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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>WireIt Guide</title>
<meta name="author" content="Eric Abouaf" />
<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright 2009 Eric Abouaf" />
<meta name="keywords" content="wireit,javascript,library,pipes,visualization,yui,programming,canvas,wire,wires,framework,webdev,ajax,ui,web,graphics,graph,graphs,opensource,tools" />
<meta name="description" content="WireIt is an open-source javascript library to create web wirable interfaces for dataflow applications, visual programming languages or graphical modeling." />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="WireIt blog" href="http://javascript.neyric.com/blog/feed/" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" type="images/x-icon" href="res/favicon.ico" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="res/style.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="res/guide.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="res/SyntaxHighlighter/shCore.css" />
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="res/SyntaxHighlighter/shThemeDefault.css" id="shTheme"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="res/SyntaxHighlighter/shCore.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="res/SyntaxHighlighter/shBrushJScript.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="res/SyntaxHighlighter/shBrushXml.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="res/SyntaxHighlighter/shBrushCss.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">SyntaxHighlighter.config.clipboardSwf = 'res/SyntaxHighlighter/clipboard.swf';SyntaxHighlighter.all();</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id='headbar'>
<ul class="navigation" style=" position: absolute; margin: 6px 0 0 380px;">
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="http://github.com/neyric/wireit/">GitHub[Git]</a></li>
<li><a href="http://github.com/neyric/wireit/issues">Issues</a></li>
<li><a href="guide.html">Guide</a></li>
<li><a href="api/index.html">API Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://javascript.neyric.com/blog/category/wireit/">Blog</a>
<a href="http://javascript.neyric.com/blog/feed/"><img src="doc/rss.png" border="0"/></a></li>
<li><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/wireit/">Forums</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 80px; left: 750px; font-size: 90%; line-height: 30px;">
<img src='http://www.twitter.com/favicon.ico' alt="twitter" /> follow <a href="http://twitter.com/wireit">WireIt on Twitter</a><br />
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</div>
</div>
<center>
<div style="text-align: left; width: 70%; position: relative;">
<!-- START OF THE GUIDE -->
<h1>WireIt Guide</h1>
<p>This guide tries to centralize everything that has been written on WireIt. If you think something is missing or need better explanation, please contact us through the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/wireit/">forum</a>. Being written by a french, help in finding typos, technical errors, or poorly worded sentences is greatly appreciated.</p>
<div id='index'>
<h2>Chapters</h2>
<ol class="topLevel">
<li>
<a href="#overview"><span>Overview</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#presentation">Presentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#terminology">Terminology</a></li>
<li><a href="#components">Core components and widgets</a></li>
<li><a href="#plugins">Plugins</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#GettingStarted"><span>Getting Started</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#installation">Installation</a></li>
<li><a href="#directoryStructure">Directory structure</a></li>
<li><a href="#firstApp">Create Your First WireIt Application</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#visualLanguage"><span>Create your visual language</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#xtypeConvention"><i>xtype</i> convention</a></li>
<li><a href="#customizingWiresAndTerminals">Customizing Wires and Terminals</a></li>
<li><a href="#visualLanguageDefinition">Visual Language Definition</a></li>
<li><a href="#moduleDefinition">Module Definition</a></li>
<li><a href="#BaseContainer">Using the basic Container</a></li>
<li><a href="#InOutContainer">Using InOutContainer</a></li>
<li><a href="#FormContainer">Using FormContainer</a></li>
<li><a href="#ImageContainer">Using ImageContainer</a></li>
<li><a href="#propertiesForm">Edit the "Properties" form</a></li>
<li><a href="#stylingContainers">Styling containers</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#adapters"><span>Adapters - Connecting to another database or backend</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#adaptersIntroduction">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#adaptersConfiguration">Configuring the adapter</a></li>
<li><a href="#ajaxAdapter">Ajax adapter</a></li>
<li><a href="#jsonRPCAdapter">Json-RPC Adapter</a></li>
