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Renderer API

This page provides a reference for the functions available for using the Renderer.

Primary Renderer Functions

selfRender

var templates = fluid.selfRender(node, tree, options);

Return: the original parsed template.

A simple driver for single node self-templating. Treats the markup for a node as a template, parses it into a template structure, renders it using the supplied component tree and options, then replaces the markup in the node with the rendered markup, and finally performs any required data binding. The parsed template is returned for use with a further call to fluid.reRender().

Parameters

node

Either a raw DOM node in the current document, or else a JQuery object representing one. The markup in this node will be used as the template for rendering, and the node will be replaced with the rendered output.

tree

A Javascript Object representing a component tree. See Renderer Component Trees for more information.

options

A JavaScript object used to configure the details of the rendering process. Unlike options for most Fluid components, this structure sometimes has a bi-directional aspect - it can be used for returning information about the rendering process back to the client, as well as for receiving it. Here is a list of the supported fields and types within the Renderer options:

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Field

Description

Type

In/Out

model

Perhaps the most important parameter, contains the "data model" to which value bindings expressed within the tree will be expressed.

free Object

Mostly In, but the supplied model may be written to later as a result of servicing user actions, especially if the parameter autoBind is supplied.

applier

a ChangeApplier object associated with the model

ChangeApplier

In

autoBind

If set, any user modification of fields with valuebindings s set will immediately be reflected in the current state of the supplied model

boolean

In

document

If set, will cause the rendered ids to be uniquified against the supplied document, rather than the current one

document

In

debugMode

If set, mismatches between template and component tree will be highlighted in an unreasonable garish pink colour

boolean

In

idMap

This map operates in conjunction with the identify decorator which may be attached to nodes in the component tree. Whilst rendering takes place, this map will fill up with a lookup from the supplied nickname to the finally rendered id

free Object

In/Out

messageLocator

Configures the lookup from (I18N) messages referenced in the component tree, to some source of a message bundle

function(key, args)->message

In

messageSource

Will construct a messageLocator from a raw bundle specification via a call to fluid.resolveMessageSource

MessageSource structure

In

renderRaw

Will XMLEncode the rendered markup before insertion into the document. Can be useful for debugging

boolean

In

cutpoints

This is properly a directive to the parser, rather than the renderer, but the options structure is shared. This contains a list of pairs of id, selector which will be used to impute an rsf:id structure onto a document, by means of matching the paired selector

Array of Cutpoint object

In

reRender

var templates = fluid.reRender(templates, node, tree, options);

Return: the original parsed template.

fluid.reRender() is identical to fluid.selfRender(), except that it uses the supplied templates (the first parameter) as the template instead of the node parameter. This is useful for re-rendering a template that has been previously rendered.

The options for fluid.reRender() are identical to those of fluid.selfRender().

Sneak Peek: render

New in v1.3: The new fluid.render function will eventually be the primary means of using the renderer, and will automatically be included in components created using the Sneak Peek fluid.initRendererComponent() component initialization function. It is available in Infusion version 1.3 as a sneak peek, to allow users to play with it and provide us with feedback.

var something = fluid.render(source, target, tree, options);

Return: the original parsed template.

A simple driver for single node self-templating. Treats the markup for a node as a template, parses it into a template structure, renders it using the supplied component tree and options, then replaces the markup in the node with the rendered markup, and finally performs any required data binding. The parsed template is returned for use with a further call to fluid.reRender().

Parameters

source

Either a structure {node: node, armouring: armourstyle} or a string holding a literal template

target

The node to receive the rendered markup

tree

As for fluid.selfRender: A Javascript Object representing a component tree. See Renderer Component Trees for more information.

options

As for fluid.selfRender: A JavaScript object used to configure the details of the rendering process.

Renderer Utility Functions

explode

"Explodes" a section of data model to a flat section of component tree bound against the data. This is suitable only in very straight-forward cases of data binding, where each field in a model can be associated with a piece of markup with a corresponding rsf:id representing a UIBound component.

var tree = fluid.explode(hash, basepath)

Parameter

Type

Description

hash

Object

A section of data model representing a flat hash of keys to values

basepath

String

An optional prefix to be placed on the EL path supplied to the generated UIBound components

For example, the following hash:

var hash = {sku: "thing1", description: "explodes"}

could be exploded to

    [{ID: "sku",
     value: "thing1",
     valuebinding: "1.sku"},
    {ID: "description",
     value: "explodes",
     valuebinding: "1.description"}
     ]

if supplied with fluid.explode(hash, "1").

explodeSelectionToInputs

A common markup representation is of a UISelect component as a series of named radio-buttons or checkboxes, in successive rows of a table (in comparison to its natural HTML representation as a <select> tag). This framework function automates the work of generating the additional component tree material to back this representation:

var tree = fluid.explodeSelectionToInputs(optionlist, opts)

Parameter

Type

Description

optionlist

Array of String

The raw list of options which are available for choice - in general, the value held at optionlist in the parent UISelect control

opts

Object

An options structure to guide the explosion process - described below

Return

Component Tree

A section of component tree which should be added to the same container as the parent UISelect control.

