Design strategy, when to use widget / helper ?

Archives Yii 1.0.x Discussions
1

Hi !

I'm a RoR developer and I'm beginning with Yii. I want to create what I would call  (as a RoR dev) a helper to display Google Analytics tracking code on my page. To be reusable I need only one param, the trackerId (ex "UI-3438-34").

Should I use a widget or a simple "helper" ? My helper can render a view like a widget ?

Regards !

Raphael

2

You may insert your tracking code into your layout.

You may also want to add segments, so make sure your code doesn’t appear more than once across your application.

3

Thanks, I know I can add my analytics tracking code into my layout but I want to avoid having a lots of JS directly in my layout, for code clarity I prefer using helper / widget.

The question is still open even if my example is not good, the main problem is when to use helper and when to use widget.

4

As far as I know, Yii doesn’t have view helpers implemented in terms you mean it. However, it offers a good way to insert html tags for forms (have a look at CHtml class).

Widgets are often used to represent repeated small UI interfaces. (Like as Wordpress uses its internal sidebar widgets.)

You are recommended to create a widget for GA code, but also keep in mind, that if a single tracking code in your layout reduces code readability, you probably use far more JS code than you should.

(I’ve seen you’re not about to hardcode the tracking ID. I would’ve suggested that too.)

5

I have no JS at all for the moment :wink: I begin with Yii and I want to begin by "the  yii way" even if I come from Rails.

So widget should be used for things with more complex than just displaying a simple output.

What I want (in this case) is more something like CHtml helper.

Thanks for your help !

6

I've finally ended by doing this :

  • create a helpers folder in my protected folder
  • add 'application.helpers.*' in import of main.php

For example I've added a CGoogleAnalytics.php file which contains :



<?php





class CGoogleAnalytics


{


  public static function tracker($id)


  {


    echo '


    <script type="text/javascript">


      var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");


      document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));


    </script>


    <script type="text/javascript">


      try {


        var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("'.$id.'");


        pageTracker._trackPageview();


      } catch(err) {}


    </script>';


  }


}





?>

which let me do :



<?php


echo CGoogleAnalytics::tracker('UA-XXXXXX-X'); 


?>

In my layout to display analytics tracker.

7

Two suggestions crossed my mind.

  • The class prefix is something that should be reserved for Yii classes. There’s nothing wrong with the class name you used, it’s only a recommended convention.

  • The closing php tag should be omitted. It is always better to be prepared.

Anyhow, I feel that this solution is a bit too complicated. But apparently it works. ;)

8

I have hesitate for the class name as C could also mean "Class" which is not specific to Yii ?

The example isn't good but the helper idea can be reused for many other case where you need to print same big HTML pattern at many place.

9

I’m curious for this post too and I’d like to see a better solution for this.

If it can’t be done in a “Yii way”. So I think a good old php function would be better.

function gaOutput($string)

{

return 'javascript here';

}

A simple widget seems to me a better solution.




<?php $this->widget('gaTracker', array('param'=>'UA-XXXXXX-X') ); ?>
10

I would prefer this, too.




<?php $this->widget('application.extensions.widgets.gaTracker', array('param'=>'UA-XXXXXX-X') ); ?>
11

Take a look at the portlets created in the blog demo.

You may not need the Porlet class demonstrated there – instead just inheriting from CWidget – but that will give you a lot of functionality that you might choose to use.

12

I would say “the Yii way” in this case is to create a widget. There’s tons of things you can add to your tracking component later on so it’s a good thing to have it in a place where you can extend it.

Here’s a very simple, straight forward example with what you seem to want:

  1. Add your tracking code to "config/params.php"

  2. Create the Google Analytics widget (components/GoogleAnalytics.php):




<?php

class GoogleAnalytics extends CWidget {

  public function run() {

    $this->render('tracking', array('id' => Yii::app()->params['google.analytics']);

  }

}

?>
  1. Add the javascript into it’s view (components/views/tracking.php):



<script type="text/javascript">

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

try {

  var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("'.<?php echo $id ?>.'");

  pageTracker._trackPageview();

} catch(err) {}

</script>
  1. Finally put the widget into your layout right before </body> (protected/views/layouts/main.php):



<?php $this->widget('GoogleAnalytics') ?>
13

Perfecto!