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Developing Great Dashlets

Learn how to create meaningful and configurable dashlets with a responsive user interface using Alfresco Share developer tools. Includes examples and best practices.

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Developing Great Dashlets

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  1. Developing Great Dashlets • Will Abson – @wabson

  2. About Me • Project Lead, Share Extras • Alfresco Developer and previously Solutions Engineer • DevCon 2011 – Customizing Share Best Practices - with Jeff Potts • Dashlet Challenge Judge 2011 & 2012

  3. In this presentation…

  4. …we’ll take your dashlets • From This

  5. …we’ll take your dashlets • From This To This

  6. What Makes a Great Dashlet? • Summarise information in meaningful ways • Configurable • Responsive user interface • Rich controls

  7. Event Scheduling by Bertrand Forest

  8. Social Tops Dashlet by Sébastien Le Marchand

  9. JMX Statistics Dashlet by Chris Paul

  10. Now Let’s Get our Hands Dirty!

  11. Agenda • The Basics • Hello World • Utilising UI Components • Title Bar Actions • Dashlet Resizers • YUI Buttons • Dom Manipulation • Event Listeners • User Preferences • Popup Notifications

  12. Agenda • Utilising UI Components (ctd.) • Configuration dialogues • Fetching Data • Dashlets that access the Alfresco Repository • Dashlets that access third party services

  13. Example Project • Source Code • Each stage in the walk-through is available in GitHub • Corresponds to a different branch • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets • I will demonstrate using a local repository

  14. Hello World Dashlet for 4.2 • Based on Share Extras ‘Sample Dashlet’ • Displays a configurable message to the user • Demonstrates structure of a basic dashlet • Web-tier web script • Client-side assets • Best practice • Displays static / semi-dynamic text • We will go further!

  15. Hello World Example 1 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld1

  16. Title Bar Actions • New in Alfresco 4.0 • Replaces action links previously placed in dashlet toolbars • e.g. ‘Configure’ action • Actions may point to a link in the same or a new window/tab or trigger custom YUI or Bubbling events • To use, create an instance of Alfresco.widget.DashletTitleBarActions • More info • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.widget.DashletTitleBarActions.html

  17. Hello World Example 2 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld2

  18. Dashlet Resizers • Allows resizing of user dashlets or site dashlets by Site Managers • Resizing is persistent • Height attribute stored in component configuration • To use, create an instance of Alfresco.widget.DashletResizer • Must supply HTML ID and component ID • More info • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.widget.DashletResizer.html

  19. Hello World Example 3 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld3

  20. Dashlet Client-side Components • Up until now we have used standard re-usable classes (or widgets) • Most dashlets will require us to define our own custom dashlet classes to implement the behaviour required • To do this, extend Alfresco.component.Base to add your own implementation • Implementation should be held in custom client-side JS files, which we need to include in the page • Once we have done this we can create an instance of the client-side component on the page

  21. Hello World Example 4 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld4

  22. Push Button Controls • YUI2 provides a range of different button types • http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/button/ • Alfresco.util provides a handy function for setting up push buttons • {YAHOO.widget.Button} Alfresco.util.createYUIButton(p_scope, p_name, p_onclick, p_obj, p_oElement) • Button element must be declared in HTML • Easier to use this if the standard component markup is used • But we could use YAHOO.widget.Button() directly • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.util.html#.createYUIButton

  23. Dom Manipulation • YAHOO.util.Domprovides a range of static methods for locating and manipulating Dom elements • YAHOO.util.Dom.get() • YAHOO.util.Dom.getAttribute() • YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass() • Once we have an HTML element in our hands we can • Set its content (innerHTML) • Add sibling and child elements • Alfresco.util builds on these functions • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.util.html

  24. Hello World Example 5 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld5

  25. Dashlet Toolbars • Filters are usually implemented using YUI ‘menu’ buttons • Or could be ‘split’ buttons if clickable too • Like push buttons we create in HTML • Activate the button using Alfresco.util.createYUIButton • Need to provide a function to handle the click event • Actions usually implemented as HTML links (with icons) • Could be a hyperlink to another page or wired to a function using YAHOO.util.Event.addListener()

  26. Hello World Example 6 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld6

  27. User Preferences • Allow us to store user-specific configuration properties • Properties are stored using JSON in a hierarchical structure, e.g. {com: {someco: {someapp: {foo: “bar”}}}} • Implemented in Alfresco.service.Preferences • Dashlets should create a class instance in their constructor • Provide callback functions when loading and saving data • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.service.Preferences.html

  28. Hello World Example 7 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld7

  29. User Notifications and Prompts • Notifications appear briefly and then fade out • Prompts require the user to confirm something • By default a single button is shown • We can provide multiple buttons, e.g. ‘Yes’, ‘No’ • Other functions – get user input, display web scripts, display forms • Implemented using static methods on Alfresco.util.PopupManager • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.service.Preferences.html

  30. Hello World Example 8 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/helloworld8

  31. Get Latest Document Dashlet • Original implementation by Jeff Potts • http://ecmarchitect.com/archives/2012/05/04/1592 • http://ecmarchitect.com/archives/2012/05/15/1599 • Improvements by RikTaminaars • Further improvements for these examples • A more advanced dashlet • Fetches data from the repository • Configurable per-instance using a config dialogue

  32. Loading Repository Data Credit: Jeff Potts

  33. Loading Repository Data • Data is loaded using a custom repository web script returning JSON data • But you could re-use existing web scripts • Data loading in web-tier – Alfresco.util.Ajax • See http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/community-4.2.b/symbols/Alfresco.util.Ajax.html • Data loading in client-side component • How do we reload data?

  34. Get Latest Document Example 1 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/getlatestdoc2

  35. Dashlet Configuration Dialogues • Allows the dashlet to be tailored to different situations • Configurable by users (user dashlets) or Site Managers (site dashlets) • Same storage mechanism as Dashlet Resizer • Implement using Alfresco.module.SimpleDialog instance (docs) • Must include client-side files for this class • Must provide a web script to implement the UI • Optionally, we can provide a custom form target • Most dashlets will use the default modules/dashlet/config/{id} target

  36. Get Latest Document Example 2 • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets/tree/getlatestdoc2

  37. More Information • https://github.com/wabson/great-dashlets • http://sharextras.org/ • http://sharextras.org/jsdoc/share/

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