I have a very-simple php-based website.
I would like to add "subsribe for information" box and send it to some list-management tool.
I found that phplist is quite a good one. However, I don't find any api which allows me to subscribe users using ajax.
(I would like to avoid the pages of phplist in order to avoid confusion due to different design, and also I want the interface to be multi-language).
Of-course I can touch the code, but I doubt that it misses this feature, so I assunme I simply missed it.
Thanks!
Hopefully you have managed how to achieve this already. I have a different use case not requiring AJAX.
Anyway, I've found a script that tries to ease the addition of subscribers to your list. Maybe you could use it as the backend to support your AJAX request.
This is the thread in which the script is shared, as others have found it useful, also for unsuscribing users, even handling massive subscriptions/unsuscriptions:
http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5009
Finally, be aware this code is using PEAR DB abstraction layer, probably I'm going to use this but without the PEAR package.
I look forward for what you could do through AJAX and this functions.
Related
This question has been bugging me for quite some time now, I want to create a cms, a School Mnagement System to be more specific, and what matters to me the most, is making this system plugin based, in a way that administrators can download and install plugins right through their admin panel, just like wordpress.
Now I've read about wordpress Hooks, Actions and Filters, and in all honesty i can say i'm just a little familiar with their functionality, but to apply same functionality to a Laravel App... , It's a bit hard to figure out, at least for me.
I've also searched about this question and found out that almost everyone is suggesting packages, But while packages can work great for other developers wanting to get use of the package's functionality, they can't be easily installed by a user not familiar with any programming language, And that's exactly what i want in my application.
Now what i have in my mind so far, as in Wordpress Actions and Filters, almost everything one would want to use in Wordpress theme files ( to make that piece of code flexible for adding plugin functionality ) should be called as functions, and calling that function by Wordpress do_action() is kind of a must-take path, which of course makes sense.
This way plugin developers can just call add_action() / add_filter() in their files and put their plugins into the flow of the application.
So...
Basically what I'm asking here is:
How to apply such functionality to a laravel app?
Is there an easier way than calling everything by a function like do_action()?
Should i write some kind of a file management module for downloading and updating plugins?
Again I must say that I am not very familiar with wordpress ways to achieve this kind of functionality, So I may be wrong about some of the description I mentioned above, But please, I appreciate any clarification around this subject if you can.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
*P.S. I've tried to be as clear as I possibly can about the problem, And I'm not looking for any specific method for the system I`m developing.
What i want is to know Common / Best methods ( If there is a best method ) for achieving such functionality, preferably in Laravel, but a general algorithm would still be very appreciated.
I know lots of people have the same question and are tackling with the same issue, so if you even only provide a link to a useful article it would be great.*
I have been working as a Wordpress Developer for a very long time and I also have sufficient experience in Laravel... and to be honest, making this kind of functionality is not that difficult at all.
How?
First of all, you must understand that the web app that you will be making will have all the functionalities, but they can only be enabled/disabled from the front-end (Admin Panel/Dashboard). In other words, your School Management System app is actually having all the features/functionalities pre-installed, but you are just allowing the users to enable/disable it. This is much simpler.
So, if for eg. you want to provide someone attendance management functionality, you will have to give the admin of the site, the access to enable/disable it.
Why?
Wordpress has a built-in UI for adding/updating plugins. But in Laravel, everything is code based and therefore this I believe is the simplest way to go (especially for making things in your app pluggable).
Steps
Make a site with UI etc...
Create a config and migration file which will have the names of all the plugins you are going to allow the user to enable/disable.
Make a sync command that will sync all the plugins in your app.
Use it render a page from the front-end and manage their status from the back-end (is_active etc etc...)
Now once, these plugins are active, make sure the user (say moderator, editor) has access to manage them, for which you will obviously have to create roles/permissions and use Laravel Policies for such stuff.
Lastly, only the admin will have the enabling/disabling writes and no one else.
For the other part where you want the people to perform their own functions with filters/actions. I'd say this is completely contradictory to the part where you say Installing Laravel Packages isn't easy. Well, if you would really want a developer a way into this, why not straight away ask them to make a package for your app alone? Hmmmm.... Think about it :)
But, even then, if you would like to create such a functionality, create a simple class which the user can call and user its functions to call their own functions... Something like -> SMSPlugin::do_action(). But then again, making things like updating/deleting the plugin will require you to build your own Plugin Store and ask users to upload to it. Then you'll have to make an API to constantly check for updates for all the installed plugins and blah blah.... It's a really long procedure... And I don't believe that feasible too!
Hope I answered everything. Let me know in the comments if you have any doubts :)
I know it was 2 years ago, but for now you can achieve this with laravel with some packages:
So i think the steps will be:
Create new Laravel App and add some packages for BASIC admin UI and things you will need like:
Authentication (https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/authentication)
Roles and Permissions (https://github.com/spatie/laravel-permission)
Users managment
Modules (https://nwidart.com/laravel-modules/v4/introduction)
At this point you must configure and write a UI for manage every thing from every package mentioned.