<li><a href="#gearsAdapter">Gears adapter</a></li>
<li><a href="#adaptersCreation">Create an adapter</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#wirings"><span>Working with Wirings</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#outputFormat">WiringEditor ouput format</a></li>
<li><a href="#convertFormat">Converting the format</a></li>
<li><a href="#storage">Storing wirings</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#containers"><span>Creating custom Containers</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#yuiInheritance">YUI Inheritance</a></li>
<li><a href="#createContainers">Creating new Containers / Extending existing containers</a></li>
<li><a href="#logicgates">Example - Logic Gates</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#composablePlugin"><span>The <i>Composable</i> plugin</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#composableIntro">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#composableHow">How does it work</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#advancedTopics"><span>Advanced Topics</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#autoload">WiringEditor autoload feature</a></li>
<li><a href="#mouseEvents">Handling Wire mouse events</a></li>
<li><a href="#production">notes on production</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#contribute"><span>Contribute</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#issues">Reporting an Issue</a></li>
<li><a href="#documentation">Contributing to the Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#code">Contributing to the Code</a></li>
<li><a href="#contributors">Contributors</a></li>
<li><a href="#donate">Donate</a></li>
<li><a href="#roadmap">Roadmap</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#moreInformation"><span>Other resources</span></a>
<ul class="secondLevel">
<li><a href="#examples">All examples</a></li>
<li><a href="#apiReferences">API References</a></li>
<li><a href="#otherResources">Other resources</a></li>
<li><a href="#projects">WireIt-based projects</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<br /><br />
<a name="overview"><h1>1 Overview</h1></a>
<a name="presentation"><h2>1.1 Presentation</h2></a>
<p>WireIt is an open-source javascript library to create <i>web wirable interfaces</i> for <b>dataflow applications</b>, <b>visual programming languages, graphical modeling,</b> or <b>graph editors</b>.</p>
<p>WireIt is tested on all <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/articles/gbs/">A-Grade Browsers</a>, although it might work with older versions of browsers and platforms. Please report your issues with specific browsers in <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/wireit/">the forum</a>.</p>
<p>It uses the <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/">YUI library</a>, the <a href="http://neyric.github.com/inputex/">inputEx library</a> for forms and fields, and <a href="http://excanvas.sourceforge.net/">excanvas</a> for IE support of the canvas tag.</p>
<p>The code for Wireit is provided under <a href="license.txt">MIT license</a>.</p>
<a name="terminology"><h2>1.2 Terminology</h2></a>
<p>This section defines some concepts that will be used throughout this guide.</p>
<h3>Wires and Terminals</h3>
<p><i>Wires</i> are pretty explicit. They connect two <i>Terminals</i> together :</p>
<img src="res/guide/wire_terminals.png" /><br />
<p><i>Terminals</i> are responsible for the graph edition :</p>
<ul>
<li>You can create a Wire by dragging a terminal to another one</li>
<li>You can destroy all the wires connected to a terminal by clicking on the scissors</li>
</ul>
<p><i>Terminals</i> have various configuration options, such as the number of wires that can be connected to them, wether they are editable or not, or style informations about the wires that are connected. <a href="examples/wires_and_terminals.html">Check out this example to see some of those properties in action.</a></p>
<p class="advanced" style="width: 50%">At this time, two <i>Terminals</i> can only be connected using one <i>Wire</i> only.</p>
<h3>Containers</h3>
<p><i>Containers</i> are "boxes", containing one or more <i>Terminals</i>. <i>Containers</i> are willingly generic, so that an application can easily create custom <i>Containers</i>.</p>
<p class="advanced" style="width: 50%">See the chapter <a href="#createContainers"><i>Creating new containers/Extending existing containers</i></a>.</p>
<h3>Layer</h3>
<p>A <i>Layer</i> handles multiple containers and connected wires. It keeps an internal representation of the whole graph and is responsible for <b>saving/loading a graph</b>.</p>
<br />
<a name="components"><h2>1.3 Core components and widgets</h2></a>
<p>WireIt is able to draw several types of wires :</p>
<ul>
<li>Straight - draws a straight line</li>
<li>Bezier - using bezier curves</li>
<li>Arrow - for directed directed graphs</li>
<li>BezierArrow - a mix of the two above</li>
<li>Step - using only horizontal and vertical lines</li>
</ul>
