The Bundled Resource Plugin

1
The Bundled Resource Plugin

• A Better Way to Deal with Javascript and
  Stylesheet Dependencies in your Rails Applications

2
Cool Web 2.0 UI Components

• Lightbox JS
• Textarea Tools
• Dojo Editor
• qForms
• Dynarch Calendar
• Menus
• Etc.

3
The Manual Method
Option A

• Add javascript_include_tag and stylesheet_link_tag
  method calls within your applications layout.
• Assumes all views need the same resources.
• OK if you just have a handful of scripts or
  stylesheets.

4
The Manual Method
Option B

• Include ltstylegtlt/stylegt and ltscriptgtlt/scriptgt
  tags within each view.
• Allows views to specify their own dependencies.
• Doesnt work well for partials (multiple calls).
• No way to determine if a resource dependency has
  already been included somewhere else.
• Produces unorganized HTML output.

5
The Bundled Resource Method

• Add resource_tags to your layout.
• Call require_javascript or require_stylesheet in
  your view or partial.
• All script and link tags accumulate in the HEAD
  section.
• No duplicates, even if called 2 times.
• Bonus features

6
Bonus Features

• Resources whose names match controllers or
  actions are included automatically.
• Autoinclusion respects your controller class
  hierarchy.
• And of course, the natural extension of all this
  groundwork is

7
Bundles

• Call require_bundle name in the view files you
  know will need the named resource.
• Lets you easily group images, javascripts and
  stylesheets in to a single package (nice when you
  develop more than one Rails app)
• Same advantages as require_ calls so that you
  can specify your dependencies right at the source.

8
Lets See it in Family Connection
9
Engines, Plugins, Bundles and Components

• All of them have some functional overlap, but
  lets highlight their separate strengths
• Plugins provide a way for developers to extend
  the Rails core functionality
• Engines bring functional groups of models, views,
  controllers, helpers and resources together for
  your app, and provide a mechanism for overriding
  behaviors.
• Bundles bring resources and helpers together,
  primarily for isolated UI components.
• Components allow for re-use of controller/view
  pairs.

10
Lets Dissect a Plugin
11
Contact and Further Reading

• Duane Johnson duane_at_syncpeople.com
• Company http//syncpeople.com/
• My Blog http//blog.inquirylabs.com/
• My Delicious Bookmarks http//del.icio.us/duane.j
  ohnson