Book Image

Backbase 4 RIA Development

Book Image

Backbase 4 RIA Development

Overview of this book

Backbase is a very powerful and complex JavaScript library, with many user interface components to help make web development easier. It allows the development of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that run within all major browsers but its powers and complexity mean that the choice of component can be overwhelming. Understanding when and how to use the right component might not always be straightforward. This book makes that easier. This is a practical book that teaches you how to use the Backbase Client Framework effectively, with a complete overview and many examples. A core developer of the framework puts the technologies used into a wider perspective of existing web standards and a seasoned software architect explains why XML-based UI definition produces better web applications. The transparent use of AJAX technologies, for example to submit forms, or to retrieve updates for data grids, can be taken for granted with the Backbase framework. Packed with examples, the book shows you how to get the most from the library of UI components, and then extend the library with its own custom language. With this book in hand, it is easy to enable AJAX within your web application. You will be able to use the Backbase framework effectively, from basic applications to complex, custom-defined UI components. This book contains a complete overview of all the UI libraries available within the Backbase framework and shows examples for each element described. The Backbase framework offers an innovative Tag Definition Language (TDL), which allows developers to create new UI components that can be used as XML elements, in the same way as using the built-in GUI library. Using TDL brings considerable development advantages, and this book explains how. Significant attention is also given to architectural aspects of designing a web-application, showing sample applications using a model-view-controller approach.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Backbase 4 RIA Development
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
Preface

A square puzzle


We are going to end this book with a puzzle and a challenge—both a real and a metaphorical square puzzle. Real, because it is square as you can see from the screenshot a few pages later. Metaphorical, because the code of the puzzle is a squared JavaScript using TDL to the max.

One of the authors thinks this is a good example of what can be achieved in a simple way using TDL. The other author thinks this example is a bridge too far in using component composition. Therefore, we entered this puzzle as a challenge for improvement and as a pun on the title of this chapter.

The example we are going to describe is an implementation of a puzzle you all know from childhood: the 15 square puzzle.

The puzzle has a 4 x 4 square board with 15 tiles on it, that are initially randomly placed and one square is left empty. By sliding a tile that is in a position adjacent to the empty square to the empty square position, you can rearrange the tiles, until the tiles are properly ordered from...