Ampersand-dom-bindings NPM

ampersand-dom-bindings

Part of the Ampersand.js toolkit for building clientside applications.

Takes binding declarations as described below and returns key-tree-store of functions that can be used to apply those bindings to a DOM tree.

ampersand-view use this for declarative bindings.

The returned functions should be called with these arguments: The root element, the current value of the property, and a name for the binding types where that is relevant.

install

npm install ampersand-dom-bindings

Binding types

text

sets/maintains textContent of selected element. treats undefined, null, and NaN as ''

'model.key': {
    type: 'text',
    selector: '.someSelector' // or hook
}

class

sets and maintains single class as string that matches value of property

handles removing previous class if there was one
treats undefined, null, and NaN as '' (empty string).

'model.key': {
    type: 'class',
    selector: // or hook
}

attribute

sets the whole attribute to match value of property. treats undefined, null, and NaN as '' (empty string). name can also be an array to set multiple attributes to the same value.

'model.key': {
    type: 'attribute',
    selector: '#something', // or hook
    name: 'width'
}

value

sets the value of the element to match value of the property. works well for input, select, and textarea elements. treats undefined, null, and NaN as '' (empty string).

note: The binding will only be applied if the element is not currently in focus. This is done by checking to see if the element is the document.activeElement first. The reason it works this way is because if you've set up two-way data bindings you get a circular event: the input changes, which sets the bound model property, which in turn updates the value of the input. This might sound OK but results in the cursor always jumping to the end of the input/textarea. So if you're editing the middle of a bound text field, the cursor keeps jumping to the end. We avoid this by making sure it's not already in focus thus avoiding the bad loop.

'model.key': {
    type: 'value',
    selector: '#something', // or hook
}

booleanClass

add/removes class based on boolean interpretation of property name. name, yes, or no can also be an array of class names where all the values will be toggled. If you need the opposite effect, (false adds class, true removes class), specify invert: true.

'model.active': {
    type: 'booleanClass',
    selector: '#something', // or hook
    // to specify name of class to toggle (if different than key name)
    // you could either specify a name
    name: 'active'
    // or a yes/no case
    yes: 'active',
    no: 'not-active'
    // if you need inverse interpretation
    invert: true
}

booleanAttribute

toggles whole attribute on the element (think checked) based on boolean interpretation of property name. name can also be an array of attribute names where all the values will be toggled. If you need the opposite effect, (false adds attribute, true removes attribute), specify invert: true.

'model.isAwesome': {
    type: 'booleanAttribute',
    selector: '#something', // or hook
    // to specify name of attribute to toggle (if different than key name)
    // you could either specify a name
    name: 'checked'
    // or a yes/no case
    yes: 'data-is-awesome',
    no: 'data-is-not-awesome'
    // if you need inverse interpretation
    invert: true
}

toggle

toggles visibility (using display: none by default) of entire element based on boolean interpretation of property.

// simple show/hide of single element
'model.key': {
    type: 'toggle',
    selector: '#something' // or hook
}

// Inverse interpretation of value
'model.key': {
    type: 'toggle',
    invert: true,
    hook: 'some-element'
}

// toggle visibility property instead
'model.key': {
    type: 'toggle',
    selector: '#something', // or hook
    mode: 'visibility'
}

// show/hide where true/false show different things
'model.key': {
    type: 'toggle',
    yes: '#true_case',
    no: '#false_case'
}

switch

Toggles existence of multiple items based on value of property.

'model.activetab': {
    type: 'switch',
    cases: {
        'edit': '#edit_tab',
        'new': '#new_tab',
        'details': '#details_tab'
    }
}

switchClass

Toggles existence of a class on multiple elements based on value of property.

'model.key': {
    type: 'switchClass',
    name: 'is-active',
    cases: {
        'edit': '#edit_tab',
        'new': '#new_tab',
        'details': '#details_tab'
    }
}

switchAttribute

Sets attribute(s) on matching elements based on the value of a property matching the case.