<p>Different types of Container are provided :</p>
<ul>
<li>InOutContainer - simple module with named inputs and outputs</li>
<li>ImageContainer - use images as graph nodes</li>
<li>FormContainer - displays a form with wirable inputs (optional). (requires the <i>inputEx plugin</i>)</li>
</ul>
<img src="res/guide/containers.png" /><br />
<p class="advanced" style="width: 70%">You can create your own <i>Containers</i> by subclassing the base <i>Container</i> class.<br />
See the chapter <a href="#createContainers"><i>Creating new containers/Extending existing containers</i></a>.</p>
<a name="plugins"><h2>1.4 Plugins</h2></a>
<p>Introduced in version 0.6.0, plugins are separated from the core components to build <i>à la carte</i> applications. <br />
All plugins are optional, although some of them have dependencies to others.</p>
<h3>1.4.1 The inputEx plugin</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://neyric.github.com/inputex/">inputEx library</a> and WireIt share the same creator, and their dependency to YUI. inputEx is an open-source javascript framework to build fields and forms. All the fields and forms are configured using JSON or created in Javascript. It provides a very efficient abstraction for building interactive web applications.</p>
<p>The inputEx plugin, besides containing the inputEx library, adds two major components :</p>
<ul>
<li>WirableField - replace the root inputEx.Field class to add a <i>Terminal</i>, to "wire" the field (optional)</li>
<li>FormContainer - build form containers based on <a href="http://neyric.github.com/inputex/">inputEx</a> forms</li>
</ul>
<h3>1.4.2 The editor plugin</h3>
<p>The editor plugin provides another very useful component: the <b>WiringEditor</b>.<br />
It provides the common features of most visual editors for <i>your visual language</i>.</p>
<center>
<img src="res/guide/editor2.png" />
<br /><br />
<img src="res/guide/editor.png" />
</center>
<p class="advanced">The WiringEditor requires a connection to a database or file system to use save/load features. You can customize it using <a href="#adapters">Adapters</a>.</p>
<h3>1.4.3 Other plugins</h3>
<ul>
<li>animations - utility to provide YUI Animations on any DOM element containing terminals</li>
<li>composable - extends the WiringEditor with composable wirings (a wiring can use other wirings)</li>
<li>grouping - extends the WiringEditor with module grouping feature (if you have large wirings)</li>
<li>layout - provide functions to layout the Layer</li>
</ul>
<p class="advanced">Read the README.md file of each plugin to learn more about them !</p>
<br /><br />
<a name="GettingStarted"><h1>2 Getting Started</h1></a>
<p>Most of this guide explain the usage and customization of the WiringEditor. If you are not using it, you will still learn about customizing/creating containers, and the Wires/Terminals options.</p>
<a name="installation"><h2>2.1 Installation</h2></a>
<p>WireIt is mostly a bunch of static javascript, css, and image files, so you can just <a href="http://github.com/neyric/wireit/downloads">download the latest version of the library</a> and put the files in your project library directory.</p>
<p>However, the WiringEditor requires a database connection to use the save/load features. (see <a href="#WiringEditorInstallation">WiringEditor installation</a>)</p>
<p class="advanced">You could also clone the <a href="http://github.com/neyric/wireit/tree/master">development repository</a> to get the edge version.</p>
<p class="advanced">In a production environment, documentation and examples are not necessary. More on this in <a href="#production">production</a>.</p>
<a name="directoryStructure"><h2>2.2 Directory structure</h2></a>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>file or directory</th>
<th></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>api/</td>
<td>Auto-generated <a href="api/index.html">API documentation</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>assets/</td>
<td>Contains WireIt CSS and images</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>build/</td>
<td>Contains the minified javascript (More on this in <a href="#production">production</a>)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>examples/</td>
<td>Examples or applications that are part of the library</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>images/</td>
<td>WireIt images</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>index.html</td>
<td>WireIt Home page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>js/</td>
<td>javascript sources</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>lib/</td>
<td>librairies required by WireIt core</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>license.txt</td>
<td>MIT license details</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>plugins/</td>
<td>WireIt plugins directory</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>README.md</td>
<td>links for the GitHub page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>res/</td>