So i think this is the way or at least some try to do it in 2019 :D
Happy new year to all!
There's a package for this, it supports version 5, didn't test yet with 6:
https://github.com/oneso/laravel-plugins
I'm still pretty new to AJAX and javascript, but I'm getting there slowly.
I have a web-based application that relies heavily on mySQL and there are individual user accounts that are accessed and the UI is populated with user specific data.
I'm working on getting rid of a tabbed navigation bar that currently loads new pages because all that changes from page to page is information within one box.
The thing is that box needs to reload info from the database, etc.
I have had great help from users here showing that I need to call the database within the php page that ajax is calling.
OK-so pardon the lengthy intro-what I'm wondering is are there any specific limitations to what ajax can call that I need to know about? IE: someone mentioned that it's best not to call script files and that I should remove scripts from the php page that is being called and keep those in the 'parent' page. Any other things like this I need to keep in mind?
To clarify: I'm not looking to discuss the merits/drawbacks of the technology. I'm wondering about specific coding implementation that I need to be aware of (for example-I didn't until yesterday realize that if even if I had established a mySQL connection on the page, that I would need to re establish that connection in my called page as well...makes perfect sense now).
XMLHttpRequest which powers ajax has a number of limitations. I recommend brushing up on the same origin policy. This is a pivotal rule because it limits where AJAX calls can be made.
First, you can't have Javascript embedded in the HTTP response to an AJAX call. That's a security issue.
No mention of the dynamics of the database, but if the data to be displayed in tabs doesn't have to be real-time, why not cache it server-side?
I find that like any other protocol, Ajax works best in tightly controlled conditions. It wouldn't make much sense for updating nearly the whole page, unless you find that the user experience is improved with an on-page 'loader'. Without going into workarounds, disadvantages will include losing the browser back button / history, issues such as the one your friend mentioned, and also embedded resources and other rich content can suffer as well, and just having an extra layer of complexity to deal with in your app. Don't treat it as magic sauce for your app - make sure every use delivers specific results that benefit your client / audience.
IMHO, it's best to put your client side javascript in a separate page and then import it - neater container. one thing I've faced before is how to call xml back which contains code to run such as more javascript - it's worth checking if this is likely earlier on and avoiding, than having to look at evals.
Mildly interesting.
I am trying to find the optimal architecture for an ajax-heavy Django application I'm currently building. I'd like to keep a consistent way of doing forms, validation, fetching data, JSON message format but find it exceedingly hard to find a solution that can be used consistently.
Can someone point me in the right direction or share their view on best practice?
I make everything as normal views which display normally in the browser. That includes all the replies to AJAX requests (sub pages).
When I want to make bits of the site more dynamic I then use jQuery to do the AJAX, or in this case AJAH and just load the contents of one of the divs in the sub page into the requesting page.
This technique works really well - it is very easy to debug the sub pages as they are just normal pages, and jQuery makes your life very easy using these as part of an AJA[XH]ed page.
For all the answers to this, I can't believe no one's mentioned django-piston yet. It's mainly promoted for use in building REST APIs, but it can output JSON (which jQuery, among others, can consume) and works just like views in that you can do anything with a request, making it a great option for implementing AJAX interactions (or AJAJ [JSON], AJAH, etc whatever). It also supports form validation.
I can't think of any standard way to insert ajax into a Django application, but you can have a look to this tutorial.
You will also find more details on django's page about Ajax
Two weeks ago I made a write up how I implement sub-templates to use them in "normal" and "ajax" request (for Django it is the same). Maybe it is helpful for you.
+1 to Nick for pages displaying normally in the browser. That seems to be the best starting point.
The problem with the simplest AJAX approaches, such as Nick and vikingosegundo propose, is that you'll have to rely on the innerHTML property in your Javascript. This is the only way to dump the new HTML sent in the JSON. Some would consider this a Bad Thing.
Unfortunately I'm not aware of a standard way to replicate the display of forms using Javascript that matches the Django rendering. My approach (that I'm still working on) is to subclass the Django Form class so it outputs bits of Javascript along with the HTML from as_p() etc. These then replicate the form my manipulating the DOM.
From experience I know that managing an application where you generate the HTML on the server side and just "insert" it into your pages, becomes a nightmare. It is also impossible to test using the Django test framework. If you're using Selenium or a similar tool, it's ok, but you need to wait for the ajax request to go return so you need tons of sleeps in your test script, which may slow down your test suite.
If the purpose of using the Ajax technique is to create a good user interface, I would recommend going all in, like the GMail interface, and doing everything in the browser with JavaScript. I have written several apps like this using nothing but jQuery, state machines for managing UI state and JSON with ReST on the backend. Django, IMHO, is a perfect match for the backend in this case. There are even third party software for generating a ReST-interface to your models, which I've never used myself, but as far as I know they are great at the simple things, but you of course still need to do your own business logic.
