[Engine-devel] Question about closing UI plugin dialog

[Morrissey, Christopher]

-Chris


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vojtech Szocs [mailto:vszocs at redhat.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 12:30 PM
> To: Morrissey, Christopher
> Cc: Itamar Heim; Costea, George; engine-devel at ovirt.org
> Subject: Re: Question about closing UI plugin dialog
> 
> Hi Chris,
> 
> I agree with your point, having OK/Cancel buttons controlled by the content
> within the same (iframe) window context sounds reasonable. On the other
> hand, we shouldn't restrict showDialog() API in a way that iframe window
> *must* provide means (buttons) of closing the dialog, as other UI plugins
> might just want to add Close button via showDialog() API.
> 
> So I think a combination of both options (a+b) can be implemented. If your
> plugin doesn't want to add Close button via showDialog() API, that's OK, you
> can have OK/Cancel buttons provided by the iframe window.

That sounds like a good plan.

> 
> > This will not be a problem when we're in an iframe. In fact, that is the only
> place it will work in IE 8 and 9.
> 
> :) besides postMessage(), we can also use a trick with iframe updating its URL
> hash fragment, and Web Admin monitoring iframe URL hash fragment value.
> But I'd like to try using postMessage() first.
> 

Yes, that is an option but I also agree that using postMessage() is cleaner and hopefully will get us what we need.

> Regards,
> Vojtech
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christopher Morrissey" <Christopher.Morrissey at netapp.com>
> To: "Vojtech Szocs" <vszocs at redhat.com>
> Cc: "Itamar Heim" <iheim at redhat.com>, "George Costea"
> <George.Costea at netapp.com>, engine-devel at ovirt.org
> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 3:37:04 AM
> Subject: RE: Question about closing UI plugin dialog
> 
> 
> -Chris
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Vojtech Szocs [mailto:vszocs at redhat.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2013 7:11 PM
> > To: Morrissey, Christopher
> > Cc: Itamar Heim; Costea, George; engine-devel at ovirt.org
> > Subject: Re: Question about closing UI plugin dialog
> >
> > Hi Chris,
> >
> > current showDialog() implementation uses native browser popup window
> > via
> > window.open() function. UI rendered within such popup window can close
> > the window by itself simply via window.close() function [1].
> 
> Ha, of course window.close() will work! Not sure what I was thinking.
> 
> >
> > However, as we're planning to move away from using native browser
> > popup windows and making showDialog() implementation integrate with
> > Web Admin dialog UI infrastructure, there are two possible ways to go:
> >
> > a) OK/Cancel buttons rendered as part of custom dialog content (as
> > described by Chris)
> >    - buttons are contained within the iframe content HTML
> >    - Web Admin will transmit custom dialog ID to iframe, e.g.
> > iframeWindow.postMessage('customDialog123', iframeWindowDomain)
> >    - within the iframe window, clicking a button would invoke
> > parentWindow.postMessage('close-customDialog123',
> > parentWindowDomain)
> >    - Web Admin will receive 'close-customDialog123' message and will
> > close the custom dialog
> >
> > Pros: buttons and content in the same window context
> > Cons: cross-window communication overhead that relies on
> > window.postMessage()
> >
> > b) OK/Cancel buttons rendered as part of Web Admin dialog UI (NOT part
> > of custom dialog content)
> >    - this was my initial idea of implementing custom dialog buttons
> >    - buttons will be defined via separate argument to showDialog()
> > function, e.g. showDialog(title, contentUrl, width, height, buttons)
> >      where 'buttons' follow similar concept as 'actionButtonInterface'
> > in
> > addMainTabActionButton() API, e.g. { onClick: function() {...} }
> >    - closing custom dialog can be done right within the onClick
> > handler function
> >
> > Pros: no need for window.postMessage() stuff, button definitions are
> > part of UI plugin (JavaScript) code
> > Cons: buttons and content in different window contexts
> >
> 
> This has a big drawback in that the content often needs to perform actions
> when the OK button is pressed. This design makes it very difficult and will at
> least need to use the Window.postMessage() to signal to the content that
> the dialog is closing. What's worse is that the content may want to stop the
> window from closing because of an error or keep it open while the actions
> defined in it are performed (e.g. change the dialog content to a progress bar
> or something similar). I think it's much better to have the OK and cancel
> buttons controlled by the content than having the oVirt dialog controlling it.
> 
> > Chris, let me know what you think.
> >
> > Note: window.postMessage() should work in IE8 and above, I've tested
> > [2] in
> > IE8/WinXP/SP3 without any problems. However, [3] mentions that "In
> > IE8, it is possible to use win.postMessage for iframes only", I assume
> > this is what you meant by saying that "it doesn't work across windows
> > in IE"? Not sure if this is still an issue for us when using iframe
> > instead of native browser popup window, but we'll have to investigate..
> 
> This will not be a problem when we're in an iframe. In fact, that is the only
> place it will work in IE 8 and 9.
> 
> >
> > Regards,
> > Vojtech
> >
> > [1] http://stackoverflow.com/a/2076307
> > [2] http://stevesouders.com/misc/test-postmessage.php
> > [3] http://javascript.info/tutorial/cross-window-messaging-with-
> > postmessage
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Christopher Morrissey" <Christopher.Morrissey at netapp.com>
> > To: "Vojtech Szocs" <vszocs at redhat.com>, engine-devel at ovirt.org
> > Cc: "Itamar Heim" <iheim at redhat.com>, "George Costea"
> > <George.Costea at netapp.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2013 3:13:44 PM
> > Subject: Question about closing UI plugin dialog
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I've been working on a plugin for the UI that launches a dialog using
> > the
> > showDialog() API. Our UI is actually contained in a frame inside the
> > dialog and is loaded from a separate server. The only information
> > needed for our UI comes in either through the URL as parameters or from
> the oVirt REST API.
> > The issue is that once the clicks the OK or Cancel buttons in our UI
> > we need to message to the oVirt UI to close the dialog.
> >
> > It looks like using the window.postMessage() API would be great for
> > this, but it doesn't work across windows in IE. Would it be possible
> > to change the code that launches the window to open a window that
> > contains a bit of javascript that sets up a listener for closing the
> > dialog and then launches the URL in an iFrame in the window? Of
> > course, if it were in a native GWT dialog this wouldn't be a problem.
> > ;)
> >
> > -Chris
> >
> > Chris Morrissey
> > Software Engineer
> > NetApp Inc.
> > 919.476.4428
> >