<td>resources for WireIt website and documentation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>scripts/</td>
<td>scripts to build rollup files and documentation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>VERSION.txt</td>
<td>change log</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<a name="firstApp"><h2>2.3 Create Your First WireIt Application</h2></a>
<p>The easiest way to start creating your visual language is to copy one of the editor example from the <i>plugins/editor/examples</i> directory.</p>
<p>Depending on which default adapter you decided to use, copy the examples/gearsAdapter/ or examples/WiringEditor/ files into your project directory. (more on <a href="#adapters">Adapters</a>)</p>
<p>Edit the index.html file you copied to check that the paths to javascript and css files are correct. (You might want to create your project directory directly in the examples/ folder so that the paths remain unchanged.)</p>
<p>Setup a webserver to serve your files and launch the index.html file in your browser. You're ready to create your <a href="#visualLanguage">visual language</a> !</p>
<p class="advanced">The <a href="#gearsAdapter">Gears Adapter</a> is handy for prototyping the interface since it doesn't require a backend. Make sure you have <a href="http://gears.google.com">Google Gears</a> installed.</p>
<br /><br />
<a name="visualLanguage"><h1>3 Create your visual language</h1></a>
<a name="xtypeConvention"><h2>3.1 <i>xtype</i> convention</h2></a>
<p>WireIt uses a convention to simplify extending widgets:<br />
<b style="font-size: 120%;">wires, terminals and containers are instantiated from the class specified by the <i>xtype</i> property</b>.</p>
<p>It lets you create specialized widgets by creating a subclass and using it simply from your language definition.</p>
<p class="advanced">This choice was made to transport the definition using JSON.</p>
<a name="customizingWiresAndTerminals"><h2>3.2 Customizing Wires and Terminals</h2></a>
<p>Many options are available to customize Wires and Terminals, but the general pattern is simple: you create a subclass of the Wire named <i>WeirdWire</i>, you use it using the xtype property :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
Terminal.prototype.wireConfig = {"xtype":"WeirdWire", "weirdness": 7};
</pre>
<p>The code above overrides the default Wire configuration for <b>all</b> terminals on the page.</p>
<p>If you want to use this configuration only on specified wires, you can make it default for "some" terminals. You need to subclass the terminal to set your new config as default. An exemple is actually included in the library.</p>
<p>For a concrete example, let's see how the TerminalOutput works :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
// use YUI2 class inheritance
WireIt.util.TerminalOutput = function(parentEl, options, container) {
WireIt.util.TerminalOutput.superclass.constructor.call(this,parentEl, options, container);
};
YAHOO.lang.extend(WireIt.util.TerminalOutput, WireIt.Terminal, {
xtype: "WireIt.TerminalOutput",
// override some options
direction: [0,1],
fakeDirection: [0,-1],
ddConfig: { type: "output", allowedTypes: ["input"] },
alwaysSrc: true
});</pre>
<p>Simple enough. What this says is: Create a TerminalOutput class which extends the Terminal widget, set the direction from top to bottom, and connect only to "input" terminals. The <i>alwaysSrc</i> option force this terminal as being the "source" terminal in the wire definition.</p>
<p><b>How do we handle the wire creation ? What are the options ?</b></p>
<p>The idea is to create a Drag'n Drop proxy element (we do not move the original Terminal, but a copy of it).</p>
<p>When we start dragging the proxy element, a <i>fake</i> terminal is created within, which we can move around. A wire is added between those two terminals.</p>
<p>You can change the default wiring config using the <i>editingWireConfig</i> property :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
WeirdTerminal = function(parentEl, options, container) {
WeirdTerminal.superclass.constructor.call(this,parentEl, options, container);
};
YAHOO.lang.extend(WeirdTerminal, WireIt.Terminal, {
xtype: "WeirdTerminal",
wireConfig: {"xtype":"WeirdWire", "weirdness": 7},
editingWireConfig: {"xtype":"WeirdWire", "weirdness": 13},
direction: [1,1],
fakeDirection: [-1,-1]
});
</pre>
<p class="advanced">For a complete list of the properties, please refer to the API documentation for <a href="api/WireIt.Terminal.html">Terminal</a>, <a href="api/WireIt.Wire.html">Wire</a> or <a href="api/WireIt.Container.html">Container</a>.</p>
<a name="visualLanguageDefinition"><h2>3.3 Visual Language Definition</h2></a>
<p>Your visual language is defined by a JSON object :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
var myLanguageDef = {
// Set a unique name for your language
languageName: "myLanguage",
// modules: list of module type definitions
modules: [
{
name: "module1",
container: {"xtype":"WireIt.InOutContainer", ...}
},
...
