Put javascript in external file with MVC Razor (dynamic) - javascript

An example is the easiest way to explain this one. I am working with code that has lots of javascript inside <script> tags on the actual page. I normally like to put javascript in external files (plus then it's better for refactoring when you find things in common across many pages). The difficulty is that the code if full of dynamic function names, class names and ids... like this:
function handlePosData#(mySuffix)(data) {
$('#myDiv#(mySuffix)').css('cursor', 'auto');
if (data && data.length > 0) {
$('#lstPos#(mySuffix)').data('kendoGrid').dataSource.data(data);
}
}
mySuffix is a GUID generated at the top of the the Razor code
(I am brand-new to this codebase, so don't ask me WHY it is like this. The web app can have many different popups open at once, and I am assuming this is a solution to the need to ensure unique names ... )
Any ideas how to enable keeping the same scheme, but with external javascript files?

I take it these functions are called from your razor page (rather than an external js file). If so you can do the following:
Change the function so it is standard and instead of using the razor directly in the function, use a js variable:
// this can be moved to external js
function handlePosData(data, mySuffix) { // pass in mySuffix to function so it is a js var
$('#myDiv' + mySuffix).css('cursor', 'auto');
if (data && data.length > 0) {
$('#lstPos' + mySuffix).data('kendoGrid').dataSource.data(data);
}
}
Then in your razor code, you just call the function like this:
handlePosData(data, '#(mySuffix)'); // not sure what your data is so just left that as a var that you pass in

Related

apply IF statement from a JS to only a particular html file

Screen width as a condition to redirect to other url during on load
-I'm trying to do this for only specific html pages, but can't seem to unless I put the redirect function (given in the link) as a script within the specific HTML page I want to invoke this.
Here is a breakdown of what I have/need
I have 3 files (desktop.html, mobile.html, script.js).
I want the desktop.html to redirect (or load) automatically the mobile.html if the screen width is < 992px.
The code I want to use will be kept in a separate JS file which is called script.js, this file already has a bunch of named functions that are within a variable. All the named functions (so far) are triggered when the user clicks on a button that corresponds. But I wont have a button that 'triggers' for redirecting to mobile.html page, as it should be automatic if the screen width is < 992px
Example of JS file
var name = {
first: function() {
<---! Does something when a button is pushed on my site --->
},
second: function() {
<---! Does something when a different button is pushed on my site --->
},
window.onload = redirectMobileHandler();
window.onresize = () => redirectMobileHandler();
function redirectMobileHandler() {
const width = Math.max(document.clientWidth || 0, window.innerWidth || 0);
if(width < 992) {
window.location = 'https://linktoyourmobilesite.com';
}
}
};
The HTML files reference the JavaScript files, so you have two options to only trigger that logic for one of your three HTML files:
Only link to the JavaScript file containing the logic in the target HTML file, by creating a new .js file that contains that logic (say index.js):
index.html
<link rel='index.js'>
index.js
var name = {
...
}
Reference the same JavaScript file in all three HTML files, but only call that function from within the target HTML file:
index.html
<button onclick='indexOnly()'>Button</button>
main.js
function indexOnly() {
var name = {
...
}
}
The latter option is preferable, as you can then make use of a template / header to handle loading all JavaScript files in a single location.
There is also technically a third option (though it is really just a combination of the two). If you use a framework like Angular, React or Vue, you'll get the concept of components, which automatically split this logic out for you, using encapsulation.
If I understand you correctly, you want to include the script to the target html file dynamically?
If so, there are numerous ways to accomplish this, for example:
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = 'script.js';
document.body.appendChild(script);
You can find more examples here.
However, I am not exactly sure what exactly you want to achieve. Please clarify, if my assumption is wrong.

In my asp.net-mvc file, how can I move my javascript to a seperate js file?

