[JBoss] Modularized JavaScript with JBoss Portal Platform 6 – Avoid Conflicts, Promote Re-usability

Modularized JavaScript with JBoss Portal Platform 6 – Avoid Conflicts, Promote Re-usability

http://howtojboss.com/2013/02/05/modularized-javascript-with-jboss-portal-platform-6-avoid-conflicts-promote-re-usability/

 

JBoss Portal Platform 6

JBoss Portal Platform 6 Beta is now available.
http://www.redhat.com/promo/jpp6/

Many new features are documented there:

• Built on blazingly fast, lightweight JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 technology
• Develop with JSF2 and Rich Faces 4 in portlets, via Portlet Bridge
• Implement single sign-on (SSO) using SAML 2.0
• Launch fast with Maven quick starts

Portlet and JavaScript

However, to developers and architects, one of the first issues and most difficult issue we face in any portal implementation is – what are the best practices to use JavaScripts in a portal platform?

Imagine if you have 2 portlets both using a shared JavaScript, such as jQuery – how would you share the JavaScript between the 2 portlets?

• Each Portlet include its own
  • This is largely a no-no.  If each portlet include its own jQuery in a <script> tag, they’ll most likely run into conflicts or unnecessarily reload a script already loaded.
• Deploy a single version
  • Then what if you need multiple versions?
  • What if some portlets needs a different version of the JavaScript library?

Now, expand this dilemma to not just common JavaScripts libraries, but to all of your application’s JavaScripts!

Oh, and don’t forget, you may also want to minify and combine scripts to reduce latency, to be Content Delivery Network (CDN) friendly, and ultimately, to improve your customer’s browsing  experience.