The opts structure has the following keys, all of which must be supplied:

Member

Type

Description

rowID

String

The rsf:id to be given to each successive row component (UIContainer) - this id must contain a colon

inputID

String

The rsf:id to be given to the UIBound control rendered in each row - this will generally peer with a checkbox or radio button

labelID

String

The rsf:id to be given to the UIOutput label control rendered in each row - this will generall peer with an HTML <label> element

selectID

String

The rsf:id which has already been given to the parent UISelect control from which the rendered tree should be backed. This control is expected to be in the same container where the rendered subtree is placed.

Following rendering, the returned subtree needs to be added to the same container as the parent UISelect control by the user - for example, here is a compact call showing compound copying, explosion and addition, where selection_tree directly holds the UISelect control:

var tree = {children: [fluid.copy(selection_tree)].concat(
    fluid.explodeSelectionToInputs(selection_tree.optionlist, explode_options("radio")))};

The explode_options function sourcing the options could have been implemented as:

var explode_options = function(type) {
    return {
    selectID: "select",
    rowID: type + "-row:",
    inputID: type,
    labelID: "label"
    };
};

Other Important Renderer Functions

fetchResources

New in v1.3: In Infusion v1.3, the API of fluid.fetchResources has changed. Please see our new documentation for more information: fluid.fetchResources.

For v1.2 and earlier:

fluid.fetchResources(resourceSpecs, callback)

fluid.fetchResources automates the likely tedious work of performing multiple back-to-back AJAX requests for resource (be they markup, JSON or otherwise) and collecting the responses. It operates on a basic resourcesSpecs structure which is a hash of objects with a particular layout. The keys in resourceSpecs represent a unique key to represent each resource specification. On conclusion of all of the fetches, the function callback will be called with the now filled-in resourceSpecs structure as argument. The fields in a resourcesSpec entry are as follows:

Field

Direction

Purpose

href

In

A full resolvable URL holding a template or template fragment. This will be fetched via AJAX and used to populate the resourceText entry. NOTE that if this value is provided, the nodeId will be ignored.

nodeId

In

The id of a node within the current document holding a template, for which innerHTML is to be treated as a template. NOTE that if href is provided, this value will be ignored.

baseURL

Out

Computed from href, in order to rebase local URLs in the template.

resourceText

Out

The full text of the template fragment, as a string

fetchError

Out

Filled in if the AJAX request to fetch the resource failed. It will be populated with a structure status: response status, textStatus: textual version of status, and errorThrown: holding details of an exception.

queued

Out

A reserved flag by the system to track the progress of AJAX calls

The filled-in resourceSpecs structure is suitable for passing directly as the argument to the low-level function fluid.parseTemplates.

parseJavaProperties

  var messageSource = fluid.parseJavaProperties(text)

The Java Properties File Format is a well-specified and common but rather baroque format for storing messages used to internationalise an application. A good tool chain exists for this structure although its main deficiency is that it is not directly Unicode-ready. An application without a legacy background might want to consider encoding the same information directly in a JSON structure. This call converts a textual representation of a .properties file in this format into the equivalent JSON structure, with a key for each property key, and a value consisting of the properly unescaped message format. The resultant structure is a suitable argument for the fluid.messageLocator function to create an active message locator.

Parameter

Type

Description

text

String

String form of the contents of a Java-formatted properties file

Return

MessageSource

JSON form of parsed file

fluid.parseTemplates

The driver for parsing a multiple template set:

  var templates = fluid.parseTemplates(resourceSpec, templateList, opts)

Parses a set of textual representations of templates into a complex binary form, suitable for rapid rendering against a component tree. This is part of the low-level functionality which is packaged by high-level calls such as fluid.selfRender.

Parameter

Type

Description

resourceSpec

ResourceSpecs structure

A hash of ResourceSpec objects, as returned from fetchResources

templateList

Array of String

A list of the keys within resourceSpec which should be be parsed into a template structure for this call. The first entry in the list represents the "root template" at which rendering will start.

opts

Object

Options to guide the parsing process - see options

Return

Templates structure

A complex structure holding the parsed templates. In general this should not be accessed by users, but passed around to rendering functions as an immutable object.

renderTemplates

The driver for rendering a template set against a component tree:

var markup = fluid.renderTemplates(templates, tree, options, fossilsIn);

Parameter

Type

Description

templates

Templates structure

A parsed template structure as returned from fluid.parseTemplates or fluid.selfRender

tree

Component Tree

A Renderer Component Tree

options

Object

Options to guide the rendering process - see options

fossilsIn

Object

A hash of component "submitting name" to a Fossil structure consisting of name, EL, oldvalue. In general not of direct interest to users, but can be ferried around as a mutable structure indicating renderer UI state.

Return

String

A string holding the markup rendered by the renderer for this pass