I have a bunch of javascript inside my view and its getting quite large so I want to move it to a separate js file. The one issue I have is that I have this line:
var tags = <%= new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(Model.Tags) %>;
which I obviously can't just copy over since it has the server side asp.net-mvc tags. What is the recommended way to deal with that:
Keep this one function inside the aspx page and have the javascript from the seperate js file call that function?
Other??
What you could do is have a JavaScript object contain all the information you get from the controller and pass it through a javascript function which is located in the external javascript file. You can also pass other information through the options variable.
Example:
var options = {
tags: <%= new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(Model.Tags) %>
};
initPage(options);
Usage:
function initPage(options) {
console.log(options.tags);
}
This depends a lot on the way you want to use it and the level of repeating.
Some thoughts:
The tags are static. Then I guess then don't really need to be in the model. So you can move them into a new Controller action which outputs the scipt. You can call this action in the <script> part of your view.
The tags are changing very frequently (maybe even at every page load). Then there is no gain in moving this in a separate script file.
If you set up your javascript file with proper closures, you can expose a property (or better yet, a parameter to the object/method) with which to pass that information along when you call that function.
Your Javascript would need to be something like this:
var JsFile = (function() {
var tags;
// list all of your methods here.
return {
var setTags = function(_tags) {
tags = _tags;
}
};
})();

Better JavaScript Organisation and Execution The Unobtrusive Way - Self-Executing Anonymous Func

I'm slowly getting a better understanding of JavaScript but I'm stuck on how best to tackle this particular organization/execution scenario.
I come from a C# background and am used to working with namespaces so I've been reading up on how to achieve this with JavaScript. I've taken what was already starting to become a large JavaScript file and split it out into more logical parts.
I've decided on a single file per page for page specific JavaScript with anything common to two or more pages, like reusable utility functions, in another namespace and file.
This makes sense to me at the moment and seems to be a popular choice, at least during the development process. I'm going to use a bundling tool to combine these disparate files for deployment to production anyway so anything that makes development more logical and easier to find code the better.
As a result of my inexperience in dealing with lots of custom JavaScript I had a function defined in the common JavaScript file like this:
common.js
$(document).ready(function () {
var historyUrl = '/history/GetHistory/';
$.getJSON(historyUrl, null, function (data) {
$.each(data, function (index, d) {
$('#history-list').append('<li>' + d.Text + '</li>');
});
});
});
This is obviously far from ideal as it is specific to a single page in the application but was being executed on every page request which is utterly pointless and insanely inefficient if not outright stupid. So that led me to start reading up on namespaces first.
After a bit of a read I have now moved this to a page specific file and re-written it like this:
Moved from common.js to historyPage.js
(function(historyPage, $, undefined) {
historyPage.GetHistory = function () {
var historyUrl = '/history/GetHistory/';
$.getJSON(historyUrl, null, function (data) {
$.each(data, function (index, d) {
$('#history-list').append('<li>' + d.Text + '</li>');
});
});
};
}( window.historyPage = window.historyPage || {}, jQuery ));
I found this pattern on the jQuery Enterprise page. I'm not going to pretend to fully understand it yet but it seems to be a very popular and the most flexible way of organizing and executing JavaScript with various different scopes whist keeping things out of the global scope.
However what I'm now struggling with is how to properly make use of this pattern from an execution point of view. I'm also trying to keep any JavaScript out of my HTML Razor views and work in an unobtrusive way.
So how would I now call the historyPage.GetHistory function only when it should actually execute ie: only when a user navigates to the History page on the web site and the results of the function are required?
From looking at the code, it would seem that the easiest test would be to check if the page you are on contains an element with an id of history-list. Something like this:
var $histList = $('#history-list');
if($histList.length > 0){
// EXECUTE THE CODE
}
Though if it really only ever needs to run on one given page, maybe it's just not a good candidate for a shared javascript file.
Using the code I have detailed above in the question I have gotten it working by doing the following:
In _Layout.cshtml
#if (IsSectionDefined("History"))
{
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
#RenderSection("History", required: false)
});
</script>
}
In History.cshtml
#section History
{
historyPage.GetHistory();
}
The code is executing as required only when the user requests the History page on the web site. Although the comment from #Dagg Nabbit above has thrown me a curve ball in that I thought I was on the right track ... Hmm ...

