Is there any standards or messaging framework for AJAX?
Right now I have a single page that loads content using Ajax. Because I had a complex form for data entry as part of my content, I need to validate certain events that can occur in my form. So after some adjustments driven by my tests:
asyncShould("search customer list click", 3, function() {
stop(1000);
$('#content').show();
var forCustomerList = newCustomerListRequest();
var forShipAndCharge = newShipAndChargeRequest(forCustomerList);
forCustomerList.page = '../../vt/' + forCustomerList.page;
forShipAndCharge.page = 'helpers/helper.php';
forShipAndCharge.data = { 'action': 'shipAndCharge', 'DB': '11001' };
var originalComplete = forShipAndCharge.complete;
forShipAndCharge.complete = function(xhr, status) {
originalComplete(xhr, status);
ok($('#customer_edit').is(":visible"), 'Shows customer editor');
$('#search').click();
ok($('#customer_list').is(":visible"), 'Shows customer list');
ok($('#customer_edit').is(":hidden"), 'Does not show customer editor');
start();
};
testController.getContent(forShipAndCharge);
});
Here is the controller for getting content:
getContent: function (request) {
$.ajax({
type: 'GET',
url: request.page,
dataType: 'json',
data: request.data,
async: request.async,
success: request.success,
complete: request.complete
});
},
And here is the request event:
function newShipAndChargeRequest(serverRequest) {
var that = {
serverRequest: serverRequest,
page: 'nodes/orders/sc.php',
data: 'customer_id=-1',
complete: errorHandler,
success: function(msg) {
shipAndChargeHandler(msg);
initWhenCustomer(that.serverRequest);
},
async: true
};
return that;
}
And here is a success handler:
function shipAndChargeHandler(msg) {
$('.contentContainer').html(msg.html);
if (msg.status == 'flash') {
flash(msg.flash);
}
}
And on my server side I end up with a JSON structure that looks like this:
$message['status'] = 'success';
$message['data'] = array();
$message['flash'] = '';
$message['html'] = '';
echo json_encode($message);
So now loading content consists of two parts:
HTML, this is the presentation of the form.
DATA, this is any data that needs be loaded for the form
FLASH, any validation or server errors
STATUS tells client what happened on server.
My question is: Is this a valid way to handle event messaging on the client-side or am I going down a path of heartache and pain?