]
};
</pre>
<p>This language definition is passed to the WiringEditor constructor :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady( function() {
try {
logicGates = new WireIt.WiringEditor(myLanguageDef);
}catch(ex) {
alert(ex);
}
});
</pre>
<a name="moduleDefinition"><h2>3.4 Module Definition</h2></a>
<p>Here is the skeleton of a module definition :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
{
"name": "moduleName",
// properties of the container
"container": {
// which container class to use
"xtype":"WireIt.InOutContainer",
// The options depends of the container class used in xtype
"inputs": ["text1", "text2", "option1"],
"outputs": ["result", "error"]
}
}
</pre>
<p>To declare a module using a different <i>Container</i> class, you'll have to set the container <i>xtype</i> property.</p>
<p class="advanced">The xtype property is a string representing the class. This had to be a string to remain JSON compliant.</p>
<p>Of course, you can use containers provided in WireIt (ImageContainer, FormContainer, InOutContainer), or a <a href="#containers">custom container</a>.</p>
<a name="BaseContainer"><h2>3.5 Using the basic Container</h2></a>
<p>Set "xtype": "WireIt.Container" (optional). The parameters are :</p>
<ul>
<li><i>icon</i> - url of the icon (relative or absolute)</li>
<li><i>terminals</i> - list of terminals configuration</li>
</ul>
<pre class="brush:js">
{
"name": "demoModule",
"container": {
"xtype":"WireIt.Container",
"icon": "../../assets/application_edit.png",
"terminals": [
{"name": "_INPUT1", "direction": [-1,0], "offsetPosition": {"left": -3, "top": 2 }},
{"name": "_INPUT2", "direction": [-1,0], "offsetPosition": {"left": -3, "top": 37 }},
{"name": "_OUTPUT", "direction": [1,0], "offsetPosition": {"left": 103, "top": 20 }}
]
}
}
</pre>
<p class="advanced">All other Container classes inherits from this base class, and therefore share the above options.</p>
<a name="InOutContainer"><h2>3.6 Using InOutContainer</h2></a>
<p>Set "xtype": "WireIt.InOutContainer". Additional parameters are :</p>
<ul>
<li><i>inputs</i> - list of inputs as strings</li>
<li><i>outputs</i> - list of outputs as strings</li>
</ul>
<p>Example: </p>
<pre class="brush:js">
{
"name": "InOut test",
"container": {
"xtype":"WireIt.InOutContainer",
"inputs": ["text1", "text2", "option1"],
"outputs": ["result", "error"]
}
}
</pre>
<a name="FormContainer"><h2>3.7 Using FormContainer</h2></a>
<p>Set "xtype": "WireIt.FormContainer". Additional parameters are all those used in inputEx.Group. (see <a href="http://neyric.github.com/inputex/">inputEx</a>)</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
{
"name": "MyModule",
"container": {
"xtype": "WireIt.FormContainer",
// inputEx options :
"title": "WireIt.FormContainer demo",
"collapsible": true,
"fields": [
{"type": "select", "label": "Title", "name": "title", "selectValues": ["Mr","Mrs","Mme"] },
{"type": "string", "label": "Firstname", "name": "firstname", "required": true },
{"type": "string", "label": "Lastname", "name": "lastname", "value":"Dupont"},
{"type":"email", "label": "Email", "name": "email", "required": true, "wirable": true },
{"type":"boolean", "label": "Happy to be there ?", "name": "happy" },
{"type":"url", "label": "Website", "name":"website", "size": 25 }
],
"legend": "Tell us about yourself..."
}
}
</pre>
<a name="ImageContainer"><h2>3.8 Using ImageContainer</h2></a>
<p>Set "xtype": "WireIt.ImageContainer". Additional parameters are :</p>
<ul>
<li><i>image</i> - url of the image (relative or absolute)</li>
</ul>
<pre class="brush:js">
{
"name": "AND gate",
"container": {
"xtype":"WireIt.ImageContainer",
"image": "../logicGates/images/gate_and.png",
"terminals": [
{"name": "_INPUT1", "direction": [-1,0], "offsetPosition": {"left": -3, "top": 2 }},
{"name": "_INPUT2", "direction": [-1,0], "offsetPosition": {"left": -3, "top": 37 }},
{"name": "_OUTPUT", "direction": [1,0], "offsetPosition": {"left": 103, "top": 20 }}
]
}
}
</pre>
<a name="propertiesForm"><h2>3.9 Edit the "Properties" form</h2></a>
<p>To add properties to the <i>Wirings</i>, we configure the <i>propertiesFields</i> property of the language definition.<br />
This property defines the fields as they will appear in the "Properties" form on the right in the WiringEditor.</p>
<p>The form is created using the <a href="http://neyric.github.com/inputex/">inputEx form library</a>. The <i>propertiesFields</i> array is directly used to instantiate a inputEx.Group class. Please refer to inputEx documentation to learn how to configure your fields.</p>
<p>When you use the save/load fetures of the WiringEditor, the form values are automatically saved within your <i>wirings</i> before being sent back to the server.</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
var demoLanguage = {
languageName: "meltingpotDemo",
// inputEx fields for pipes properties
propertiesFields: [
// default fields (the "name" field is required by the WiringEditor):
{"type": "string", "name": "name", label: "Title", typeInvite: "Enter a title" },
{"type": "text", "name": "description", label: "Description", cols: 30},
// Additional fields
{"type": "boolean", "name": "isTest", value: true, label: "Test"},
{"type": "select", "name": "category", label: "Category", selectValues: ["Demo", "Test", "Other"] }
],
modules: [
//...
