HOWTOs for Ruby on Rails and JavaScript

$element = $('div')
Trigger.mouseover($element)
Trigger.mouseenter($element)
Trigger.mousedown($element)
Trigger.mouseup($element)
Trigger.mouseout($element)
Trigger.mouseleave($element)
Trigger.click($element)

The dispatched events are real DOM events, which will trigger both native and jQuery handlers.
jQuery's .trigger is simpler, but will only trigger event handlers that were bound by jQuery's .on.

Real user actions t...

trigger.coffee

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Speed up your websites: Put JavaScripts at bottom

For websites that don't do JavaScript rendering on the client, it's best practice to put script tags at the bottom of the HTML. This way, the page can start to render before scripts have been loaded and run.

The caveat is that you also have to move all other script tags from your views to the bottom of the page. This can be done with helpers.

How to implement

Add the attached javascript_helper to your app.
Move your `javascript_i...

javascript_helper.rb

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Controlling smooth scrolling in browsers

It can be hard to understand what causes a browser scroll smoothly or instantly. CSS, JavaScript and the browser settings all have options to influence the scroll behavior. They all interact with each other and sometimes use the same words for different behavior.

CSS

Scrolling elements can use the scroll-behavior CSS property to express a preference between smooth and instant scrolling.

Preferring instant scrolling

CSS can prefer instant scrolling behavior:

html {
  scroll-behavior: auto; /* the default */
}

An `aut...

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Webpack(er): A primer

webpack is a very powerful asset bundler written in node.js to bundle (ES6) JavaScript modules, stylesheets, images, and other assets for consumption in browsers.

Webpacker is a wrapper around webpack that handles integration with Rails.

This is a short introduction.

Installation

If you haven't already, you need to install node.js and Yarn.

Then, put

gem 'webpacker', '~> 4.x' # check if 4.x is still cu...

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Fixing flaky E2E tests

An end-to-end test (E2E test) is a script that remote-controls a web browser with tools like Selenium WebDriver. This card shows basic techniques for fixing a flaky E2E test suite that sometimes passes and sometimes fails.

Although many examples in this card use Ruby, Cucumber and Selenium, the techniques are applicable to all languages and testing tools.

Why tests are flaky

Your tests probably look like this:

When I click on A
And I click on B
And I click on C
Then I should see effects of C

A test like this works fine...

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Keeping web applications fast

Our applications not only need to be functional, they need to be fast.

But, to quote Donald Knuth,

premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming

The reasoning is that you should not waste your time optimizing code where it does not even matter. However, I believe there are some kinds of optimizations you should do right away, because

they are either obvious and easy
or they are very hard to do optimize later

This is an attempt to list some of those things:

On the server

...

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JavaScript: Polyfill native Promise API with jQuery Deferreds

You should prefer native promises to jQuery's Deferreds. Native promises are much faster than their jQuery equivalent.

Native promises are supported on all browsers except IE <=11, Android <= 4.4 and iOS <= 7.

If you need Promise support for these old browsers y...

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Capybara: Waiting for pending AJAX requests after a test

When ending a Selenium test Capybara resets the browser state by closing the tab, clearing cookies, localStorage, etc.

It may be a good idea to wait for all in-flight AJAX requests to finish before ending a scenario:

You may have client-side JavaScript that freaks out when the tab closure kills their pending requests. If that JavaScript opens an error alert or spams errors to the console, your test may fail after the last step.
With unlucky timing the server may receive an AJAX request as the browser tab closes, causing a connection ...

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Using feature flags to stabilize flaky E2E tests

A flaky test is a test that is often green, but sometimes red. It may only fail on some PCs, or only when the entire test suite is run.

There are many causes for flaky tests. This card focuses on a specific class of feature with heavy side effects, mostly on on the UI. Features like the following can amplify your flakiness issues by unexpectedly changing elements, causing excessive requests or other timing issues:

Lazy loading images
Autocomplete in search f...

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Minimal JavaScript function to detect version of Internet Explorer or Edge

If possible your code should detect features, not browsers. But sometimes you just need to sniff the browser. And when you do, you're probably fighting a Microsoft product.

The following function returns a Number like 10, 11, 12, 13 for Internet Explorer or Edge (anything above 11 is Edge). It returns undefined for any other browser.

function ieVersion(uaString) {
  uaString = uaString || navigator.userAgent;
  var match = /\...

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Webpack: How to split your bundles

To keep JavaScript sources small, it can sometimes make sense to split your webpack bundles. For example, if your website uses some large JavaScript library – say TinyMCE – which is only required on some selected pages, it makes sense to only load that library when necessary.

In modern webpack this is easily doable by using the asynchronous import function.

Say we have an unpoly compiler that sets up TinyMCE like this (code is somewhat simplified):

// TinyMCE as part of the main bundle!

import tinymce from 'tinymce/tinymce'

// U...

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Guide to localizing a Rails application

Localizing a non-trivial application can be a huge undertaking. This card will give you an overview over the many components that are affected.

When you are asked to give an estimate for the effort involved, go through the list below and check which points are covered by your requirements. Work with a developer who has done a full-app localization before and assign an hour estimate to each of these points.

Static text

Static strings and template text in app must be translated: Screens, mailer templates, PDF templates, helpe...

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You should be using the Web Animations API

The Web Animations API has great browser support, and you should be using it to animate DOM elements from JavaScript, or to control or wait for CSS animations.

Here is a quick overview of a few useful features:

Animating elements from JavaScript

Use the Element#animate() function to perform animations on an element.

Its API probably a bit different from how your...

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Improving browser rendering performance

As the web is being used for more and more tasks, expectations rise. Not only should web pages offer rich interaction, they must be responsive in both size and interaction.

This imposes a paradoxon that needs to be solved by building performing applications. It's not enough any more to have your web site do crazy stuff, it is also required to do it crazy fast. This card is intended to give you an introduction to this emerging aspect of web development.

Read this introductory [performance study on Pinterest](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/...

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Defining new elements for your HTML document

Browsers come with a set of built-in elements like <p> or <input>. When we need a new component not covered by that, we often build it from <div> and <span> tags. An alternative is to introduce a new element, like <my-element>.

When a browser encounters an unknown element like <my-element>, the browser will proceed to render <my-element>'s children. The visual rendering of your page will not be affected.

If you care about their HTML being valid, your new element should contain a dash character (-) to mark it as a *custom el...

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HTML: Making browsers wrap long words

By default, browsers will not wrap text at syllable boundaries. Text is wrapped at word boundaries only.

This card explains some options to make browsers wrap inside a long word like "Donaudampfschifffahrt".

Option 1: hyphens CSS property (preferred)

Modern browsers can hyphenate natively. Use the hyphens CSS property:

hyphens: auto

There is also hyphens: none (disable hyphenations even at  entities) and hyphens: manual (hy...

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Using attribute event handlers with a strict Content Security Policy (CSP)

Given you have a strict CSP that only allows <script src> elements from your own domain:

Content-Security-Policy: script-src 'self'

This will block JavaScript handlers inlined as attribute into your HTML elements. Clicking on the following link will only log an error with a strict CSP:

<a href="javascript:alert('hello')">click me</a>
<a href="#" onclick="alert('hello')">click me</a>

Solution 1: Move the handler into your JavaScript

The recommended solution is to move the handler from the HTML to the allowed ...

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