Yii2 RequireJS-powered View

Yii2 View class with ability to register RequireJS modules

Installation

The preferred way to install this extension is through composer.

Either run

php composer.phar require --prefer-dist h8every1/yii2-requirejs-view "*"

or add

"h8every1/yii2-requirejs-view": "*"

to the require section of your composer.json file.

Usage

Changing the View class site-wide

You can use View class site-wide by editing your config/main.php:

 'components' => [
    ...
    'view'=> [
        'class'=> 'h8every1\requirejsview\View',
        'mainJsUrl'=> '@web/js/requirejs/main.js',
    ],
    ...
 ],

The only option that you MUST provide is mainJsUrl, wihich is URL of a main.js which holds the config of RequireJS's modules. (Read more about main.js at RequireJS documentation)

mainJsUrl is passed to \yii\helpers\Url::to(), so it can be either string or an array that points to URL of main.js file. You can use aliases '@web/js/requirejs/main.js'

After that all your view files will be instances of h8every1\requirejsview\View not yii\web\View.

Changing the View class in single controller

Add call to the View constructor inside init function of your controller like this:

class SiteController extends Controller
{
    public function init()
    {
        parent::init();
        $this->view = new \h8every1\requirejsview\View(['mainJsUrl' => '@web/js/requirejs/main.js']);
    }
    ...
}

Changing the View class for a single action of a Controller

.. is same as changing the view for the whole controller, except that you add the line inside your action like this:

class SiteController extends Controller
{
    ...
    
    public function actionIndex()
    {
        $this->view = new \h8every1\requirejsview\View(['mainJsUrl' => '@web/js/requirejs/main.js']);

        return $this->render('index');
    }
    
    ...
}

Generating main.js using AssetBundles

This extension provides an MainJsAction class that can be used to generate main.js file that automatically require()s all modules registered for a webpage.

You can use existing controller or create a new one. Then you must register action like this:

class RequireJsController extends Controller
{

    public function actions()
    {
        return [
            'main'=> [         // you can use whatever name you like
                'class'=> '\h8every1\requirejsview\MainJsAction',
                'options'=>[
                    'modules'=>[
                        '\h8every1\requirejsview\assets\YiiAsset',
                        '\h8every1\requirejsview\assets\JqueryAsset',
                        '\h8every1\requirejsview\assets\ExampleAsset',
                    ]
                ],
            ],
        ];
    }

}

And then in your View class setup provide $mainJsUrl = ['<contollerName>/<actionName>']. For the example above the setup will look like this;

 'components' => [
    ...
    'view'=> [
        'class'=> 'h8every1\requirejsview\View',
        'mainJsUrl'=> ['/require-js/main'],
    ],
    ...
 ],

You need to provide array of RequireJsAssetBundles as modules. Some of such modules are already provided in assets folder of the extension.

• JQuery (https://jquery.com)
• Bootstrap (https://getbootstrap.com)
• Angular (https://angularjs.org)
• Lodash (https://lodash.com)
• DomReady (https://github.com/requirejs/domReady)
• Yii2 asset (yii.js) (http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/guide-output-client-scripts.html#yii.js)
• Example asset for your own modules with ability to use minified versions of files on live site

Note: All 3rd-party scripts for above asset bundles should be installed as bower assets using Composer.

Main difference between RequireJsAssetBundle and Yii's default AssetBundle is that you need to provide dependedncies between modules not using $depend field, but in $js field.

Adding and removing RequireJS modules in view files

Inside your view file you can call either $this->addModule($moduleName) or $this->addModules($arrayOfModuleNames)

The former accepts string with a single module name, the latter accepts array of strings. Each one should be a registered RequireJS module.

If you register View class site-wide, you can even register modules in layouts and partials rendered via $this->render()

You can remove registered modules via $this->removeModule($moduleName) or $this->removeModules($arrayOfModuleNames)

This can be useful if you want to replace module loaded in your main view file with another module inside of sub-view file.

Example:

views/site/index.php

<?php

/* @var $this h8every1\requirejsview\View */


$this->title = 'My Yii Application';
$this->addModules(['app','map']);
echo $this->render('partial');
?>

views/site/partial.php

<?php
/* @var $this h8every1\requirejsview\View */

$this->removeModule('map');
$this->addModule('gmaps');

?>

Known issues

You cannot remove modules registered in layout file, because Yii applies layout on the last step of content rendering, after all dynamic content has been generated and all RequireJS modules registered and removed.