Dynamic HTML Values and AJAX

["Stewart, Gary" <Ga...@luht.scot.nhs.uk>]

Hi people,

I'm using CForms in Cocoon 2.1.8 and I've run into a bit of a problem (I sort of posted about this a while back so a bit of this is a repost). I was trying to feed some HTML into the form to provide output to the user. To do this I use a pipe that generates XML output and then I try and serialize that into the document using the JX template stuff that looks like:

	<jx:set var="xhtmlString" value='${widget.getChild("op-list").getValue()}' />
  	<jx:out value="${Packages.org.apache.cocoon.xml.StringXMLizable(xhtmlString)}" />

Unfortunately that doesn't dynamically regenerate when the op-list value has changed (if anyone knows how to make it do that under AJAX that would be the best solution by far).

If I go for a straight up output then I just get the <div><p>Moo</p></div> tags displayed. I looked at serialization on the forms-field-styling.xsl, as XSLT 1.0, and therefore Xalan (AFAIK) doesn't have a serialize function I looked at creating one that looked something like this:

<!--This is an extension script to add serialization as a function-->
  <xalan:component prefix="custom" functions="serialize">
    <xalan:script lang="javascript">
      function serialize(xmlString)
      {
        var output = Packages.org.apache.cocoon.xml.StringXMLizable(xmlString);
        if(output == null)
        { output = "Oh Dear"; }
        return output;
      }
    </xalan:script>
  </xalan:component>

but that just generated NULL values so I gave up on that.

I even wrote a stylesheet to convert the HTML into Text and just use output but IE seems to ignore the line breaks on the <pre /> tag when you insert it in dynamically (damn IE).

Any ideas on how to get the AJAX stuff to display this dynamically when the value changes?

Thanks,

Gary

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Re: Dynamic HTML Values and AJAX

[Jason Johnston <co...@lojjic.net>]

Stewart, Gary wrote:
> Hi people,
> 
> I'm using CForms in Cocoon 2.1.8 and I've run into a bit of a problem
> (I sort of posted about this a while back so a bit of this is a
> repost). I was trying to feed some HTML into the form to provide
> output to the user. To do this I use a pipe that generates XML output
> and then I try and serialize that into the document using the JX
> template stuff that looks like:
> 
> <jx:set var="xhtmlString"
> value='${widget.getChild("op-list").getValue()}' /> <jx:out
> value="${Packages.org.apache.cocoon.xml.StringXMLizable(xhtmlString)}"
> />
> 
> Unfortunately that doesn't dynamically regenerate when the op-list
> value has changed (if anyone knows how to make it do that under AJAX
> that would be the best solution by far).

You should be able to get the AJAX framework to update that snippet of 
code by wrapping it in a bu:replace element when it needs to be updated. 
  Anything that is wrapped in a bu:replace will be sent to the browser 
in the AJAX response and updated in the page.

<jx:set var="xhtml">
   <div id="op-list-xhtml">
     <jx:set var="xhtmlString"
value='${widget.getChild("op-list").getValue()}' />
     <jx:out 
value="${Packages.org.apache.cocoon.xml.StringXMLizable(xhtmlString)}"/>
   </div>
</jx:set>
<jx:choose>
   <jx:when test="${cocoon.request.getParameter('cocoon-ajax') != null}">
     <bu:replace id="op-list-xhtml"
             xmlns:bu="http://apache.org/cocoon/browser-update/1.0">
       ${xhtml}
     </bu:replace>
   </jx:when>
   <jx:otherwise>${xhtml}</jx:otherwise>
</jx:choose>

That's untested but should be along the lines of what you need.  Notice 
the <div> with the identical id attribute as the only child of 
bu:replace - this is the element that will be inserted into the page, 
and its id marks it as the target for future updates.

You'll also probably want to add logic to only add the bu:replace when 
the widget's value has been udpated.  Since you're already importing the 
CForms jx-macros file you'll have access to the 'cformsHelper' variable 
which is a helper class that has some tools for this sort of thing.

Hope that helps
--Jason


> 
> If I go for a straight up output then I just get the
> <div><p>Moo</p></div> tags displayed. I looked at serialization on
> the forms-field-styling.xsl, as XSLT 1.0, and therefore Xalan (AFAIK)
> doesn't have a serialize function I looked at creating one that
> looked something like this:
> 
> <!--This is an extension script to add serialization as a function-->
>  <xalan:component prefix="custom" functions="serialize"> 
> <xalan:script lang="javascript"> function serialize(xmlString) { var
> output = Packages.org.apache.cocoon.xml.StringXMLizable(xmlString); 
> if(output == null) { output = "Oh Dear"; } return output; } 
> </xalan:script> </xalan:component>
> 
> but that just generated NULL values so I gave up on that.
> 
> I even wrote a stylesheet to convert the HTML into Text and just use
> output but IE seems to ignore the line breaks on the <pre /> tag when
> you insert it in dynamically (damn IE).
> 
> Any ideas on how to get the AJAX stuff to display this dynamically
> when the value changes?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Gary

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