HTML Include Tool (portal_html_includes)

This will be a tool for centralized management of javascript and css files. Currently, javascript and css files are included by ERP5 in two ways:

• hardcoded in global_definitions

• added by fields which define Widget.get_javascript_list or Widget.get_css_list methods (e.g. PlanningBox)

The tool should:

• allow adding custom includes easily without having to overwrite anything, both manually and through business templates engine
• manage global (default) includes as well as those added by fields
• support caching and merging includes to reduce traffic and save on server resources

API

Currently the API is:

• registerFile add a file to the set, per request

  • a.k.a. register and append - which is best?

• extend add a number of files (a list of names)

• registerCode add a raw code (js or css)

• getIncludeCode get a cooked code to be inserted directly into a page's html - returns something like:

<script src=".../erp5/erp5.js"></script>
<script>
(some Javascript code)
</script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href=".../erp5/erp5.css"/>
<style>
(some css code)
</style>

Usage

requires erp5_xhtml_style_experimental which contains modified versions of global_definitions and some other page templates

• in /erp5/manage_main add "Experimental Tool" -> Javascript Tool

• in Properties tab type in extra javascripts

• in /erp5/manage_main add "Experimental Tool" -> CSS Tool

• in Properties tab type in extra stylesheets

These will be always added; apart from that, evey script or ZPT can add its own css/javascript files or code; this is handled per request.

These tools go together with ZPTs from erp5_xhtml_style_experimental. The default js and css are still defined in global_definitions, though they are now handled by portal_css and portal_javascript.

Next steps

Decide on final API

Define in business templates

The best (I think) way to handle core and extra css and js is to include the files in portal_skins per bt5, and define in bt5 properties which files should be added to the default file set (in a similar fashion to skin layers).

Cache and merge

The tool will have a merging and caching mechanism; the idea is to do it as follows:

• when asked to cook a code first calculate a hash of all file names which should be used in the cooked code
• concatenate all these files and cache using the hash as key (or skip if the key is already there)
• return a tag referring to the tool with the hash in the url
• when called with a hash, return the concatenated code from cache