Assistance with Ajax design and refactoring for efficiently rendering new content such as list items and divs

Question

Assistance with Ajax design and refactoring for efficiently rendering new content such as list items and divs

There is a recurring issue that I often encounter where I find myself duplicating markup, and I am unsure of how to address it. Let me present a common scenario:

Imagine we want to add comments to an article. Below the article content, there are existing comments generated by the templating engine (such as Freemarker or PHP) when the page was initially loaded.

Whenever a user adds a new comment, we need to create a new li element and include it in the list of comments on the current page. This li will contain various elements like:

The user's avatar
Their name
A link to their profile or to send a private message
The text of their comment
The date of the comment
"Edit" and "Delete" buttons if the logged-in user has permission for these actions.

All of these elements are already defined in the original template that generated the page, so now we must replicate them using JavaScript!

We can employ another templating language, such as jQuery's Template plugin, to help with creating and inserting this new li block. However, this still results in duplicate HTML markup that may differ slightly because we lack macros or similar features provided by the initial templating language.

How can we eliminate this duplication? Is it feasible, or must we simply accept it? What approaches are considered best practices for resolving this issue?

javascript ajax templates refactoring duplication

Answer 1

Answer №1

As the user interface becomes more complex, it is common to encounter challenges with making changes on both the server and client templates. One solution is to use the same template markup on both sides by writing template processors in JavaScript and the server-side language.

There are two alternative solutions to this issue:

Handle everything on the client side
Handle everything on the server side

If all markup generation occurs on the client side, the server essentially functions as a web service that sends back data in formats such as JSON or XML. The client generates the necessary HTML and JS, defining clear boundaries between server and client responsibilities. Error codes must be well-defined, and state management can become challenging due to asynchronous server interactions.

$('#add-comment').click(function() {
    var comment = $('#comment-box').text();
    $.ajax('http://example.com/add', {
        success: function() {
            addCommentRow(comment);
        },
        ...
    });
});

function addCommentRow(comment) {
    var user = currentUser().name;

    var html = "<li><b>{user}</b> says {comment}</li>";
    html = html.replace("{user}", user).replace("{comment}", comment);

    var item = $('<li>').html(html);
    $('#comments').append(item);
}

The other option is to handle everything server-side, sending requests to the server whenever a change occurs for an updated view. Fast response times and clear indicators of network activity can make the application responsive despite server-side processing. This approach may be simpler if the application does not heavily rely on AJAX functionality like Google Maps.

$('#add-comment').click(function() {
    $.ajax('http://example.com/add', {
        success: function(response) {
            $('#comments').html(response);
        },
        ...
    });
});

This server-side approach shifts markup generation to the server but may be easier to work with depending on the application's complexity and need for maintaining state client-side. Ultimately, the choice between these approaches depends on the specific requirements of your project.

Answer 2

As the user interface becomes more complex, it is common to encounter challenges with making changes on both the server and client templates. One solution is to use the same template markup on both sides by writing template processors in JavaScript and the server-side language.

There are two alternative solutions to this issue:

Handle everything on the client side
Handle everything on the server side

If all markup generation occurs on the client side, the server essentially functions as a web service that sends back data in formats such as JSON or XML. The client generates the necessary HTML and JS, defining clear boundaries between server and client responsibilities. Error codes must be well-defined, and state management can become challenging due to asynchronous server interactions.

$('#add-comment').click(function() {
    var comment = $('#comment-box').text();
    $.ajax('http://example.com/add', {
        success: function() {
            addCommentRow(comment);
        },
        ...
    });
});

function addCommentRow(comment) {
    var user = currentUser().name;

    var html = "<li><b>{user}</b> says {comment}</li>";
    html = html.replace("{user}", user).replace("{comment}", comment);

    var item = $('<li>').html(html);
    $('#comments').append(item);
}

The other option is to handle everything server-side, sending requests to the server whenever a change occurs for an updated view. Fast response times and clear indicators of network activity can make the application responsive despite server-side processing. This approach may be simpler if the application does not heavily rely on AJAX functionality like Google Maps.

$('#add-comment').click(function() {
    $.ajax('http://example.com/add', {
        success: function(response) {
            $('#comments').html(response);
        },
        ...
    });
});

This server-side approach shifts markup generation to the server but may be easier to work with depending on the application's complexity and need for maintaining state client-side. Ultimately, the choice between these approaches depends on the specific requirements of your project.

Assistance with Ajax design and refactoring for efficiently rendering new content such as list items and divs

Answer №1

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