USING REQUIREJS WITH CAKEPHP Stephen Young @young_steveo Sr. Software Engineer - Zumba Fitness 

WHAT'S THE POINT? 

The Javascript layer of a typical MVC app starts simple. ...like a jQuery Zen garden. $ ( f u n c t i o n ( ) { / * a n i m a t e t h e b l o g t i t l e * / $ ( ' . t i t l e ' ) . s l i d e D o w n ( ) ; } ) ; 

As the project matures, things get a little more tricky. $ ( f u n c t i o n ( ) { / * a n i m a t e t h e b l o g t i t l e * / $ ( ' . t i t l e ' ) . s l i d e D o w n ( 3 5 0 , f u n c t i o n ( ) { $ . g e t ( ' / s t a t s / c o u n t ' ) . d o n e ( f u n c t i o n ( d a t a ) { $ ( ' . s t a t s C o u n t ' ) . h t m l ( d a t a . c o u n t ) . a d d C l a s s ( ' g r e e n ' ) ; } ) ; } ) ; } ) ; Still maintainable... -ish 

...before long 

/ * m e g a _ f i l e . j s * / $ ( f u n c t i o n ( ) { i f ( w i n d o w . i s B l o g P a g e & & t y p e o f w i n d o w . A p p ! = = ' u n d e f i n e d ' ) { v a r a p p = n e w A p p ( ) ; / * a n i m a t e t h e b l o g t i t l e * / $ ( ' . t i t l e ' ) . s l i d e D o w n ( 3 5 0 , f u n c t i o n ( ) { $ . g e t ( ' / s t a t s / c o u n t ' ) . d o n e ( f u n c t i o n ( d a t a ) { $ ( ' . s t a t s C o u n t ' ) . h t m l ( d a t a . c o u n t ) . a d d C l a s s ( ' g r e e n ' ) ; $ . g e t S c r i p t ( ' / j s / s u p e r A w e s o m e P l u g i n ' , f u n c t i o n ( ) { $ . g e t ( ' / p o s t s / s o m e D a t a ' ) . d o n e ( f u n c t i o n ( d a t a ) { i f ( d a t a . p o s t s ) { d o S o m e C o o l S t u f f ( d a t a . p o s t s ) ; } } ) ; } ) ; } ) ; } ) ; } e l s e i f ( w i n d o w . i s C a t e g o r y ) { / * o h , g o d , p l e a s e , s t o p ! * / 

Don't forget the layout file... 

< s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o m m o n / b 2 S e t t i n g s . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o m m o n / m a t h / b 2 V e c 2 . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o m m o n / m a t h / b 2 M a t 2 2 . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o m m o n / m a t h / b 2 M a t h . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 A A B B . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 B o u n d . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 B o u n d V a l u e s . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 P a i r . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 P a i r C a l l b a c k . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 B u f f e r e d P a i r . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 P a i r M a n a g e r . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 B r o a d P h a s e . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 C o l l i s i o n . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / F e a t u r e s . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 C o n t a c t I D . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 C o n t a c t P o i n t . j s " > < / s c r i p t > < s c r i p t s r c = " j s / b o x 2 d / c o l l i s i o n / b 2 D i s t a n c e . j s " > < / s c r i p t > 

THERE IS A BETTER WAY. 

WHAT IS REQUIREJS? javascript module & file loader AMD (asynchronous module definition) optimization tool http://requirejs.org 

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT AMD? Encapsulation Dependency Management 

AMD EXAMPLE Define your modules: / * d e f i n e ( i d ? , d e p e n d e n c i e s ? , f a c t o r y ) ; * / d e f i n e ( " S o m e M o d u l e " , [ " d e p e n d e n c y " ] , f u n c t i o n ( d e p e n d e n c y ) { v a r S o m e M o d u l e = f u n c t i o n ( ) { } ; S o m e M o d u l e . p r o t o t y p e . i n i t = f u n c t i o n ( ) { d e p e n d e n c y . d o S t u f f ( ) ; } ; / * e t c . * / r e t u r n S o m e M o d u l e ; } ) ; 

AMD EXAMPLE Load your modules and use them: / * r e q u i r e ( d e p e n d e n c i e s , c a l l b a c k ) ; * / r e q u i r e ( [ " M o d u l e A " , " M o d u l e B " ] , f u n c t i o n ( M o d u l e A , M o d u l e B ) { v a r m o d u l e = n e w M o d u l e A ( ) ; M o d u l e A . i n i t ( ) ; / * e t c . * / } ) ; 

REQUIRE() OR DEFINE() ? Use `define` to declare a module for use elsewhere. Use `require` to pre-load dependencies and/or do some stuff. 

