From: Adam Van Den Hoven <mail@...>
Date: 2005-09-27T08:47:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Embedded Ruby and Tag Libs

The problem is that I LOVE XML, and find it easy to work with, mostly  
because its easy to abstract complex things with it... which is how I  
think.

Without thinking of MUCH better ways to do this, I submit the following:

<av:form model="person">
     <av:field name="name" />
     <av:field name="password" />
     <av:field name="single" />
     <av:field name="description" />
</av:form>

I would then do much the same thing that rails does now where you  
would assume (but provide ways to explicitly set) things like  
localization key for the label, the controller to call etc. I would  
look at the model, "figure out" that name is a string, password is  
secret, person is boolean and description is text and render the  
correct markup that I define for each of those field types. Look to  
see if a Person is already provided (and assume an update) otherwise  
create one (and assume a New).

In rough hand waving.

Keep in mind that I'm looking for a way to define my tag, not for  
someone to define my tag.

I'm assuming that whatever parser converts <%= ... %>  in to ruby  
code can just as easily be setup to do the same thing with tags,  
maybe using REXML (or what ever its called). It just needs to be more  
precise.

Adam



On 26-Sep-05, at 4:30 PM, James Edward Gray II wrote:

> On Sep 26, 2005, at 5:56 PM, Adam Van Den Hoven wrote:
>
>
>> James,
>>
>> I agree, except that it starts to fall apart as you get more complex.
>>
>> Lets take an example from rails that REALLY annoys me: form_tag.  
>> It follows largely the same form you suggest.
>>
>> Right now to make a form in rails you do the following:
>>
>> <%= form_tag :controller=>"foo" :action=>"bar" %>
>>    Name:
>>     <%= text_field "person", "name", "size" => 20 %>
>>     Password:
>>     <%= password_field "person", "password", "maxsize" => 20 %>
>>     Single?:
>>     <%= check_box "person", "single" %>
>>     Description:
>>     <%= text_area "person", "description", "cols" => 20 %>
>>     <input type="submit" value="Save">
>> <%= end_form_tag %>
>>
>> There's no easy way to encapsulate this into a single method,  
>> although Devin (as I'm writting this) has some good suggestions.
>>
>
> Would you mind showing how you would clean this up with an XML syntax?
>
> I personally find XML very wordy.
>
> James Edward Gray II
>
>
>