Uncompressing Source Files with Google`s AJAX Libraries API - Serving JavaScript files without using compression (
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To demonstrate how to download, via the Google API, the source files of the Prototype library without using compression, I’m going to rebuild the Ajax-based application that you saw in the previous section. In this case, the pertinent “google.load()” method will take a third incoming parameter to specify that the library in question must be served in an uncompressed way.
That being said, here’s the modified version of the file that downloads the Prototype package in an uncompressed way:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Reading file contents with Prototype library (uses Google API)</title>
<style type="text/css">
body{
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
background: #fff;
}
h1{
font: bold 18pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #000;
}
#filecontents{
width: 600px;
padding: 10px;
border: 1px solid #999;
font: normal 10pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #000;
}
</style>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
// load Prototype library with Google API (loads uncompressed source file)
google.load("prototype", "1.4",{uncompressed:true});
// read file contents with Ajax
function readFileContents(){
// send http request
var ajaxobj=new Ajax.Request('read_file.php',{method: 'get',onComplete: displayFileContents,onFailure: displayError});
}
// display file contents
function displayFileContents(requestObj){
$('filecontents').innerHTML=requestObj.responseText;
}
// display error message
function displayError(requestObj){
$('filecontents').innerHTML='Error reading file contents!';
}
// initialize file reading application
function initializeApplication(){
// attach click handler to HTML button
Event.observe('btn','click',readFileContents);
}
google.setOnLoadCallback(initializeApplication);
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Reading File Contents with Prototype library (uses Google API)</h1>
<p><input type="button" id="btn" value="Read File Now!" /></p>
<div id="filecontents"></div>
</body>
</html>
As you can see above, the “google.load()” method has been invoked with a third parameter, whose value “uncompressed: true” indicates to the API that the Prototype package should be served without using compression.
Of course, in most cases it’s preferable to download the source files of a specified library using compression, but there may be some exceptional situations where you may want to choose the “uncompressed” option.
Well, at this point you have hopefully learned how to instruct the Google API to download the Prototype library without utilizing HTTP compression. Nonetheless, you may have noticed that the previous Ajax application in its current state is actually incomplete, since it’s necessary to include the remaining source files.
Taking into account this requirement, in the last section of this tutorial I’ll be listing the complete source code of this sample Ajax program, so you’ll be able to test it much more easily.
Please, jump ahead and read the new few lines. We’re almost done!
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