jQuery & Legacy JS in your Template
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Login SubscribeHere's a simple challenge: when I hover over the leaderboard, I want to show a JavaScript Bootstrap popover that gives us some info about how it works.
Open up the template: app/Resources/views/lift/index.html.twig. Add a class on the h2 that we can target in JavaScript: js-custom-popover. Then, I'll add a few other things that will help the popover: data-toggle="popover", a title and data-content:
| // ... lines 1 - 2 | |
| {% block body %} | |
| <div class="row"> | |
| // ... lines 5 - 34 | |
| <div class="col-md-5"> | |
| <div class="leaderboard"> | |
| <h2 class="text-center js-custom-popover" data-toggle="popover" title="About the Leaderboard" data-content="Want to be the leader? Lift stuff!"> | |
| // ... lines 38 - 39 | |
| </h2> | |
| // ... lines 41 - 42 | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| {% endblock %} | |
| // ... lines 47 - 62 |
To get this working, all we need to do is write some JavaScript to find that element and activate the popover. Normally, we would put this in rep_log.js. In fact, that's the best place to put it. Well, there, or some file that it requires. The point is, now that our JavaScript has matured, 100% of your JS code should live in an external JavaScript file. You should have no JavaScript in your templates, other than the one script tag:
| // ... lines 1 - 47 | |
| {% block javascripts %} | |
| // ... lines 49 - 50 | |
| <script src="{{ asset('build/rep_log.js') }}"></script> | |
| {% endblock %} |
But, what if you're using Webpack on a legacy app... that still has a ton of JavaScript in your templates? You should refactor this. But, since that can be a big job, let's find out how we can still write JavaScript in a template... even though we shouldn't.
Add a new script tag right in the template. Here, code like normally: add a $(document).ready() block, then find our .js-custom-popover elements and activate popover(). I'll pass that a few options:
| // ... lines 1 - 47 | |
| {% block javascripts %} | |
| // ... lines 49 - 50 | |
| <script src="{{ asset('build/rep_log.js') }}"></script> | |
| <script> | |
| $(document).ready(function() { | |
| $('.js-custom-popover').popover({ | |
| trigger: 'hover', | |
| placement: 'left' | |
| }); | |
| }); | |
| </script> | |
| {% endblock %} |
So simple! It should work, right? After all, rep_log.js requires jQuery, so we should be able to use it in our template.
Well, try it. Refresh the page. Uh oh... error!
$ is not defined
This is coming from our template. What's going on? We are requiring jQuery!
| const $ = require('jquery'); | |
| // ... lines 2 - 8 |
Why jQuery / $ is not Global Anymore
Well... we already know what's going on. When we require jquery, it detects that it is being used in a module environment. So it does not set a global jQuery or $ variable. Instead, it just returns the jQuery function, which we set to $. But that only affects this file.
And this is good! We want each module to live in isolation like this. But, if you do need to expose a jQuery variable globally, you can.
First, since we're using a Bootstrap function on this page, require('bootstrap-sass') so the popover function is available:
| const $ = require('jquery'); | |
| require('bootstrap-sass'); | |
| // ... lines 3 - 13 |
Making jQuery / $ Global
Now, to actually make $ available as a global variable, we can set it on the window object: window.$ = $:
| const $ = require('jquery'); | |
| require('bootstrap-sass'); | |
| // ... lines 3 - 4 | |
| // expose $ globally so I can use it in the template | |
| // ... even though I should put all my code here! | |
| window.$ = $; | |
| // ... lines 8 - 13 |
That's it! But remember, this is not ideal, and is just meant to support legacy code.
Refresh now! Ha! It works!
The ProvidePlugin Complication
But, I have one tiny complication. In webpack.config.js, near the bottom, we added something called the webpack.ProvidePlugin():
| // ... lines 1 - 30 | |
| module.exports = { | |
| // ... lines 32 - 93 | |
| plugins: [ | |
| new webpack.ProvidePlugin({ | |
| jQuery: 'jquery', | |
| $: 'jquery' | |
| }), | |
| // ... lines 99 - 103 | |
| ], | |
| // ... line 105 | |
| }; |
Thanks to this, if any JavaScript relies on jQuery or $ to be available as a global variable, Webpack rewrites that code to require the jquery module properly. This does not make the jQuery or $ variables available globally, like in a template. Instead, it fixes code to not need that. If you do want to make these variables global, that's what we just did in rep_log.js:
| // ... lines 1 - 4 | |
| // expose $ globally so I can use it in the template | |
| // ... even though I should put all my code here! | |
| window.$ = $; | |
| // ... lines 8 - 13 |
In other words, these are solving two separate, but similar issues.
Here's the complication: sometimes, a third party library will try to reference jQuery globally not by just saying jQuery, but by saying window.jQuery... which is really the same thing. But, right now, the ProvidePlugin would not fix that situation. So we could still have some issues with some libraries.
No worries! Add two more lines: 'window.jQuery': 'jquery' and 'window.$': 'jquery':
| // ... lines 1 - 30 | |
| module.exports = { | |
| // ... lines 32 - 93 | |
| plugins: [ | |
| new webpack.ProvidePlugin({ | |
| jQuery: 'jquery', | |
| $: 'jquery', | |
| 'window.jQuery': 'jquery', | |
| 'window.$': 'jquery', | |
| }), | |
| // ... lines 101 - 107 | |
| }; |
Cool! So now we're covered. Re-start Webpack:
./node_modules/.bin/webpack --watch
And, refresh! Woh! What! An error! Once again, it says that $ is not defined! What the heck!
Using global to set Global Variables
This is a total gotcha. Thanks to the ProvidePlugin(), it's actually now re-writing our code, changing the window.$ in a way so that it does not actually create a global variable anymore. This is not what we intended!
The fix is easy: change window.$ to global.$:
| // ... lines 1 - 4 | |
| // expose $ globally so I can use it in the template | |
| // ... even though I should put all my code here! | |
| global.$ = $; | |
| // ... lines 8 - 13 |
What? We know that window is the global variable in a browser environment. Well, in Webpack, you're allowed to set things on a global variable. When you do, it figures out that you're in a browser environment, and sets that on window. Basically, this does the same thing as before, but won't be re-written by the ProvidePlugin().
Just by making this change, when we refresh, it works. Now, in practice, some libraries do reference window.jQuery, but I don't know of any that reference window.$, so you can remove it:
| // ... lines 1 - 30 | |
| module.exports = { | |
| // ... lines 32 - 93 | |
| plugins: [ | |
| new webpack.ProvidePlugin({ | |
| jQuery: 'jquery', | |
| $: 'jquery', | |
| 'window.jQuery': 'jquery', | |
| }), | |
| // ... lines 100 - 106 | |
| }; |
Next! Let's talk about import and export... the more hipster alternativse to require and module.exports.
Thanks for this excellent tutorial !!!