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JavaScript Theming, a Paradigm Shift
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 21:51 — aaronOleg Terenchuk (litwol) is now developing the JavaScript Theming module. The five second elevator spiel: this will move theming from the server to the client.
The longer explanation is a bit more exciting. This module plans to abstract the core of Drupal theming into a javascript layer. This will allow a JSON feed to pass raw data to a browser to be formatted on the fly for display.
The implications are astounding, and I'm still wrapping my brain around the possibilities. For one, it could mean super fast in place load times, because Drupal doesn't have to mess around with passing everything around the theming system. An AJAX request could just ask for the data, Drupal sends it, and jQuery will format your list, table, teaser, or what have you. In its second day of life, it already works with messages (and item lists, I believe).
A potential problem I see might be that slower computers would see slower rendering times. But this is already happening with some jQuery-heavy sites anyway. The benefit would be most seen with faster hardware, but this is always true with cutting-edge technology. Everyone else will catch up soon enough.
In any case, I have a feeling that by this time next year, I'll be blogging about the killer combo that changed the world of Drupal and is sending ripples through the Internet: Embed Widgets + JavaScript Theming...
PS Come to DrupalCampNYC next month to find out more!
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I am trying to understand the demo on: http://drupalhub.org/videos . Does the plugin embedded media field come with that?
I mean instead of 1 Video or few on the page it goes in slideshow fashion.
yeah it would be great if it could work with firefox. Still very nice though.
The media player looks great. Thanks for developing it.
Written for Drupal 6, this book is a comprehensive overview of integrating multimedia into your Drupal-powered web site. With hands-on examples and tutorials, the book is written for site developers, themers, and administrators. The book makes no assumptions about your skill level, although one should probably already have an understanding of Drupal and how to set up and configure a basic site. The book will guide you through its topics, gently moving the reader from basic concepts such as module set-up, to intermediate techniques such as creating views, to advanced methods such as writing jQuery and custom modules.
This is a great book. I have bought it myself and it has taught me a lot.
Drupal is the best open source framework.
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