Coming Soon: TaskTHIS² (A Titanium Application)

In the next week or so, I’ll be releasing the first beta of TaskTHIS².

Unlike the original, this version is a cross-platform desktop application. It’s being distributed on the Titanium platform.

Over the next few weeks I’ll discuss the technology behind it (all WebKit based: HTML/JS/CSS). And some of the libraries I built to make development easier (including my build script and a JavaScript class library called Klass.js). So be on the lookout for that!

Liquid.js, A Non-Evaling Template Engine in JavaScript

Of late, I’ve needed a robust JavaScript template engine that doesn’t use eval (and preferably not with). Also, I’ve always liked Liquid.

So, two plus two equals… JavaScript! Hah, you thought it was four, didn’t you? Well, that’s what you get for thinking.

Yeah, long story short, I ported Liquid to JavaScript. You can grab it from github (where else?) here: http://github.com/darthapo/liquid.js

I’m calling this version 0.1. It’s not battle tested yet, but I know it’ll work using Firefox 3+, Safari 3+, and Adobe Air 1.1.

So what are the differences between running the Ruby version and the JavaScript version? Well, as far as the templates themselves, nothing. It’s a full port, so all of Liquid’s default tags and filters are supported in Liquid.js. I even added a placeholder function that you can implement yourself (based on your own needs) to support the ‘include’ tag.

Liquid.readTemplateFile = function(path) {
  var elem = $(path);
  if(elem) {
    return elem.innerHTML;
  } else {
    return path +" can't be found."; 
    // Or throw and error, or whatever you want...
  }
}

var src = "{% include 'myOtherTemplate' with current_user %}";

var tmpl = Liquid.parse( src );

alert( tmpl.render({ current_user:'M@' }));

An easy way to include template in a page is to use script elements, like this:

<!-- Browsers ignore script blocks with an unrecognized type.  -->
<!-- Makes for pretty good inline template storage.  -->
<script type="text/liquid" id="myOtherTemplate">
  Hello, {{ current_user }}!
</script>

Currently, Liquid.js requires MooTools. Some of the things I’d like to polish up:

• Remove MooTools requirement, run entirely independent of any other js library
• Add Rhino for console-based testing
• Test, test, test on Internet Exploder Explorer

TaskTHIS is Back!

TaskTHIS is up and running again. Sorry for the downtime, but since I host it for you guys for free, I don't think you can complain too much.

In the process, it's moved URLs as well. You can now find it at:

http://taskthis.elucidata-apps.com

The old URL (taskthis.darthapo.com) should redirect you there automatically.

I had to convert TaskTHIS from Rails 1.1 to Rails 2.1, which was not too fun. Especially since it had already been converted from pre-1.0 to 1.1.

Anyway, it's probably still a little rough around the edges, so if you find any bugs please add a post in the support forum.

Shuffling Servers

I'm in the process of shuffling servers around, so a lot of the apps/sites I've created will be down whilst I make the move.

Some things are already back up: ZooDotCom and Lil Monstas. Others, like Maelstrom and TaskTHIS are not.

In fact, TaskTHIS may take a little while longer to bring back up. I'm going to update it to Rails 2. That having been said, I did make a backup of the database before bringing it down. So when it returns all of your data will still be there.

Also, I've noticed that I post a lot fewer blog posts these days since I generally vent on my Twitter account, I wind up having not too much left to say. Funny that.

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