How to do per-page javascript with the Rails asset pipeline

I understand that for performance reasons it is better to let the asset pipeline concatenate and minify all my javascript and send the whole lot with every page request. That's fair enough
However, a bunch of my javascript is things like binding specific behaviours to specific page elements - stuff like
$('button').click(function(e) { $('input.sel').val(this.name); }
and I would feel more comfortable if I knew that this code was being executed only on that page - not on evey other page which might coincidentally have elements with the same IDs or which matched the same selectors How do people deal with this?
I would rather not put all this stuff inline in elements, just because when it gets to be more than about two lines long, keeping javascript correctly indented inside an .html.erb file is more work than it needs to be
Here is what I do (based on some stackoverflow answers):
application_helper.rb
def body_page_name
[controller_name.classify.pluralize, action_name.classify].join
end
application.html.haml
%body{data: {page: body_page_name}}
application.js
$(function() {
var page = $("body").data("page");
if("object" === typeof window[page])
window[page].init();
});
And in appropriate js file there's an object called ControllerAction:
tickets.js
var TicketsShow = new function() {
var self = this;
self.init = function() {
// code which may call other functions in self
};
};
There's probably better way to do it, but this works for me
I'll describe what I currently do, just in case it gives anyone a better idea
1) I changed the 'body' tag in my application.html.erb to add the current controller and action as data- attributes
<body data-controller="<%= controller.controller_name %>"
data-action="<%= controller.action_name %>" >
2) I test this at the top of the relevant javascript
$(document).ready(function() {
if($('body').data('controller')=='stories') {
$('.story').click(function(e) {
var u=$(this).data('url');
u && (document.location=u);
});
}
});
I can't decide if I think this is a good idea or not
For page specific JavaScript, I typically do something like this:
Application Helper
In the application helper I create a class attribute (though you could just as well use a data attribute instead).
module ApplicationHelper
def body_attributes
controller = params[:controller].gsub('/', ' ')
action = params[:action]
version = #version ? "version_#{#version}" : nil
{
class: ([controller, action, version] - [nil]).join(' ')
}
end
end
Note I'm also adding a version string. This helps with Google content experiments, and makes A/B testing a breeze.
Application.html.haml
In my global layout file, I do something like this to insert the attributes on the body tag:
!!! 5
%html
%head
...
%body{body_attributes}
script.js
Now in my page specific script, I just check for the class attributes, like this:
$(function () {
if ($('body.pledge.new, body.pledge.create').length > 0) {
// do work here...
}
});
The advantage of this method is that getting the body by class is very quick. The script inside the conditional will not be executed at all on any page apart than the ones I choose, so minimal overhead, and I don't need to change my selectors throughout the code.
EDIT
Note that this answer is now 3 years old. You should be using client-side routing with a framework like React instead.
I'd add a class to the BODY tag, allowing you to identify each page, and therefore each control per page.
<body class='page1'>
JS:
$('.page1 button').click(function(e) { $('input.sel').val(this.name); }
I've done it and seen it done in several different ways:
Rigging up the mvc to be able to load a particular js file per page, named along the same lines as a controller file. Like: <controller-name>.js
Making a url parser in JS and then setting a global variable to the current page: UrlParams.currentView = 'dashboard'; and then saying if(UrlParams.currentView == 'dashboard') { //do specific js here }
Setting a unique identifier as the page class or ID and then targeting that with your JS selectors. $('#dashboard').xyz();

How to get texts from Resx to be used in Javascript?

