With the new KnockoutJS native DOM-enabled templating life's gonna be easy.
But sometimes pages contains millions of them, and all templates are static or just i18n'zed. So it would be great to retrieve templates from server via separate HTTP calls, so the browser will be able to cache them as static files.
It will give a great reduce in traffic and whole server load! Pages will be light and contain only changed data. Templates stored in CDN. It's a dream!
It was possible with jQuery.tmpl and require.js. But how to do it with knockout itself?
It would be perfect to load templates by name on demand, like an php __autoload() for templates, but at least it would be great to somehow include templates as remote html files to the page, and parse them for knockout.
Do you know how to do it?
There are several ways to accomplish loading templates from external files.
In my opinion, the best option is to use the Knockout External Template Engine available here.
If you want some more basic ideas, I had a post from last year that describes some thoughts on the topic here.
Related
I am currently developing a website. I would like to separate content and presentation. I am currently using a Dreamweaver Template to achieve this. However, I find that Dreamweaver's edit regions are very limiting in the design view. I have found that the same goal can be achieved by including the header and footer of my website.
What are the pros and cons of using includes rather than using templates?
First, if I were to rephrase your question, it's more like asking "Should I by a wire frame of a kite or by the glue to stick together what I'm making?" And then, you ask about the pros and cons of buying the wireframe against buying the glue. There are far too many variables as you can see...
And back on your your question... At some point your template will use include files. And for a start, it's worth knowing what you're thinking... Let's look at some basics.
Web design - usually refers to making websites that aren't really interactive. They don't have server-side elements. So most of the site has 'static' contents. If this were the case, you're better off with DreamWeaver, particularly if you're not into html/css editing.
Web development/programming - starts off with something as elementary as mailing a form, to highly interactive sites like FaceBook. Here you'll need to use some server-side language, usually like PHP, ASP or JSP. The choices are many but you've got to choose your own platform or combination of them.
Now to the second option (above). If for example, you were building a site using PHP, one of the nice things you'll do is to include your header, footer and side panels that need to be repeated across all pages. This way, you'll eliminate the need to re-write those sections. But if you were using a program like DreamWeaver, it does this duplication for you. Yes, it physically copy-pastes those sections into every file that needs it. Of course the end result may not be any different. But as a developer, you will be tied down to the DreamWeaver platform or for that matter, any other specific platform.
On the other hand, if you get used to working with an editor like NotePad++ or GEdit, you may switch between editors at any time. But you have the task of hand-coding everything from scratch. But then again, since you would use include files to bring in your headers and stuff, you save development time as well.
I don't know how much of html/css or php you know, but here's one of my demos to show you how to hand-code a site. This ain't complete but you should get an idea.
Link to the video introduction
Link to the video on youtube
I am currently involved in a Django project and I am definitely using Twiter bootstrap for the layout.
Though not actually precise, my question is quite simple: Bootstrap allows me to choose which styles/JS I want to download separately -- forms, tables, responsive, styles for buttons, navigation, etc -- and also together in a single "all-inclusive" file.... and I am not using all the resources at once on the same page.
Additional to that, we have the Django template system, which allows me to build one template over another, so I can basically add the more general stuff to my base template and, as I need in subtemplates, include the other static files.
So, to sum up everything: Is it worth it, to have those styles separated? I think that in terms of organization maybe it is not so clean, because I will have to import and handle more CSS files, but on the other hand I won't be loading unnecessary stuff.
What are the trade-offs of this choice?
Thank you for your time.
Is it worth it, to have those styles separated
No it is not. If you look around, e.g. visitmix, you'll see that the overhead of requestig new files make the difference neglible.
Server you static from a cookie-less domain and you'll users will only have to hit your servers twice: once for CSS and once for JavaScript.
In a framework template engine let's say we have files for header,body,footer and body itself contains banner.tpl.php, content.tpl.php and so on. Do browsers cache these inner files?
If answer is negative what is the benefit of that? Do we can cache server side? Or it doesn't at all relate to caching?
Your php header files are only known by the server which will not send them 'as is' to the browser. The browser will have an html version of them with all variables placeholder replaced by their actual values. So the answer is no.
The benefit of templates is to separate the presentation from the process of computing what it will contain, it is not related to caching imho. Except for persistent servers (java, not php) which can cache (depending on the template engine) the content of template files, reuse them across queries and users.
Suppose you are running a Django site, and have a legacy PHP forum to support and integrate into your site, since current Django forum solutions are not mature enough.
What is the best way to do this?
Currently I have a simple view, which renders a very simple template which extends my site's base template, and the content area has nothing but an <IFRAME> which holds the forum as its src. A small jQuery function is used to maximize the <IFRAME>'s height (once it finishes loading) so as to contain 100% of the forum content.
But all of this sounds pretty awkward. How would you go about this?
There are a few options. None are ideal (but mixing two platforms never is!)
