J Query Ajax Helper

This page contains a set of example J Query Plugin helpers that can be used in wiki applications. The examples demonstrate how you can dynamically populate autocomplete enabled input boxes using J Query UIAutocomplete.

Examples are in two parts; a Client section and a Server section. The Client section is designed to be included into your topics using %INCLUDE. The Server section is expanded in response to an AJAX request from a jQuery plugin.

This page also acts as a library of some commonly-used form inputs. For example, the Topic selector example can be used in your own topics to define an HTML form input with the name newtopic by putting this in your topic:

%JQREQUIRE{"ui::autocomplete"}%
%INCLUDE{
 "%SYSTEMWEB%.JQueryAjaxHelper"
 section="topicselector"
 INPUT_NAME="newtopic"
 EXCLUDE="Web*"
}%

Note that the examples below are implemented using base Foswiki functionality. There are a range of plugins, such as Foswiki:Extensions.RenderPlugin, Foswiki:Extensions.FlexWebListPlugin and Foswiki:Extensions.DBCachePlugin that can be used to simplify or improve these sections when building up your own library of input types. Some examples of the use of these plugins are given at the end of this topic.

Topic selector

Select a topic in the current web. J Query UIAutocomplete is given a url that loads the topic section of this topic, which expands to the topic list.

Client section

INCLUDE Parameters

• INPUT_NAME: name (and id) of HTML input field
• INPUT_VALUE: preselected value
• PLACEHOLDER: example value
• EXCLUDE: exclude expression to filter out unwanted topics, see the excludetopic parameter in Var SEARCH

%STARTSECTION{"topicselector"}%<!-- topicselector  -->
<input type="text" class="foswikiInputField" name="%INPUT_NAME%" id="%INPUT_NAME%" %IF{"defined PLACEHOLDER" then="placeholder=\"%PLACEHOLDER%\""}% autocomplete="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryAjaxHelper?section=topic;skin=text;contenttype=application/json;baseweb=%BASEWEB%;%IF{"defined EXCLUDE" then="exclude=%EXCLUDE%"}%" size="60" value="%IF{"defined INPUT_VALUE" then="%INPUT_VALUE%"}%" />
<!-- //topicselector -->%ENDSECTION{"topicselector"}%

Server section

URL parameters

• term: search term substring typed so far
• limit: number of search results to return, defaults to 10
• baseweb: the web where to search for topics
• exclude: exclude expression to filter out unwanted topics

%STARTSECTION{"topic"}%[%SEARCH{
  "^%URLPARAM{"term" default="does not exist"}%.*"
  type="regex"
  scope="topic"
  format="<nop>%URLPARAM{"format" encode="safe,quote" default="{\\"label\\":\\"$topic\\", \\"value\\":\\"$topic\\"}"}%"
  separator=","
  limit="%URLPARAM{"limit" default="10"}%"
  nonoise="on"
  excludetopic="%URLPARAM{"exclude"}%"
  web="%URLPARAM{"baseweb" default="%BASEWEB%"}%"
}%]%ENDSECTION{"topic"}%

Example

Select a topic:

Web selector

Select from a list of webs, using autocomplete

Client section

INCLUDE Parameters

• INPUT_NAME: name of text input field
• INPUT_VALUE: preselected value
• PLACEHOLDER: example value

%STARTSECTION{"webselector"}%<!-- webselector  -->
<input type="text" class="foswikiInputField" name="%INPUT_NAME%" id="%INPUT_NAME%" %IF{"defined PLACEHOLDER" then="placeholder=\"%PLACEHOLDER%\""}% autocomplete="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryAjaxHelper?section=web;skin=text;contenttype=application/json;%IF{"defined EXCLUDE" then="exclude=%EXCLUDE%"}%" size="60" value="%IF{"defined INPUT_VALUE" then="%INPUT_VALUE%"}%" />
<!-- //webselector -->%ENDSECTION{"webselector"}%

Server section

URL parameters

• term: search term substring typed so far
• limit: number of search results to return, defaults to 10

%STARTSECTION{"web"}%%FLEXWEBLIST{
  include="^%URLPARAM{"term" default="does not exist"}%.*"
  ignorecase="on"
  limit="%URLPARAM{"limit" default="10"}%"
  header="["
  format="\"<nop>$web\""
  footer="]"
  separator=", "
  subheader=", "
  subfooter=" "
}%%ENDSECTION{"web"}%

Example

Select a web:

Install Foswiki:Extensions.FlexWebListPlugin to use this example

Jump box

Jump to specific topics.

