script: 'doSomethingRequiringURL(', (AMChartLibrary /
#lahpreparedXML) asJavascript,  ');'

but I'd really like to do something more like

html amchart
    settings: [:xml | xml blah...]

for example.

And then, inside this XML there is another URL, that points to the data
source to plot. I'm still not sure how the interface to all this will
look like, but I certainly want this URL to again, be generated dinamically.

so, a couple of questions.

. How do I create a component that uses something like the callback
mechanism? (how do I get seaside to generate the URL for me and do all
its magic)
. Do you have any design ideas on how I should better implement this? I
guess I'll try to follow how PlotKit is used, so the interfaces to the
two are somehow compatible.

Right now I only want a quick hack, but eventually, if this finally
works and I somehow like it, I'll contribute it... of course, if
somebody has already done it, I'm more than willing to reuse :)

    thanks!
    richie
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2008/11/21 Gerardo Richarte <[hidden email]>:
What you're about to do is pretty advanced in terms of Seaside use.
You'll be confronted with implementation details that the normal
component developer never comes in contact with.

You have more or less four choices what you can subclass: WAComponent,
WATask, WACompound or building your own factory like Scriptaculous (or
JQuery).

WACompound isn't really an official public class and is merely used
for implementation of WADateInput and WATimeInput. However if you want
your classes to be used through the html canvas you have to use
WACompound because WAComponent and WATask instances have to be
reachable through #children or #call:.

WAComponent and WATask have state that persists over multiple
requests. They can very well take a block and evaluate it at some
given time.

For building XML consider making your own canvas. Have a look at RSRSS
for an example.

A possible quick hack could look like this:

WAComponent subclass: #ChartComponent
    instanceVariableNames: 'settingsBlock'

    settingsBlock: aNoArgumentBlock
        settingsBlock := aNoArgumentBlock

    callbackUrlFor: aNoArgumentBlock using: aCanvas
        ^aCanvas context actionUrl copy addParameter: (aCanvas
callbacks registerActionCallback: aNoArgumentBlock)

    settingsXml
        self session returnResponse: (WAResponse
            document: (SettingsCanvas builder
                fullDocument: true;
                render: settingsBlock))
            mimeType: 'text/xml')

    renderContentOn: html
        html script: 'doSomethingRequiringURL(', self  callbackUrlFor:
[ self settingsXml  ]');'

While probably not the nicest implementation it should be enough to
get you started.

PlotKit sends all the data to the client in the JavaScript, not
callbacks are made or supported. PlotKit also uses components and not
compounds.

Other places where you can look for inspiration are Scriptaculous
(generates XML and JS dynamically for the client, can be used through
the html canvas) and Sextant (SVG with callbacks).

AFAIK DabbleDB uses flash for at least some of their charts so maybe
they can help you as well.

Cheers
Philippe
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Philippe Marschall wrote:
> What you're about to do is pretty advanced in terms of Seaside use.
> You'll be confronted with implementation details that the normal
> component developer never comes in contact with.
>
>  
    heh, I hope to manage :)
>     renderContentOn: html
>         html script: 'doSomethingRequiringURL(', self  callbackUrlFor:
> [ self settingsXml  ]');'
>  
    thanks a lot, I think this'll give me a kick start.
> PlotKit sends all the data to the client in the JavaScript, not
> callbacks are made or supported. PlotKit also uses components and not
> compounds.
>  
    yeah, I noticed. But this flash component I'm trying to use
loads stuff from a URL (and in the meantime it puts a nice
"loading" message). My dataset is large, so I prefer this other
approach.

    Now, I found another way to do it, and I don't need to generate
the configuration XML in a callback anymore, but I still want a
callback for the data itself. I'll try to manage with your example.
> Other places where you can look for inspiration are Scriptaculous
> (generates XML and JS dynamically for the client, can be used through
> the html canvas) and Sextant (SVG with callbacks).
>  
    Yeah, I dived into its code, but got lost quite quickly :(
> AFAIK DabbleDB uses flash for at least some of their charts so maybe
> they can help you as well.
>  

uhm... interesting idea. I'll take a look, the do have a few controls
that look like what I want to do.

    Thanks for the ideas.
    richie
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You might want to take a look at a very similar implementation of
FusionCharts I did a while ago. The fileout is quite old and the
implementation evolved substantially internally and sharing that might
be a bit of an issue, but it should certainly show you enough to get
started.

http://www.fusioncharts.com/

They aren't free, but that's what DabbleDB is using, I believe.

-Boris

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Vancouver, Canada V6C 2T5
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-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gerardo
Richarte
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 9:43 AM
To: Seaside - general discussion
Subject: Re: [Seaside] Creating a component that requires a callback:

Philippe Marschall wrote:
> What you're about to do is pretty advanced in terms of Seaside use.
> You'll be confronted with implementation details that the normal
> component developer never comes in contact with.
>
>  
    heh, I hope to manage :)
>     renderContentOn: html
>         html script: 'doSomethingRequiringURL(', self  callbackUrlFor:
> [ self settingsXml  ]');'
>  
    thanks a lot, I think this'll give me a kick start.
> PlotKit sends all the data to the client in the JavaScript, not
> callbacks are made or supported. PlotKit also uses components and not
> compounds.
>  
    yeah, I noticed. But this flash component I'm trying to use
loads stuff from a URL (and in the meantime it puts a nice
"loading" message). My dataset is large, so I prefer this other
approach.

    Now, I found another way to do it, and I don't need to generate
the configuration XML in a callback anymore, but I still want a
callback for the data itself. I'll try to manage with your example.
> Other places where you can look for inspiration are Scriptaculous
> (generates XML and JS dynamically for the client, can be used through
> the html canvas) and Sextant (SVG with callbacks).
>  
    Yeah, I dived into its code, but got lost quite quickly :(
> AFAIK DabbleDB uses flash for at least some of their charts so maybe
> they can help you as well.
>  

uhm... interesting idea. I'll take a look, the do have a few controls
that look like what I want to do.

    Thanks for the ideas.
    richie
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Boris Popov wrote:
> You might want to take a look at a very similar implementation of
> FusionCharts I did a while ago.

thanks a lot!!! I'll get back to you with news :)

    richie
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hi Boris,

from your code:

(URL encode:
    (canvas
        mooCallback:
            [:render | ...

I think that's exactly what I'm looking for, but I don't have the class
URL, nor
the method mooCallback: :-(

    any hints? I guess I'm missing some components, sorry for the stupid
question :(

    richie
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It's a helper method that creates a generic action callback that will
render a response. I have Seaside-Mootools loaded so I guess that code
makes use of it, but it's not really specific to (or even dependent on)
MooTools per se.

-Boris

--
+1.604.689.0322
DeepCove Labs Ltd.
4th floor 595 Howe Street
Vancouver, Canada V6C 2T5
http://tinyurl.com/r7uw4

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-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gerardo
Richarte
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 11:35 AM
To: Seaside - general discussion
Subject: Re: [Seaside] Creating a component that requires a callback:

hi Boris,

from your code:

(URL encode:
    (canvas
        mooCallback:
            [:render | ...

I think that's exactly what I'm looking for, but I don't have the class
URL, nor
the method mooCallback: :-(

    any hints? I guess I'm missing some components, sorry for the stupid
question :(

    richie
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[hidden email]
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