With this approach, you do run into the problem of duplicating code in the JS and in your backend, such as form handling, validation, etc. I have been thinking about solving this with generating structured information about the forms and validation logic which I can use in JS. This could be compiled at deploy-time and be loaded as any other JS file.
Also, avoid XML. The browsers are slow at parsing it, it is a pain to generate and a pain to work with in the browser. Use JSON.
Im currently testing:
jQuery & backbone.js client-side
django-piston (intermediate layer)
Will write later my findings on my blog http://blog.sserrano.com
Our team is experienced in web development (tomcat/Oracle) but not with AJAX on our existing projects. This is new technology for us, so I want to introduce this carefully and correctly.
What should I look at in terms of frameworks or best practice or common pitfalls?
read this:
progressive enhancement
and use a library such as jQuery, mootools, or YUI it'll save you many headaches with cross-browser implementation. this will show you why you want to use a library.
My first recommendation would be to explore the different frameworks available and see what your team prefers in terms of coding style. Most of the frameworks have the same basic features so a lot of it comes down to preference. I prefer jQuery, so that is my first recommendation, but I worked with YUI, MooTools, Prototype and EXT JS before making my decision.
Secondly, I would recommend working AJAX functionality as a progressive enhancement, allowing your apps to work with and without JavaScript. I find that this approach also ensures a solid, working application before worrying about adding the bells and whistles.
Head First Ajax is a good book IMO for getting started with the basic concepts behind working with Ajax. It would probably be a good place to start for your team to gain some knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes in whatever framework you choose.
One thing we struggled with when starting to use ajax was how often to use it.
We had no exact requirement as to where we were supposed to use ajax and not, and initially we erred to the side of using it too much. This affected application complexity quite a lot.
If you think of your inter-page-structure as a state-machine, ajax introduces nested state-machines within each page-state. The moment your sub-state machine ends up with a number of distinct states (I'd say anything over 2), you should think really hard about using a traditional approach.
The best starting point is to try to get a mix og full page reloads and ajax, and be conservative until you're sure you're getting really good at it.
Don't use it where you don't need it.
Long running operations that need to send the client some status updates? Use AJAX.
Markup for major UI elements (menus, ect)? Use plain old HTML.
Basically, use AJAX for transmitting data only. If you try do fancy things like dynamically pulling in UI elements on the client side with AJAX, you are in for a world of hurt when you get a client who wants to use ie5 (they exist), or a non-pc based browser.
first, look at the user interface you already have, and consider where it might make sense for its elements to be able to change/react independently. This is where your ajax enhancements might make sense
second, look at libraries as noted in the other answers (I like AJAXPRO for its simplicity, but it has been discontinued)
if you find that all of your page elements tie together and cannot change independently, then there is really no need for ajax
otherwise, consider how you will access the page state from your ajax enhancement points - depending on which ajax framework you use, you may or may not have access to the entire page object, session state, original request parms, etc. Consider these issues up front to avoid coding yourself into a hole and/or having to make messy workarounds.
If you were on .Net or Mono I would encourage you to use Ra-Ajax which abstracts away JavaScript completely. Though I work for Ra-Ajax (inventor) so I am biased...
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX, I get a fairly good grasp of what AJAX is. However, it looks like in order to learn it, I'd have to delve into multiple technologies at the same time to get any benefit out of it. So two questions:
What are resources that can help me understand/use AJAX?
What sort of website would benefit from AJAX?
If you aren't interested in the nitty gritty, you could use a higher-level library like JQuery or Prototype to create the underlying Javascript for you. The main benefit is a vastly more responsive user interface for web-based applications.
There are many libraries out there that can help you get benefit out of AJAX without learning about implementing callbacks, etc.
Are you using .NET? Look at http://ajax.asp.net. If you're not, then take a look at tools like qcodo for PHP, and learn about prototype.js, jquery, etc.
As far as websites that would benefit: Every web application ever. :) Anything you interact with by exchanging information, not just by clicking a link and reading an article.
Every website can benefit from AJAX, but in my opinion the biggest benefit to AJAX comes in data entry sections - forms basically. I have done entire sites where the front end - the part the user sees had almost no AJAX functionality in it. All the AJAX stuff was in the administration control panel for assisting in (correct!) data entry.
There is nothing worse than submitting a form and getting back an error, using AJAX you can pretty much prevent this for everything but file uploads.
I find it easiest to just stay away from all the frameworks and other helpers and just do basic Javascript. This not only lets you understand what's going on under the covers, it also lets you do it in the simplest way possible. There's really not much to it. User the JS XML DOM objects to create an xml document client side. Sent it to the server with XMLHTTPRequest, and then process the result, again using the JS XML DOM objects. Start with something simple. Just try sending one piece of information to the server, and getting a small piece of information back.
The Mozilla documentation is good. Sites that benefit from it the most are ones that behave almost like a desktop application and need high interactivity. You can usually improve usability on almost any site by using it, however.
Ajax should be thought of as a means to alter some content on a page without reloading the entire page.
So when do you need to do this? Really only when you have some user interactions or form information that you want to keep intact while you change some content on the page.