Client section

INCLUDE Parameters

• GLOBAL: toggle search for topics in all webs on/off, defaults to off
• PLACEHOLDER: Example text

%STARTSECTION{"jumpbox"}%<!-- jumpbox -->
<input type="text" class="foswikiInputField jqJumpBox {%IF{
  "$GLOBAL = 'on'"
  then="global: true, baseweb:'all, -%TRASHWEB%'"
  else="global: false, baseweb:'%BASEWEB%'"
}%}" name="topic" %IF{"defined PLACEHOLDER" then="placeholder=\"%PLACEHOLDER%\""}% autocomplete="off" size="60" />
%ADDTOZONE{"script"
  tag="jumpbox::js"
  section="jumpbox::js"
  requires="JQUERYPLUGIN::UI::AUTOCOMPLETE"
}%
<!-- //jumpbox -->%ENDSECTION{"jumpbox"}%

The following section is used by the section above; it adds a special Javascript function to the page.

%STARTSECTION{"jumpbox::js"}%<literal>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function($){
  $(".jqJumpBox").each(function() {
    var $this = $(this), 
        opts = $.extend({}, $this.metadata());
    $this.autocomplete({
      source: foswiki.getScriptUrl('view', foswiki.getPreference('SYSTEMWEB'), 'JQueryAjaxHelper', {
        section: 'topic',
        skin: 'text',
        contenttype: 'application/json',
        baseweb: opts.baseweb,
      }),
      select: function(event, ui) {
        window.location.href = foswiki.getScriptUrl('view', undefined, ui.item.value);
      }
    });
  });
});
</script>
</literal>%ENDSECTION{"jumpbox::js"}%

Server section

Uses the topic server section, defined above.

Examples

Jump to a topic in the current web

Local Jump:

Jump to a topic in any web

Global Jump:

User selector

Client section

INCLUDE Parameters

• INPUT_NAME: name of text input field
• INPUT_VALUE: preselected user
• PLACEHOLDER: example value

%STARTSECTION{"userselector"}%<!-- userselector -->
<input type="text" class="foswikiInputField jqUserSelector" name="%INPUT_NAME%" id="%INPUT_NAME%" %IF{"defined PLACEHOLDER" then="placeholder=\"%PLACEHOLDER%\""}% autocomplete="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryAjaxHelper?section=user;skin=text;contenttype=application/json" size="60" value="%IF{"defined INPUT_VALUE" then="%INPUT_VALUE%"}%" />
%ADDTOZONE{"script"
  tag="userselector::js"
  section="userselector::js"
  requires="JQUERYPLUGIN::UI::AUTOCOMPLETE"
}%
<!-- //userselector -->%ENDSECTION{"userselector"}%

The following section is used by the section above; it adds a special Javascript function to the page.

%STARTSECTION{"userselector::js"}%<literal>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function($){
  $(".jqUserSelector").data("ui-autocomplete")._renderItem = function(ul, item) {
    if (typeof(item.label) !== 'undefined') {
      return $("<li></li>")
        .data("item.autocomplete", item)
        .append("<a><table width='100%'><tr><td width='60px'><img width='50' src='"+item.img+"' /></td><td>"+item.label+"<br />"+item.email+"</td></tr></table></a>")
        .appendTo(ul);
    }
  };
});
</script>
</literal>%ENDSECTION{"userselector::js"}%

Server section

URL parameters

• term: search term substring typed so far
• limit: number of search results to return, defaults to 10