Use iframes as you've suggested (bad as the address in the address bar is always that of the django page and if somebody copes a link off the forum, it will be the PHP forum, not the django holder)
Use iframes but instead of using the same src all the time, parse the URL and append the relative bit onto the src of the iframe. ie if django sees /forum/this-url, set the src to http://forum-address/this-url and make sure all your links target parent. This has the advantage of showing the correct link in the address bar at all times (rather than it always being /forum/). You'll need to hack your forum for this to work.
Proxy the content and inject it into the page properly. You'll need to pass cookies and it might get really messy but in most terms, this is a great way to integrate things because your links will always be correct. You'll need to butcher your forum theme to strip out everything outside and including the <body> tags.
Theme your forum in the same way as the Django site. This would give best performance but you might have issues if you use dynamic stuff in your django template. An option to get around this is by having the django template cache things to memcache and using php-memcache to pull them out into your forum template.
I have done both 3 and 4 in the past. I used 3 for a very simple form (so didn't have to deal with cookies and sessions as you will). I used 4 for integrating a FluxBB forum into a Wordpress install. Both PHP but it would be uber bloat to load FluxBB inside Wordpress. I cached the dynamic template things into memcache and pulled them out in the forum template.
For this, I would probably suggest going with #4. It's a pain in the arse having to maintain two themes but it's by far the fastest performing solution.
When I read the question summary I immediately thought that you would need some kind of script, which could be linked to a signal via the Dispatcher in Django, to syncronize the user database from your Django site to the forum. This would keep the authentication side of things in check - but you still need to do one of the things that Oli has suggested, to make them look the same.
Themeing will probably be the least hassle-free route, but that's not to say it will be easy!
Brand new to CMS:
With Joomla or other CMS, If I want to use my own design, do I have to make it a template first using proprietary code of some sort = ie using some Joomla templating language - or is using my own design with Joomla simple and independent?
I am not sure the role "templates" play with Joomla and other CMS. I gather they can be used as a complete "pre-made" design where you just tweak it, but are they necessary as a base of some sort to using my own designs? I am proficient with HTML and CSS. I also have been playing around with various Jquery Plugin's for my UI.
Ideally I would like to create any design I can think of with any layout I create and use CMS simply for its database and plugins etc such as a blog or calender back end. I might use it for more features as I learn about them. Do I need to use a "template" or create a "template" to do this?
Thanks!
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You have to create a template (or change an existing one), how else will the CMS know where to add the information into as the template is a HTML, CSS and Javascript Page group devoid of information and some HTML Tags replaced with CMS Specific tags, which tells the CMS where to add the information. It also include certain files telling the CMS the Name, and othe information of the template.
The First step in creating a template is to have a design.
Do your design in HTML and CSS. (Preferably using the CMS Template folder/directory structure.)
For Joomla use the information in this post: How should I go about writing a Joomla! template?
In Joomla jQuery have to be used in compatibility mode.
The CMS will supply the information, you supply the design and tell the CMS
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The Template is the design container, whether you create one from scratch or reuse a current template. I initially used one of the pre-installed templates (together with the documentation) to learn some of the complexities of designing the template. (ex. structure, and what is possible.)
Please also look at my answer to this question How should I go about writing a Joomla! template? as it is a pretty good beginners guideline for template designers in Joomla (Even if I have to say it myself) with a couple of other resources linked in as well.
A Joomla template is nothing but HTML layout stylised using CSS. So to create your own templates you need a good grasp on HTML and CSS.
Joomla, by default provides a couple of templates to start with.
If you are just beginning, creating your own template is not where you want to start...learn more about setting up Joomla. You have enough problems there :)
Joomla! 1.5: A User's Guide is a great beginner book. It takes you through learning Joomla, what templates are, how to make them, and even walks you through setting up WAMP so you can experiment on your local machine.
The templates only affect the styling of your site. If you are starting out, I would work on getting your content in place first and wait on templates until later on.
My experience has been revamping my two websites to use WordPress, then moving to ModX, then moving back to HTML. I believe that you don't need a template but it will make some things easier as it bundles a lot of stuff you'd otherwise have to do manually. --At least for WordPress. I'm not even sure we found a good ModX template but adapted [poorly] a WordPress one. ModX is a good but little known CMS.
With one of my sites I found that it was impossible for WordPress to handle the images, thus I began working with a plug-in developer to create a custom plug-in. He took about a year and it still wasn't useable. Also I hired some consultants along the way. Their biggest contribution was "to complexify things" so I couldn't make any changes myself without going back to them & paying hundreds of $ to change a phone # for example.
I chucked all that and redid everything in HTML5 with Javascript, css and a little php. People here on S.Overflow actually helped me with the coding. I have a 3rd simple site that I may go back to WordPress for but only to use some particular functions which might be a pain to program otherwise.
Here is one of my 2 HTML sites:
coinsandhistory.com