Jifty::Manual::UsingCSSandJS - Using CSS and JavaScript
Jifty comes bundled with a series of separately developed JavaScript libraries as well as a set of CSS definitions that both allow Jifty to functionally and beautifully work out of the box. This document describes the mechanisms behind the scenes as well as some of the details inside the included files.
Both, CSS and JavaScript (further abbreviated as "JS") files typically reside in the share/web/static directory of Jifty, keeping separate css and js subdirectories for each of both sets of files. When using Jifty without any interference into these files, all of those files will get loaded from the Jifty-provided directories.
share/web/static
css
js
In both cases, there are hooks for expansion by keeping empty but present files in the css and js directories. By simply creating and populating these files inside the share/web/static/css and share/web/static/js directories brings the predefined hooks to work.
share/web/static/css
share/web/static/js
Also there is a big difference of the whole operation between an application running in DevelMode or a productive application. In DevelMode, every single CSS and JS file will get included into every single template page being rendered. On the other hand, a productive application will merge all CSS and JS definitions upon the first request and will only include one file each containing all CSS and JS definitions in a single request.
DevelMode
When Jifty assembles all CSS definitions (which is internally done inside Jifty::Web by the method include_css), a single file, main.css is included into the generated HTML code of the current page. This file consists of a series of @import directives that reference every single CSS file to get used.
include_css
main.css
@import
Jifty maintains two initially empty files, app-base.css and app.css that may get "overloaded" by simply providing these files in an application's share/web/static/css directory.
app-base.css
app.css
These two files will get included in different order, app-base.css being the very first and app.css getting included very late in the CSS construction process.
This means that general definitions that should apply to all subsequently encountered styles could easily get done in app-base.css whereas individual redefinitions, expansions or your application's own definitions could go into app.css.
Jifty provides a series of definitions that are responsible for a good look without any modification. Please note that not all of the used CSS classes are already defined, but they will provide a hook for modification of the general look. Some of the styles are listed below.
Error messages encountered during validation are displayed inside a <div> tag of class form_errors which initially is not yet defined. Every single error message is marked with a class error.
<div>
form_errors
error
These classes are used for displaying additional information for form fields.
Every form field including its label is packed inside a <div> tag with these classes (mandatory only if the field is mandatory, of course), where $name is the field's name.
$name
This section is a <span> tag filled with a form field's preamble content that could contain additional instructions for the user. The content may be set by the preamble accessor method that is available for every Jifty::Web::Form::Field and its successors.
<span>
preamble
Jifty::Web::Form::Field
These class names are used depending on the type of widget getting rendered.
used for the autocomplete div.
These classes are used in navigation bars.
These three CSS classes are used to surround a message block displaying an action's messages after having run an action.
Every single message that is displayed in an action's result box is marked with the message's type plus the action's moniker as a CSS class name.
Jifty comes bundled with a series of separately developed JavaScript libraries, like
jQuery
jQuery is a fast, concise, JavaScript Library that simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages.
JSON
Hereby, major support for encoding and decoding data into the JSON data format (similar to YAML) is provided.
YAML
behaviour.js
With behaviour.js, intelligent JavaScript handlers can be defined.
Jifty maintains a complete list of JS files to include. This list may be retrieved or set by the accessor Jifty->web->javascript_libs. There should, However, rarely arise a situation to do that, because Jifty has already reserved two files that may get added to your application:
Jifty->web->javascript_libs
Initially empty; put all JS functions you need to define here.
Reserved for defining behaviors for DOM objects using the behaviour.js library.
The assembly process of all JS definitions is done in Jifty::Web by the method include_javascript.
include_javascript
Jifty::Web
To install Jifty, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Jifty
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Jifty
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.