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Tutorial, Part 2: Adding Onyx and Layout

Onyx and Layout

In Part 1 of the tutorial, we built a Twitter search application using just the core Enyo 2.0 library. Since that initial installment first appeared, we've released a set of controls and styles, called "Onyx". In this extension of the tutorial, we'll use Onyx to update our application with a nice look and feel.

Loading Onyx

Onyx exists outside of the Enyo core, so it has to be loaded with its own script and link tags. Because Onyx is normally loaded as a library, we'll add a reference to that library in our package.js file. Our updated version of package.js looks like this:

enyo.depends(
  "$lib/onyx",
  "Tweet.js",
  "TwitterSearchApp.js"
);

At the moment, Onyx is closely synced with Enyo, so we'll update the links in the <head> section of app.html to pull in version 2.0b5 from the Enyo Web site:

<head>
  <title>My Twitter Search</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://enyojs.com/enyo-2.0b5/enyo.css">
    <script src="http://enyojs.com/enyo-2.0b5/enyo.js"></script>
    <script src="package.js"></script>
</head>

Updating the Application

In order for Onyx styles to work correctly, you need to apply the "onyx" class to your application object. You can do this by adding

classes: "onyx"

to your application kind definition, so that TwitterSearchApp.js begins with the following:

enyo.kind({
  name: "TwitterSearchApp",
  kind: enyo.Control,
  classes: "onyx",

  ...

});

(Note: If you're already using other classes, just add "onyx" to the end of the list.)

Now, the existing TwitterSearchApp kind has a components block that looks like this:

components: [
    { tag: "input", name: "searchTerm" },
    { tag: "button", content: "Search", ontap: "search" },
    { tag: "div", name: "tweetList" }
  ],

The button and input field are raw HTML controls. To convert these to their Onyx equivalents, replace the tag attributes of the input and button with the corresponding Onyx kind names:

components: [
    { kind: "onyx.Input", name: "searchTerm" },
    { kind: "onyx.Button", content: "Search", ontap: "search" },
    { tag: "div", name: "tweetList" }
  ],

Adding Features Using Onyx Controls

At this point, one of the first things we notice is that there's no prompting to indicate what the search box is for. Since onyx.Button is based on enyo.Button, we can use the placeholder property to provide text that will be displayed (with grayed-out styling) when the user hasn't entered anything in the search box:

{ kind: "onyx.Input", name: "searchTerm", placeholder: "Search on Twitter" },

Better still, we can use the placeholder property in conjunction with a styled search widget (onyx.InputDecorator) that already exists in the OnyxSampler app. We'll borrow that code, while making a few modifications:

components: [
  {kind: "onyx.InputDecorator", components: [
    {kind: "onyx.Input", name: "searchTerm", 
      placeholder: "Search on Twitter", onkeydown: "searchOnEnter"},
    {kind: "Image", src: "search-input-search.png", ontap: "search"}
  ]},
  { tag: "div", name: "tweetList" }
],

...

searchOnEnter: function(inSender, inEvent) {
  if (inEvent.keyCode === 13) {
    this.search();
    return true;
  }
},

The InputDecorator kind combines an onyx.Input object with other controls in a single frame. For the magnifying glass icon (search-input-search.png), we 'll just make a local copy of the file from OnyxSampler.

Notice that we've hooked up our search method to respond to both taps on the icon and presses of the Enter key in the search field. We detect the latter by intercepting the onkeydown event and looking for a keyCode value equal to 13. If there's a match, we return true to stop the keydown event from going any further.

Lonely at the Top

The search box looks lonely at the top of the page, so let's give it a border to make it pop. Onyx provides several nice grouping options. In this case, we'll use the onyx.ToolBar kind to highlight the name of the application, while providing a pleasing amount of space between the app name and search box.

Our input controls become components within the onyx.Toolbar control, making our application kind's components block look like this:

components: [
  {kind: "onyx.Toolbar", components: [
      {content: "Twitter Search", style: "padding-right: 30px"},
      {kind: "onyx.InputDecorator", components: [
        {kind: "onyx.Input", name: "searchTerm", 
          placeholder: "Search on Twitter", onkeydown: "searchOnEnter"},
        {kind: "Image", src: "search-input-search.png", ontap: "search"}
      ]}
    ]},
  { tag: "div", name: "tweetList" }
],

Fixing the Toolbar

We've made good progress on our app, but in its current state, it still has one big flaw--if we get more results than will fit on a screen, scrolling down to see more tweets will cause the toolbar to be obscured. We'll fix this by using the layout/fittable library.

To pull the library into our app, we'll add "$lib/layout/fittable" to our package.js file:

enyo.depends(
  "$lib/onyx",
  "$lib/layout/fittable",
  "Tweet.js",
  "TwitterSearchApp.js"
);

(The layout folder is meant to hold a collection of different layout libraries; for now, the only one that we've published is "fittable".)

The idea behind the fittable layout is that you have a set of rows or columns, with most of the items having a natural size, but one item expanding to fill the remaining space. The one that grows is labeled with the attribute fit: true.

To use the fittable layout, we can change the base kind of TwitterSearchApp from enyo.Control to enyo.FittableRows...

enyo.kind({
  name: "TwitterSearchApp",
  kind: enyo.FittableRows,
  classes: "onyx",
  
  ...
  
});

...or we can add the attribute layoutKind: "FittableRowsLayout", while leaving the base kind as enyo.Control:

enyo.kind({
  name: "TwitterSearchApp",
  kind: enyo.Control,
  layoutKind: "FittableRowsLayout",
  classes: "onyx",
  
  ...
  
});

(For Enyo controls, the layoutKind property provides a way to add layout behavior in a pluggable fashion. Behind the scenes, the enyo.FittableRowsLayout kind works by measuring the natural size of all of its child objects, then adjusting the size of the "fit" object to use up the remaining space.)

Then we'll wrap the tweetList in an enyo.Scroller and set fit: true on the scroller to mark it as the layout element that expands:

{ kind: "enyo.Scroller", fit: true, components: [
  { tag: "div", name: "tweetList" }
]}

This will let the user scroll through the full list of tweets using a scrollbar or touch, depending on the device.

In order for the fitting action to work, the enyo.FittableRows control needs to occupy a set amount of space. This works for applications because when the control is rendered into the <body> tag, Enyo automatically applies an enyo-document-fit class to the body and enyo-fit and enyo-stretch classes to the application div that's inserted into the body. If you're using the fittable layout for an item inside your application, you'll need to either define explicit width and height for the control or have it be sized by a parent fittable control. (A common mistake is to have an enyo.FittableRows or enyo.FittableColumns control as a child of your application kind with its fit: true control sized at 0 pixels.)

Until Next Time

You can view the updated tutorial application online at http://enyojs.com/tutorial/onyx/search.html. Compare it to the original version and you'll see how good controls and styles can make an app both more functional and more enjoyable to use.