Exercise 6: Simple Pattern¶

Warning

This exercise requires a working buildout using a fork of the collective.jstraining package.

In this exercise, we’ll be walking through creating a simple Plone pattern.

We will be working in the exercise6 directory of the collective.jstraining package.

Add your pattern file¶

First off, in your exercise6/static directory, add a file named pattern.js. Use this file to build your pattern. This example will stay very simple we’ll use jQuery to do a simply modify the content of an element:

define([
  'jquery',
  'mockup-patterns-base',
], function($, Base) {
  'use strict';

  var Pattern = Base.extend({
    name: 'exercise6',
    trigger: '.pat-exercise6',
    parser: 'mockup',
    defaults: {
    },
    init: function() {
      var that = this;
      that.$el.append(' <span>Exercise 6 was here</span>');
    }
  });

  return Pattern;
});

For more details on how to write a mockup pattern, utilize the various resources available.

In our example, we’re using the RequireJS define function to define our pattern as a JavaScript module.

Integrating with LESS¶

Add a pattern.less file to the exercise6/static directory and provide whatever styles you’d like for your pattern:

.pat-exercise6 {
  color: red;
}

Creating your bundle¶

To register the pattern, we’ll create a bundle. Recall the difference between using require and define from the RequireJS docs.

Our bundle will use the require function to include the JavaScript module pattern we created our previously.

Create a bundle.js file in your exercise6/static directory:

require([
  'exercise6'
], function() {
  'use strict';
});

The only thing we’re doing in this file is including the exercise6 module we defined earlier–that’s it. Bundles can do more as well. Then can include initialization code for example. See Plone’s default bundle.

Bundles more or less tell the compiler what we care about loading. They do the dependency resolution and include the modules that were required with them.

Register static resource directory¶

Next, let’s register the static directory we just placed our script into. To register, you need to add ZCML registration for the static directory your script is in. Add this to the exercise6/configure.zcml file:

<plone:static
     directory="static"
     type="plone"
     name="exercise6"
     />

Register your bundle¶

Registering your bundle is done by adding Generic Setup xml configuration to the Plone registry. This is done in the registry.xml file in the profiles/default directory.

Resource¶

Resource is done exactly the same as in Exercise 1:

<records prefix="plone.resources/exercise6"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IResourceRegistry'>
  <value key="js">++plone++exercise6/pattern.js</value>
</records>

Bundle resource¶

The bundle resource is just another resource registration like any other. Remember, the only difference here is in the content of the JavaScript file. One file uses require, the other uses define. Addditionally, we include our CSS/LESS dependencies here:

<records prefix="plone.resources/bundle-exercise6"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IResourceRegistry'>
  <value key="js">++plone++exercise6/bundle.js</value>
  <value key="css">
    <element>++plone++exercise6/pattern.less</element>
  </value>
</records>

Bundle¶

Finally, let’s create our bundle registration:

<records prefix="plone.bundles/exercise6"
          interface='Products.CMFPlone.interfaces.IBundleRegistry'>
  <value key="resources">
    <!-- reference to bundle resource definition -->
    <element>bundle-exercise6</element>
  </value>
  <value key="merge_with">default</value>
  <value key="enabled">True</value>
  <value key="jscompilation">++plone++exercise6/exercise6-compiled.min.js</value>
  <value key="csscompilation">++plone++exercise6/exercise6-compiled.css</value>
  <value key="last_compilation">2016-10-04 00:00:00</value>

  <!-- so we don't include these modules multiple times -->
  <value key="stub_js_modules">
    <element>jquery</element>
    <element>mockup-patterns-base</element>
  </value>
</records>

Installation¶

Start up your Plone instance
Install the Exercise 6 add-on

Running¶

At this point, we have no compiled version of the code that we’re running with so our code doesn’t do anything.

Go into Site Setup -> Resource Registries
Check “Development Mode”
Select to develop JavaScript and CSS for the exercise6 bundle
Click save

This should load your JavaScript and LESS files now; however, we don’t have any elements with the pat-exercise6 class assigned to them.

It’s up to you how to apply the pattern class to an element of your choice. A couple options available to you are:

use TinyMCE source view and add class="pat-exercise6" onto any p tag
customize the theme on your site and add it to an element in your theme file or use a diazo rule diazo rule to dynamically add the class to an element

Production¶

To build our bundle, we’ll utilize the plone-compile-resources script that Plone ships with.

Warning

If you’re not running a ZEO setup, you’ll need to shut down your Plone instance since the ZODB in this mode does not allow multiple processes to access it at the same time.

An example command will look like this:

./bin/plone-compile-resources --site-id=Plone --bundle=exercise6

Once this command finishes, your bundle is built and will be deployed with your package package.