jQuery Grid Plugin - jqGrid

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry to be so slow to respond – I didnt notice your post until now.

I've just looked at the changes, and as you say, its an improvement, but there's still a lot of names added to both $ and $.fn.

I realized my proposed solution – to extend $.fn.jqGrid rather than $.fn – doesnt quite work (after trying it out on one of the methods!), because when you call $(selection).jqGrid.showCol() (for example), showCol gets called, but with the wrong “this” parameter (the jqGrid object, rather than the jQuery object).

It looks like the “standard” way to do this in jQuery UI is to instead do something like $(selection).jqGrid(”showCol”).

I think we could achieve this by following the approach I outlined in my original post, and modifying $.fn.jqGrid to do something like:

if (typeof p == “string”) {

   var fn = $.fn.jqGrid[p];

   if (fn) {

     var args = $.makeArray(arguments).slice(1);

     fn.call(this,args);

  } else {

   // error handling

  }

   return;

}

That way, any of the current $.fn.func could instead be called as $(selection).jqGrid(”func”, args). And as I said before, maintaining backward compatibility is trivial – the old interface would be available unless turned off by a flag.

I would be quite happy to make these changes – if you're interested in taking them? Given the amount of churn in jqGrid (which is good – it means things are improving!) maintaining these changes “externally” doesnt seem like an option.

Mark

Hi Tony,

Yes - my solution doesnt (shouldnt!) break anything - unless the user explicitly asks for the old api to be removed.

I've modified 3.5.2, and put it at http://myosotissp.com/jqGrid-3.5.2x.tgz to show you exactly what Im thinking.

For this, Ive only moved the methods defined in grid.base.js, but I've rewritten all calls to those methods (from anywhere) to use the "new" syntax.

If you use this as a straight replacement for 3.5.2, any existing code should continue to work (mine does!). In addition you can write calls to any method defined in grid.base.js using the new syntax, eg:

                                            var row = grid.jqGrid("getRowData",rowid);

However, if you also set $.jgrid.no_legacy_api=true prior to loading grid.base.js, then /only/ the new syntax is supported (and so none of those names appear in $.fn - which is what Im really after).

Executive summary:

 - no breakage of existing code (unless you want it).

 - new syntax for calling the grid methods (I've started to like this, because it makes it very easy to spot the calls to grid methods in my code). 

 - optionally remove all the clutter from $.fn (requires switching calling code to the new api).

Mark

No - you express yourself very clearly. Apparently I dont

If you look at my changes (better yet, try them out), you will see that existing code works *without any modification*.

In addition, you can use the new syntax ( $(selector).jqGrid("method",args) rather than $(selector).method(args) ). But its not required.

The only time users need to make a change is if they want to get rid of the old syntax, in order to prevent the existing namespace pollution.

In that case, they set $.jgrid.no_legacy_api=true, and then they *only* get the new syntax.

So once again - there is /no/ breakage of existing code with these changes.

And yes - of course there are many more functions that should be fixed - I just targetted grid.base.js to show you where I was going, and to see what you thought.

Mark

Hi Tony,

I understand.

To make things a little easier (and to help with the step-by-step), I've simplified things a little. I've just checked in a new version in my fork of the grid. There are now two branches. "master" and "newapi".

On the master branch, I've added a function $.jgrid.extend() which extends both $.fn and $.fn.jqGrid with its argument. I've also changed every call to $.fn.extend into a call to $.jgrid.extend, and also modified $.fn.jqGrid to handle string arguments as before.

The upshot is that there's only a small number of changes, but it supports the new calling convention ( .jqGrid("method",args) rather than .method(args)). But it doesnt allow you to turn off the "old" calling convention (because the grid itself still uses that).

Then, on the "newapi" branch, I've also changed all the call sites to those functions to use the new calling convention. Obviously, a lot more changes, and much harder to verify.

Im hoping you can pull in the master changes before too long. Once those are in, I should be able to keep the newapi branch up to date fairly easily (I have a script to convert between the two calling conventions).

Hopefully, in the long run, you'll take the newapi changes too - but I can see that thats going to be harder.

Mark