Asset Dependency Manager Readme 
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* Email:      spam*@*codeofficer*dot*com
* JQuery:     http://www.jquery.com/
* JQuery UI:  http://ui.jquery.com/
* Based on    http://github.com/arya/js_dependency_manager/tree/master

(Credit goes to Arya for initial inspiration with his JS dependency manager)

ADM is a plugin to dynamically manage a complex array of xxx.js and xxx.css dependencies. 
It will assist you in defining those dependencies and outputting the appropriate javascript_include
and stylesheet_link tags in your final layout.

I found this mostly useful when dealing with JQuery and JQuery UI's complex arrangement of js and css theme files. 
An alternative is to collect all assets into one file and depend on caching ... at least in the case of Jquery UI
though that would be 350k of scripts you might or might not use.

assumptions:
you prefer to keep your js plugins as seperate files
your js and css files all have corresponding ".xxx" extensions
you keep your *.js files in you javascripts directory
you keep your *.css files in your stylesheets directory

Example
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In your Application Helper ...

Here you must define a method called 'asset_dependencies'. This method, which should return a Hash, 
matches keys to values, the values for which can be of type String, Array or Symbol. While Array values can be 
composed of both Symbols and Strings, the Symbols should appear first so that the dependencies they refer to
can be loaded first. 

There is also a special key of :defaults which if set to true will make a dependency for rails 
own JAVASCRIPT_DEFAULT_SOURCES which will be loaded first.

    module ApplicationHelper
      def asset_dependencies
        {
        :defaults =>        true,
        :core =>            'ui/ui.core.js',
        :tabs =>            [ :core, 
                              'ui/ui.tabs.js', 
                              'themes/flora/flora.tabs.css' ],
        :slider =>          [ :core,
                              'ui/ui.slider.js', 
                              'themes/flora/flora.slider.css' ],
        :slider_and_tabs => [ :tabs, :slider ]
        }
      end      
    end

In your Views / Partials ...

You'll now use a view helper called assets_for to declare which assets need to be loaded to support 
the current view or partial.

    <% assets_for :tabs, :slider %>
    <!-- more html etc ... -->

In your Layout file ...

    <%= asset_dependency_manager_tags %>

And that will return ...

<script src="/javascripts/jquery-1.2.6.min.js?1218093045" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/ui/ui.core.js?1215626244" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/application.js?1217637539" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/ui/ui.slider.js?1215624926" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/ui/ui.tabs.js?1215624926" type="text/javascript"></script>
<link href="/stylesheets/themes/flora/flora.slider.css?1215624926" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<link href="/stylesheets/themes/flora/flora.tabs.css?1215624926" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

Copyright (c) 2008 CodeOfficer, released under the MIT license