]
};
</pre>
<p class="advanced">The HiddenField can be used to store additional wirings informations.</p>
<a name="stylingContainers"><h2>3.10 Styling containers</h2></a>
<p>The WiringEditor adds a CSS class for each module instance in your layer: <b>WiringEditor-module-<i>moduleName</i></b>.</p>
<p>You can therefore style all the descending structure using cascaded style sheets. <br />
Here is an exemple for the "comment" module of the <a href="examples/WiringEditor/">WiringEditor demo</a>.</p>
<pre class="brush:css">
/* Comment Module */
div.WireIt-Container.WiringEditor-module-comment {
width: 200px;
}
div.WireIt-Container.WiringEditor-module-comment div.body {
background-color: #EEEE66;
}
div.WireIt-Container.WiringEditor-module-comment div.body textarea {
background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; border: 0;
}
</pre>
<br /><br />
<a name="adapters"><h1>4 Adapters - Connecting to another database or backend</h1></a>
<!--a name="WiringEditorInstallation"><h2>2.2 WiringEditor installation</h2></a>
<p>The WiringEditor requires a database connection to use the save/load features. <br />
The database connection can be adapted to your project though <a href="#adapters">adapters</a>.</p>
<p>Adapters themselves don't require any particular installation, however, they are connected to a <i>backend</i>, which often require a specific server environment.</p>
<p>Please refer to the <a href="#adapters">adapters documentation</a> to install the associated backends.</p>
<p class="advanced">You can <a href="#adaptersCreation">create your own adapters</a>.</p-->
<a name="adaptersIntroduction"><h2>4.1 Introduction</h2></a>
<p>Adapters are used by the WiringEditor to provide the loading/saving features. It makes it easy to "plug" the WiringEditor into your application. They usually connect to a database of some kind through Ajax calls to store the wirings and bring them back.</p>
<p>WireIt provides default adapters to get you started :</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#ajaxAdapter">Ajax Adapter (no backend provided)</a></li>
<li><a href="#jsonRPCAdapter">Json-RPC Adapter + a sample PHP/MySQL backend</a></li>
<li><a href="#gearsAdapter">Gears Adapter (no backend required)</a></li>
</ul>
<a name="adaptersConfiguration"><h2>4.2 Configuring the adapter</h2></a>
<pre class="brush:js">
// Override adapter default parameters
WireIt.WiringEditor.adapters.MyAdapter.config.configParam1 = value1;
// Instantiate the WiringEditor with a custom adapter
new WireIt.WiringEditor({
...
adapter: WireIt.WiringEditor.adapters.MyAdapter
...
})
</pre>
<a name="ajaxAdapter"><h2>4.3 Ajax Adapter</h2></a>
<p>This adapter is the general way to connect to a custom backend through Ajax (or XHR) calls. It uses a JSON representation.</p>
<p>You can use it to connect to a REST resource store or any HTTP-based RPC backend.</p>
<p>The <a href="examples/ajaxAdapter/">ajaxAdapter example</a> connects to a fake backend (the queried URLs are static files), but demonstrate how to configure the adapter :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
WireIt.WiringEditor.adapters.Ajax.config = {
saveWiring: {
method: 'GET',
// The url can be hard-coded
url: 'fakeSaveDelete.json'
},
deleteWiring: {
method: 'GET',
/**
* 'url' can also be a function that returns the URL as a string.