'model.key': {
    type: 'switchAttribute',
    selector: 'a', // or hook
    name: 'href',  // name defaults to the property name (e.g. 'key' from 'model.key' in this example)
    cases: {
        value1: '/foo',
        value2: '/bar'
    }
}

You can also specify multiple attributes by using an object as the case value. The object keys are used instead of the name option.

'model.key': {
    type: 'switchAttribute',
    selector: 'a', // or hook
    cases: {
        value1: { href: '/foo', name: 'foo' },
        value2: { href: '/bar', name: 'bar' }
    }
}

innerHTML

renders innerHTML, can be a string or DOM, based on property value of model

'model.key': {
    type: 'innerHTML',
    selector: '#something' // or hook
}

custom functions

type can also be a function. It will be run for each matching el with the value and previousValue of the property. The function is bound to the view declaring the bindings, so this refers to the view.

'model.key': {
    type: function (el, value, previousValue) {
        // Do something custom to el
        // using value and/or previousValue
    },
    selector: '#something', // or hook
}

Handling multiple bindings for a given key

If given an array, then treat each contained item as separate binding

'model.key': [
    {
        type: 'booleanClass',
        selector: '#something', // or hook
        name: 'active' // (optional) name of class to toggle if different than key name
    },
    {
        type: 'attribute',
        selector: '#something', // or hook
        name: 'width'
    }
]

The attribute, booleanAttribute and booleanClass types also accept an array for the name property (and yes/no for booleanClass). All the values in the array will be set the same as if each were bound separately.

'model.key': {
    // Also works with booleanAttribute and booleanClass
    type: 'attribute',
    selector: '#avatar',
    // Both height and width will be bound to model.key
    name: ['height', 'width']
}

binding using `data-hook` attribute

We've started using this convention a lot, rather than using classes and IDs in JS to select elements within a view, we use the data-hook attribute. This lets designers edit templates without fear of breaking something by changing a class. It works wonderfully, but the only thing that sucks about that is the syntax of attribute selectors: [data-hook=some-hook] is a bit annoying to type a million types, and also in JS-land when coding and we see [ we always assume arrays.

So for each of these bindings you can either use selector or hook, so these two would be equivalent:

'model.key': {
    selector: '[data-hook=my-element]'
}

'model.key': {
    hook: 'my-element'
}

handling simplest cases: text

'model.key': '#something' // creates `text` binding for that selector and property

// `type` defaults to `text` so we can also do
'model.key': {
    hook: 'hook-name'
}

real life example

var View = require('ampersand-view');
var templates = require('../templates');


module.exports = View.extend({
    template: templates.includes.app,
    bindings: {
        'model.client_name': {
            hook: 'name'
        },
        'model.logo_uri': {
            type: 'attribute',
            name: 'src',
            hook: 'icon'
        }
    }
});

other benefits

Previously after having given views the ability to have their own properties (since view inherits from state) it was awkward to bind those to the DOM. Also, for binding things that were not just this.model the syntax had to change.

Now this is fairly simple/obvious:

module.exports = View.extend({
    template: templates.includes.app,
    props: {
        activetab: 'string',
        person: 'state',
        meeting: 'state'
    },
    bindings: {
        // for the property that's directly on the view
        'activetab': {
            type: 'switch',
            cases: {
                'edit': '#edit_tab',
                'new': '#new_tab',
                'details': '#details_tab'
            }
        },
        // this one is for one model
        'person.full_name': '[data-hook=name]',
        // this one is for another model
        'meeting.subject': '[data-hook=subject]'
    }
});

firstMatchOnly

As an option you can add firstMatchOnly: true to the binding declaration. It will cause the selector matcher to grab only the first match.

Useful for cases when a view renders a collection with several elements with the same class/data-hook.

module.exports = View.extend({
  template: '<div><span data-hook="foo"></span><span data-hook="foo"></span>',
  props: {
    someText: 'string'
  },
  initialize: function(){
    this.someText = 'hello';
  },
  bindings: {
    'someText': {
      type: 'text',
      hook: 'foo',
      firstMatchOnly: true
    }
  }
});
// will render <div><span data-hook="foo">hello</span><span data-hook="foo"></span></div>