Way back when CakePHP had a wiki there were a series of articles on “Advanced Validation.” One aspect of these articles was using the Model rules in JavaScript to validate on the client side. The code (I believe this is it) was originally for CakePHP version .10 (iirc). I had been using a heavily modified version of this code even in my 1.2 projects, but it was due for a ground up re-write.

I wrote an article for PHPArch not too long ago with a generic PHP approach for JavaScript validation. Using that JavaScript as a base, I created a helper to convert the model rules into JavaScript.

Here are the links:
Download
Instructions
Demo

This is all very beta, so please let me know if you find an issue. The helper should work with the three formats for defining validation in your model (output from bake, one rule per field, multiple rules per field).

If you are worried about security, there is an option to only include certain rules. See the tips section at the end of the instructions. Thanks to Marc for suggesting this.

Popularity: 96% [?]

I just stumbled on this smokin’ article on PHP Architect’s new C7Y site. It’s really some of the best PHP writing I’ve ever seen - even non-programmers will probably enjoy it…uh…alright I wrote. So please check it out.

I’m about 75% done rolling this into a CakePHP helper. And since Cake is going re-focus on jQuery as it’s primary JavaScript library there will be no excuse for not using it.

Popularity: 85% [?]

I used a ton of Jquery for the freelance project I’ve been working on lately. Included is a bunch of plugins. Although the plugins are great and add a ton of functionality, there are some downsides.

Since plugins can be created by anyone and distributed individually it leads to a mess of javascript includes. At times one plugin will even depend on another adding even more server requests. A revealing YUI post recently discussed the negative performance impact of so many requests.

The obvious solution is to combine the plugins into one file. This shouldn’t violate any license since most of the plugins are distributed under the same MIT/GPL dual license as Jquery.

The Server Side Approach

A recent thread on the Jquery Google group discussed doing this in an automated fashion using a server side script. While this can be a great solution, especially if you need a variety of scripts on each page and you cache the generated js file, it is probably a little overkill for 99% of the sites out there. My other concern is with how the browser caches the rendered file on the client PC. Since it isn’t calling a .js page (although you could fake it) does the browser know not to make the request every page? Setting the proper headers probably helps alot.

Another thing I noticed is that many of the plugins do not include a minified or packed version. Running the plugin through a packer is pretty simple, whether you do it manually or with an automated script. The thing I don’t like about the automated approach is that it removes all comments, including those crediting the original author.

My Solution

What I’ve been doing is manually running the plugins through Dean Edwards’ Packer, which strips out comments and minifies the code. Then I put the minified version in jquery.plugins.js, with the original header. This serves to separate the packed scripts in the single file, as well as give credit to the original author and maybe lead someone back to their site if they want to achieve a similar effect.

An Example

Check out this file to see this practice in action. This file combines three minified plugins, leaving the headers intact and weighs in at 5.35kb.

The Downsides

a) I’m including some plugins in a page that may not need them. I really only do with will small plugins, ones that compress to 1-5k. So if my jquery.plugins.js includes 5 plugins, but only uses 3 on a particular page it isn’t a huge hit.

b) The other downside is that if there is an update to the plugin I need to manually re-pack it and put it in the combined file, rather than dropping it into place. It’s not something that happens often, but does require some manual effort. I usually keep the original script in the same directory for reference, even if I don’t actually use it on the site.

Popularity: 62% [?]