Add AjaxOperation framework

[jamsilver]

So basically this adds the gubbins for making custom Ajax requests to the server from javascript without particularly being in the context of a DOM element in the way Drupal.ajax assumes.

It also adds the server-side gubbins for specifying what should happen on this ajax request and what ajax commands should be returned.

See the PHPDoc at the top of includes/ajax_operations.inc for full details of how it all works.

The use case I am in which is using this is:

1. We have been provided with a flatbuild which has a custom jQueryUI tabs widget, it does an ajax request to get the contents of the request.
2. By swapping out it's call to jQuery.ajax() with CMToolsAjaxOperation() we get a couple of important bits of functionality for free that come with the Drupal Ajax framework:
   • Auto-loading of any extra CSS and Javascript needed to display the tab not already on the page (very important)
   • The ability to communicate in ajax commands - e.g. allowing arbitrary other functionality to be added/altered onto the ajax response
3. Through judicious use of the direct callback functionality/command which CMToolsAjaxOperation supports it wasn't even that difficult to swap out the call to jQuery.ajax() with Drupal.CMToolsAjaxOperation!!

[darthsteven]

@jamsilver Why is there a patch file in the change request?

[darthsteven]

@jamsilver Can you provide a minified version of this javascript for inclusion in production?

[jamsilver]

I didn't make this a library / with minified options etc simply because I was following ctool's model (as the cm_tools module has been doing). Does it matter that much?

[darthsteven]

We're better than ctools :)

Yeah, we should do this all proper like, with minified versions and hook_library implementation.

[stevetweeddale]

Minified options++ Front end perf is by and large lots of small cumulative wins.

On Thursday, 8 August 2013 at 12:05, James Silver wrote:

In js/ajax-operations.js:

@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ > +(function($) {
I didn't make this a library / with minified options etc simply because I was following ctool's model (as the cm_tools module has been doing). Does it matter that much?

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub (https://github.com/computerminds/cm_tools/pull/12/files#r5654917).