Part of MKWS-322. Change all references from mkws-widget-termlists.js to mkws-widget...

[mkws-moved-to-github.git] / doc / mkws-developer.markdown

diff --git a/doc/mkws-developer.markdown b/doc/mkws-developer.markdown
index 6066e05..3d92fc3 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/mkws-developer.markdown
+++ b/doc/mkws-developer.markdown
@@ -3,6 +3,29 @@
 % 11 August 2014
 
 
 % 11 August 2014
 
 

+Required development tools
+==========================
+
+If you are building the widget set, as opposed to just using it, you
+will need the following Debian packages (or their equivalents on your
+operating system):
+
+       $ sudo apt-get install curl git make unzip \
+           pandoc yui-compressor libbsd-resource-perl
+
+You also need Node.js, but unfortunately the `node-js` package is not
+available for Debian wheezy. You can either get it from
+wheezy-backports or download the source from
+http://nodejs.org/download/ and build it yourself. You need both Node
+itself and its package manager NPM: `make install` puts them into
+`/usr/local/bin`.
+
+To compile the default templates you'll need to install the stable
+version of Handlebars. Currently it's at 2.0.0 and available by npm:
+
+       $ npm install handlebars@2.0.0 -g
+
+

 Overview
 ========
 
 Overview
 ========
 

@@ -134,6 +157,46 @@ be used by the derived widget.
 * `String this.value()` --
        A function returning the value of the widget's HTML element.
 
 * `String this.value()` --
        A function returning the value of the widget's HTML element.
 

+* `VOID autosearch()` --
+       Registers that this kind of widget is one that requires an
+       automatic search to be run for it if an `autosearch` attribute
+       is provided on the HTML element. This is appropriate for
+       widgets such as `Records` and `Facet` that display some part
+       of a search result.
+
+* `VOID hideWhenNarrow()` --
+       Registers that this widget should hide itself when the page
+       becomes "narrow" -- that is, fewer pixels in width that the
+       threshhold value specified by the top-level configuration item
+       `responsive_design_width`. Should be used for "unimportant"
+       widgets that can be omitted from the mobile version of a site.
+
+* `expandValue()` --
+       TODO: either document this or remove it from the API.
+
+* `subwidget(type, overrides, defaults)` --
+       Returns the HTML of a subwidget of the specified type, which
+       can then be inserted into the widget using the
+       `this.node.html` function. The subwidget is given the same
+       attributes at the parent widget that invokes this function,
+       except where overrides are passed in. If defaults are also
+       provided, then these are used when the parent widget provides
+       no values. Both the `overrides` and `defaults` arguments are
+       hashes: the latter is optional.
+  
+       See for example the `Credo` widget defined in the example
+       area's `mkws-widget-credo.js` file. This uses several
+       invocations of `subwidget` to create a complex compound widget
+       with numerous text, facet and image panes. TODO: rename this
+       widget and everything related to it.
+
+In addition to these properties and methods of the bare widget object,
+some kinds of specific widget add other properties of their own. For
+example, the `Builder` widget uses a `callback` property as the
+function that it use to publish the widget definition that it
+constructs. This defaults to the builtin function `alert`, but can be
+overridden by derived widgets such as `ConsoleBuilder`.
+

 
 Team methods
 ------------
 
 Team methods
 ------------

@@ -209,6 +272,13 @@ infelicities reflect the fact that some code that rightly belongs in
 widgets is still in the team. When we finish migrating it, the widget
 API should get simpler.
 
 widgets is still in the team. When we finish migrating it, the widget
 API should get simpler.
 

+
+Events
+------
+
+TODO: list of events that can be usefully subscribed to.
+
+

 - - -
 
 - - -
 

-Copyright (C) 2013-2014 by IndexData ApS, <http://www.indexdata.com>
+Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Index Data ApS. <http://indexdata.com>