WHAT IS CAKEPHP? (just kidding) 

HELLO WORLD / * a p p / V i e w s / L a y o u t s / s o m e L a y o u t . c t p * / e c h o $ t h i s - > H t m l - > s c r i p t ( " r e q u i r e . j s " , [ " d a t a - m a i n " = > " / j s / b o o t s t r a p " ] ) ; / * a p p / w e b r o o t / j s / b o o t s t r a p . j s * / r e q u i r e j s . c o n f i g ( { p a t h s : { j q u e r y : ' j s / v e n d o r / j q u e r y . m i n ' } } ) ; r e q u i r e ( [ ' j s / l i b s / b l o g s ' ] ) ; / * a p p / w e b r o o t / j s / l i b s / b l o g s . j s * / r e q u i r e ( [ ' j q u e r y ' ] , f u n c t i o n ( $ ) { $ ( f u n c t i o n ( ) { / * e t c . * / } ) ; } ) ; 

IT IS THAT SIMPLE. IS IT THAT SIMPLE? IT NEVER IS, IS IT? Even with RequireJS, things can get out of hand. As with many great tools, RequireJS gives you plenty of "rope." 

TIPS Keep your modules focused; remember the single responsibility principle. Define a solid directory structure, and stick to it. (like your CakePHP /app directory) Think "automagic" and document your conventions. / j s / R E A D M E . m d 

GOING BEYOND "HELLO WORLD" i.e. What if your project contains LOTS of javascript? 

DISCLAIMER This works for us, and we like it, but feel free to tweak it to meet your needs. 

IDENTIFY SECTIONS FOR YOUR PROJECT 1. Break the project down into sections, and create a module for each section (e.g. b l o g . j s , s h o p . j s , etc). 2. Identify any functionality that would be shared across multiple sections, and put them into common modules. 

CHANGE THE LAYOUT BEFORE: / * ( d a t a - m a i n d o e s t h e h e a v y l i f t i n g ) * / e c h o $ t h i s - > H t m l - > s c r i p t ( " r e q u i r e . j s " , [ " d a t a - m a i n " = > " / j s / b o o t s t r a p " ] ) ; AFTER: / * n o m o r e d a t a - m a i n * / e c h o $ t h i s - > H t m l - > s c r i p t ( " r e q u i r e . j s " ) ; < s c r i p t > r e q u i r e ( [ ' / j s / b o o t s t r a p . j s ' ] , f u n c t i o n ( ) { r e q u i r e ( [ ' m o d u l e s / < ? p h p e c h o $ j a v a s c r i p t M o d u l e ; ? > ' ] ) ; } ) ; < / s c r i p t > 

MODIFY THE APPCONTROLLER p u b l i c f u n c t i o n b e f o r e R e n d e r ( ) { $ t h i s - > s e t ( a r r a y ( ' j a v a s c r i p t M o d u l e ' = > $ t h i s - > j a v a s c r i p t M o d u l e ) ) ; } p u b l i c f u n c t i o n b e f o r e F i l t e r ( ) { / * j u s t a n i c e c o n v e n t i o n , y o u c o u l d u s e a d e f a u l t f i l e t o o * / i f ( ! $ t h i s - > j a v a s c r i p t M o d u l e ) { $ m o d u l e N a m e = I n f l e c t o r : : u n d e r s c o r e ( $ t h i s - > n a m e ) ; $ t h i s - > j a v a s c r i p t M o d u l e = $ m o d u l e N a m e ; } } 

NEW BOOTSTRAP.JS FILE r e q u i r e j s . c o n f i g ( { p a t h s : { j q u e r y : ' j s / v e n d o r / j q u e r y ' , s o m e L i b : ' j s / l i b s / s o m e L i b ' , a n o t h e r L i b : ' j s / l i b s / a n o t h e r L i b ' } , s h i m : { a n o t h e r L i b : [ ' j q u e r y ' , ' s o m e L i b ' ] } } ) ; 

OPTIMIZATION 

R.JS RequireJS ships with a great minification/concatenation tool It runs in Node.js, Java with Rhino, or a browser It is configurable Bonus: it can minify CSS files for you too (but I'm not going to cover that today) 

CONCATENATE DEPENDENCIES r.js will combine modules that are specified as dependencies in your module definitions 

CONFIGURATION FILE { " m o d u l e s " : [ { " n a m e " : " b o o t s t r a p " , " i n c l u d e " : [ " u n d e r s c o r e " , " b a c k b o n e " , " j q u e r y " ] } , { " n a m e " : " b l o g s " , e x c l u d e : [ ' b o o t s t r a p ' ] } , { " n a m e " : " s h o p s " , e x c l u d e : [ ' b o o t s t r a p ' ] } , { " n a m e " : " p r o f i l e s " , e x c l u d e : [ ' b o o t s t r a p ' ] } , / * e t c . * / 

THAT'S IT! QUESTIONS? 

EXAMPLE REPO github.com/young-steveo/require_cake