* For exemple, to connect to a REST store, you might want to send a DELETE /resource/wirings/moduleName
* (moduleName is present in the "value" parameter)
*/
url: function(value) {
return "fakeSaveDelete.json";
}
},
listWirings: {
method: 'GET',
url: 'listWirings.json'
}
};
</pre>
<a name="jsonRPCAdapter"><h2>4.4 Json-RPC Adapter</h2></a>
<p>This adapter uses Ajax calls as the previous one, but wraps http requests in a JSON-RPC envelope.</p>
<p>This adapter is used in the <a href="examples/WiringEditor/">WiringEditor demo</a>.</p>
<p>It is connected to a sample PHP/MySQL backend, which requires the following installtion steps :</p>
<ul>
<li>copy the backend/php directory to your wireit directory</li>
<li>edit the script with your database access config (backend/php/WiringEditor.php)</li>
<li>make sure the backend files are accessible by your webserver and that the php module is loaded </li>
</ul>
<p>The JSON-RPC adapter configuration resides in the single service url :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
WireIt.WiringEditor.adapters.JsonRpc.config.url = '/my/json-rpc/serviceUrl';
</pre>
<a name="gearsAdapter"><h2>4.5 Gears Adapter</h2></a>
<p>This adapter uses the <i>database</i> component of Google Gears to store the <i>wirings</i> in a SQLite table <b>client-side</b> (in the browser).</p>
<p>This adapter is very useful for prototyping your project, since it can be used without any server installation.</p>
<p>To use this adapter, you must install <a href="http://gears.google.com">google gears</a>.</p>
<p>A demo of this adapter is showed in the <a href="plugins/editor/examples/gearsAdapter/">gears adapter example</a>.</p>
<p>This adapter doesn't have any noticeable configuration except <i>WireIt.WiringEditor.adapters.Gears.config.dbName</i> which contains the gears database name (default is 'database-test').</p>
<p class="advanced">The gears adapter already includes gears-init.js</p>
<a name="adaptersCreation"><h2>4.6 Create an adapter</h2></a>
<p>Why would you build your own ?</p>
<ul>
<li>You use a different server-side language</li>
<li>You probably use a framework to develop your website, which provides its own models (ex: Django,Rails,Symfony,...)</li>
<li>Convert the wirings into another workflow model. (ex: XProc XML)</li>
</ul>
<p>Here is the skeleton of an adapter :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
WireIt.WiringEditor.adapters.MyAdapter = {
// adapter default options
config: {
// ...
},
// Initialization method called by the WiringEditor
init: function() {
},
/**
* save/list/delete asynchronous methods
*/
saveWiring: function(val, callbacks) {
// ...
// don't forget to call the callbacks !
},
deleteWiring: function(val, callbacks) {
// ...
// don't forget to call the callbacks !
},
listWirings: function(val, callbacks) {
// ...
// don't forget to call the callbacks !
}
// + private methods or properties
};
})();
</pre>
<p>The main three methods use asynchronous callbacks to push back the results to the WiringEditor. Here is the structure of the callbacks that are passed to these methods : </p>
<pre class="brush:js">
var callbacks = {
success: function() {
},
failure: function() {
},
scope: this
};
</pre>
<p>To call the callbacks, in a synchronous way, use something like :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
function(val, callbacks) {
if(everythingGoesFine) {
callbacks.success.call(callbacks.scope, results);
}
else {
callbacks.failure.call(callbacks.scope, results);
}
}
</pre>
<p>The asynchronous pattern is particularly useful for ajax-based adapters. Here is an example with YUI :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
function(val, callbacks) {
YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('POST', 'myUrl', {
success: function(r) {
//...
callbacks.success.call(callbacks.scope, results);
},
failure: function(r) {
callbacks.failure.call(callbacks.scope, error);
}
});
}
</pre>
<br /><br />
<a name="advancedTopics"><h1>5 Working with Wirings</h1></a>
<a name="outputFormat"><h2>5.1 WiringEditor ouput format</h2></a>
<p>First, here is the JSON output of the WiringEditor :</p>
<pre class="brush:js">
var working = {
"modules":[
{
"config":{
"position":[166,195],
"xtype":"WireIt.ImageContainer"
},
"name":"AND gate",
"value":{}
},
{
"config":{
"position":[454,271],
"xtype":"WireIt.ImageContainer"
},
"name":"AND gate",
"value":{}
},
{
"config":{
"position":[149,403],