%STARTSECTION{"user"}%<literal>%FORMAT{
  "%SEARCH{
     ".*%URLPARAM{"term" default="does not exist"}%.*"
     type="regex"
     scope="topic"
     format="$percntIF{\"'$percntGROUPINFO{\"$topic\" format=\"$dollarname, \" limit=\"1\"}$percnt'=''\"
          then=\"$percntUSERINFO{\"$topic\" format=\"$dollarwikiname, \"}$percnt\"
          else=\"$percntGROUPINFO{\"$topic\" format=\"$dollarname, \" limit=\"1\"}$percnt\"
        }$percnt"
     separator=""
     limit="%URLPARAM{"limit" default="10"}%"
     nonoise="on"
     web="%USERSWEB%"
  }%"
  type="string"
  header="[$n"
  format="  {\"label\":\"<nop>$item\", 
    \"email\":\"$percntUSERINFO{\"$item\" format=\"$emails\"}$percnt\", 
    \"img\":\"$percntFORMFIELD{\"Photo\" 
      topic=\"%USERSWEB%.$item\" 
      default=\"%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryPlugin/images/nobody.gif\" 
      alttext=\"%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryPlugin/images/nobody.gif\" 
    }$percnt\"
  }"
  separator=",$n"
  footer="$n]"
}%
</literal>%ENDSECTION{"user"}%

Example

Find user:

Query fetcher

Perform a %QUERY asynchronously (requires Foswiki 1.1 or later).

Client section

INCLUDE Parameters

• ID: id of an element to bind an onclick event to
• SOURCE: topic to get the field from
• QUERY: query to perform

%STARTSECTION{"queryfetcher"}%%ADDTOZONE{"script"
  tag="query::js"
  requires="JQUERYPLUGIN"
  text ="<literal>
<script type=\"text/javascript\">
jQuery(function($){
  $(\"#%ID%\").click(function() {
     $.get(foswiki.getScriptUrl('view', foswiki.getPreference('SYSTEMWEB'), 'JQueryAjaxHelper', {
          section: 'query',
          source: '%SOURCE%',
          query: '%QUERY%',
          skin: 'text'
         }),
         function(data) {
             // This is the function that will be executed when the
             // data is fetched
             alert('%QUERY% is ' + data);
         });
  });
});
</script></literal>
"}%%ENDSECTION{"queryfetcher"}%

Server section

URL parameters

• source: source topic
• query: query to perform

%STARTSECTION{"query"}%<noautolink>%QUERY{
  "'%URLPARAM{"source" default="%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%"}%'/%URLPARAM{"query" default="query missing"}%"
  style="json"
}%</noautolink>%ENDSECTION{"query"}%

Example

to get the parent of this topic asynchronously (should be 'JQueryPlugin')

Other selectors

Server sections for some other selectors that are common in wiki applications.

Formfield

Fetch a formfield from a topic asynchronously. Uses FORMFIELD, which is deprecated in Foswiki 1.1. Foswiki 1.1 and later should use QUERY

URL Parameters

• source: source topic
• formfield: name of formfiled to retrieve

Server section

%STARTSECTION{"formfield"}%%FORMFIELD{
  "%URLPARAM{"formfield" default="does not exist"}%"
  topic="%URLPARAM{"source" default="does not exist"}%"
}%%ENDSECTION{"formfield"}%

User photo

This one returns an <img...> to a user's photo. See the User selector example above.

URL Parameters

• name: name of user
• height: image height, defaults to 50

Server section

%STARTSECTION{"userphoto"}%<img src='%FORMFIELD{"Photo" topic="%USERINFO{"%URLPARAM{"name" default="does not exist"}%" format="$wikiusername"}%" default="%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryPlugin/images/nobody.gif" alttext="%PUBURLPATH%/%SYSTEMWEB%/JQueryPlugin/images/nobody.gif"}%' alt='%URLPARAM{"name"}%' height='%URLPARAM{"height" default="50"}%' />%ENDSECTION{"userphoto"}%

Expand TML

expand a TML expression in the given scope

Server section

URL parameters

• expression: TML to be evaluated; will be wrapped into %...% before executing it
• scope: optionally defines the topic within which the expression is expanded

%STARTSECTION{"expand"}%%EXPAND{"$percnt%URLPARAM{"expression"}%$percnt" scope="%URLPARAM{"scope" default="%BASEWEB%.%BASETOPIC%"}%"}%%ENDSECTION{"expand"}%