We are building large ASP.NET applications for the intranet use in multiple languages/cultures. We utilize the Globalization with RESX files and use GetResourceText on the server side to get the localized texts.
Lately we are doing more and more client side logic with JQuery.
How do I get the RESX texts to be used in Javascript?
e.g. texts used for validation, dynamic messages etc.
All our Javascripts are in .JS files, we do not want to mix HTML in the ASPX page and Javascript blocks.
Thanks for your help.
Unfortunately, in an external JS file the server side code is not being processed by the server. However I have seen a workaround where you can set your translated values in hidden fields on the page - this way your javascript will be able to read the values in.
For example:
<%-- This goes into your page --%>
<input type="hidden" id="translatedField" name="translatedField" value="<%=Resources.Resources.translatedText %>" />
and use this inside your javascript file:
// This is the js file
$(document).ready(function() {
alert($("#translatedField").attr("value"));
});
You will be able to separate the values and still see it in your external JS file.
There is also another workaround that creates a .aspx file that only outputs Javascript instead of HTML. Check out the link below:
Using server side method in an external JavaScript file
Always separate functionality from human readable strings.
If you're creating jQuery-plugins you should be able to pass an array of localized strings as parameter when you call your different jQuery functions. The array could be defined as inline javascript directly on the page calling the different jQuery plugins or you could load the from external resource in the format /scripts/localization/strings.js?ci=en-US and register a Generic ASP.Net Handler in web.config that would respond to scripts/localization/strings.js
The DatePicker control is a fine example of how to localize text for the jQuery datepick control - this js file is dynamically created from resource files (resx) and when included on a page it will make sure the calendar control will have danish text.
Create a HttpHandler (.ashx file), and return JSON with your text resource strings.
You may also "publish" it to global namespace, i.e.
Response.Write("window.Resources=");
Response.Write((new JavaScriptSerializer()).Serialize(strings));
set up HTML like:
<script src="Resx.ashx?lang=en-US" />
<button class="LogoutButtonResourceId OtherButtonClasses">(generic logout text)</button>
<a href="#"><span class="SomeLinkTextResourceId OtherClasses">
(generic link text)
</span></a>
and apply texts like this:
$(document).ready(function() {
for(var resId in Resources){
$("."+resId).html(Resources[resId]);
}
});
If you don't want to use ASP.NET to generate your main JavaScript, here are two other options:
Use ASP.NET to generate a script file that contains variable-to-string assignments, such as var mystring = 'my value';. Your main script would then reference the localized text with variables names rather than as embedded values. If that's still too "dirty" for you, you could encode the strings as JSON rather than as variable assignments, using an HttpHandler rather than straight .aspx.
Have your JavaScript code issue an Ajax call to retrieve an array or list of localized strings from the server. The server-side part of the call would retrieve the text from your resx files.
Have you considered using $.ajax in combination with ASP.NET WebMethods? It's hard to suggest a more concrete solution to this problem without understanding how your JavaScript/jQuery would consume/process the resources. I assume that they're organized into logical groups (or could be) where you could return several resource strings that belong on a single page.
Assuming that, you could write a very simple C# class -- or use a Dictionary<string, string> -- to return data from your ASP.NET WebMethod. The results would look something like:
[WebMethod]
public Dictionary<string, string> GetPageResources(string currentPage)
{
// ... Organizational stuff goes here.
}
I always separate out my AJAX calls into separate .js files/objects; that would look like:
function GetPageResources (page, callback)
$.ajax({ // Setup the AJAX call to your WebMethod
data: "{ 'currentPage':'" + page + "' }",
url: /Ajax/Resources.asmx/GetPageResources, // Or similar.
success: function (result) { // To be replaced with .done in jQuery 1.8
callback(result.d);
}
});
Then, in the .js executed on the page, you should be able to consume that data like:
// Whatever first executes when you load a page and its JS files
// -- I assume that you aren't using something like $(document).ready(function () {});
GetPageResources(document.location, SetPageResources);
function SetPageResources(resources) {
for (currentResource in resources) {
$("#" + currentResource.Key).html(currentResource.Value);
}
}
I know it's to late but want share my experience in this task)
I use AjaxMin. It can insert resx key values into js file on build event.
It's not common way but it keeps html without unneeded script blocks and can be done during minification process if you have it.
It works like this:
ajaxmin.exe test.js -RES:Strings resource.resx -o test.min.js
Also you need to do the same for ech locale if you have many.
Syntax to write resource keys in js (and also css) is written here:
Js localization
Css localization
How about injecting it as part of a javascript control initialization? what i do is as follows:
I have a self-contained javascript control - call it CRMControl, which has an init method called setupCRMControl, to which i pass a settings object. When i initialize it, i pass an object containing all the resources i need inside javascript as follows:
CRMControl.setupCRMControl({
numOfCRMs: 3,
maxNumOfItems: 10,
// then i pass a resources object with the strings i need inside
Resources: {
Cancel: '#Resources.Cancel',
Done: '#Resources.Done',
Title: '#Resources.Title'
}
});
Then, inside this javascript control:
var crmSettings = {};
this.setupCRMControl(settings) {
crmSettings = settings;
};
and whenever i want to show a resource, i say (for example, show an alert saying 'Done'):
alert(crmSettings.Resources.Done);
You can call it "R" to make it shorter or something, but this is my approach. Maybe this may not work if you have a whole bunch of strings, but for manageable cases, this may work.

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