How to separate inline javascript from dynamically generated content in Express/Node.js?

Question

This is a somewhat noob-question for someone who had a few years of web development experience, but after not finding the answer on either Programmer Stack Exchange or Google, I have decided to ask it here.

I am using Express web framework for Node.js, but this question is not specific to any web framework or programming language.

Here's a list of games that are queried from the database. Each game entity is a single table row, generated using a for-loop:

    table.table
      tbody
        for game in games
          tr
            td.span2
              img.img-polaroid(src='/img/games/#{game.largeImage}')   
              // continues further

enter image description here

Each Rating block, as well as each Buy button/modal dialog are generated by the for-loop with an id that matches the game. For example, the Buy button for Assassin's Creed will have id="price-assassins-creed". #{variable} - is how you reference a variable in Jade, passed in from the server.

button.btn.btn-primary.btn-mini(id='price-#{game.slug}', href='#buyModal', role='button', data-toggle='modal')

and

.modal.hide.fade(id='modal-#{game.slug}', tabindex='-1', role='dialog', aria-labelledby='myModalLabel', aria-hidden='true')
            .modal-header
              span.lead Game Checkout
                img.pull-right(src='/img/new_visa_medium.gif')
            .modal-body
              label
                i.icon-user
                |  Name on Card
              input.input-medium(type='text')
              label
                i.icon-barcode
                |  Card Number
              input.input-medium(type='text', placeholder='•••• •••• •••• ••••', maxlength=16)

              label
                i.icon-time
                |  Expiration Date
              input.input-mini(type='text', placeholder='MMYY', maxlength=4)
              label
                i.icon-qrcode
                |  Card Code
              input.input-mini(type='text', placeholder='CVC', maxlength=4)
            .modal-footer
              button.btn(data-dismiss='modal', aria-hidden='true') Cancel
              button.btn.btn-primary(id='#{game.slug}') Buy

and

script(type='text/javascript')
  $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
    path: '/img',
    round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
    score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
    readOnly: true
  });

Multiply that by the number of games and that's how many inline scripts I have on one page.

Worse yet, I have to account for the following cases:

User's not logged-in: display above rating script in read-only mode.
User's logged-in, but hasn't voted yet:

...in that case, use the following script:

script(type='text/javascript')
                    $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
                      path: '/img',
                      round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
                      score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
                      readOnly: false,
                      click: function (score, event) {
                        var self = this;
                        $.meow({
                          message: 'Thanks for voting. Your rating has been recorded.',
                          icon: 'http://png-3.findicons.com/files/icons/1577/danish_royalty_free/32/smiley.png'
                        });
                        $.ajax({
                          type: 'POST',
                          url: '/games/rating',
                          data: {
                            slug: $(self).attr('id').slice(1),
                            rating: score
                          },
                          success: function () {
                            console.log('setting to read-only');
                            $(self).raty('readOnly', true);
                          }
                        });
                      }
                    });

User's logged-in but suspended from rating: Copy and paste yet another read-only script for this particular if-else condition.

Long story short, it has become a maintenance nightmare trying to maintain all this JavaScript in my .jade template files, and my markup looks unacceptably dirty.

What's a solution for this? This seems like such a common scenario for CRUD applications. Ideally I would like to move all javascript to a separate .js file. But if I could remove some code duplication, that would be great too.

The problem is if I move inline javascript to a separate file how do I know which game am I rating? How do I know which Buy button has user clicked on?

Right now there is no ambiguity because for N games I have N buy buttons, N modal dialogs and N rating scripts. Regardless of what anyone thinks of this style of programming, it's an awful way to maintain the code.

Please share some insight with a noobie!

Thank you in advance.

Here's a complete code snippet of my games.jade file:

extends layout

block content
  br
  ul.nav.nav-pills
    if heading === 'Top 25'
      li.active
        a(href='/games') Top 25
    else
      li
        a(href='/games') Top 25

    if heading === 'Action'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/action') Action
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/action') Action

    if heading === 'Adventure'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/adventure') Adventure
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/adventure') Adventure

    if heading === 'Driving'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/driving') Driving
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/driving') Driving

    if heading === 'Puzzle'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/puzzle') Puzzle
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/puzzle') Puzzle

    if heading === 'Role-Playing'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/role-playing') Role-Playing
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/role-playing') Role-Playing

    if heading === 'Simulation'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/simulation') Simulation
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/simulation') Simulation

    if heading === 'Strategy'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/strategy') Strategy
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/strategy') Strategy

    if heading === 'Sports'
      li.active
        a(href='/games/genre/sports') Sports
    else
      li
        a(href='/games/genre/sports') Sports


  if games.length == 0
    .alert.alert-warning
      | Database query returned no results.
  else
    table.table
      tbody
        for game in games
          .modal.hide.fade(id='modal-#{game.slug}', tabindex='-1', role='dialog', aria-labelledby='myModalLabel', aria-hidden='true')
            .modal-header
              span.lead Game Checkout
                img.pull-right(src='/img/new_visa_medium.gif')
            .modal-body
              label
                i.icon-user
                |  Name on Card
              input.input-medium(type='text')
              label
                i.icon-barcode
                |  Card Number
              input.input-medium(type='text', placeholder='•••• •••• •••• ••••', maxlength=16)

              label
                i.icon-time
                |  Expiration Date
              input.input-mini(type='text', placeholder='MMYY', maxlength=4)
              label
                i.icon-qrcode
                |  Card Code
              input.input-mini(type='text', placeholder='CVC', maxlength=4)
            .modal-footer
              button.btn(data-dismiss='modal', aria-hidden='true') Cancel
              button.btn.btn-primary(id='#{game.slug}') Buy
          tr
            td.span2
              img.img-polaroid(src='/img/games/#{game.largeImage}')
            td
              a(href='/games/#{game.slug}')
                strong
                  = game.title
              | &nbsp;

              if user.userName
                button.btn.btn-primary.btn-mini(id='price-#{game.slug}', href='#modal-#{game.slug}', role='button', data-toggle='modal')
                  i.icon-shopping-cart.icon-white
                  =  game.price
                if user.purchasedGames && user.purchasedGames.length > 0
                  for mygame in user.purchasedGames
                    if mygame.game.slug == game.slug
                      script(type='text/javascript')
                        $('#price-#{game.slug}').removeAttr('href');
                        $('#price-#{game.slug}').html('<i class="icon-shopping-cart icon-white"></i> Purchased');

              div
                span(id='_' + game.slug)
                span(id='votes', name='votes')
                |  (#{game.votes} votes)
              div
                small.muted
                  div #{game.releaseDate} | #{game.publisher}
                  div #{game.genre}
              p
                =game.description

          // logged-in users
          if user.userName
            if game.votedPeople.length > 0
              for voter in game.votedPeople
                if voter == user.userName || user.suspendedRating
                  script(type='text/javascript')
                    $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
                      path: '/img',
                      round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
                      score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
                      readOnly: true
                    });
                else
                  script(type='text/javascript')
                    $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
                      path: '/img',
                      round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
                      score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
                      readOnly: false,
                      click: function (score, event) {
                        var self = this;
                        $.meow({
                          message: 'Thanks for voting. Your rating has been recorded.',
                          icon: 'http://png-3.findicons.com/files/icons/1577/danish_royalty_free/32/smiley.png'
                        });
                        $.ajax({
                          type: 'POST',
                          url: '/games/rating',
                          data: {
                            slug: $(self).attr('id').slice(1),
                            rating: score
                          },
                          success: function () {
                            console.log('setting to read-only');
                            $(self).raty('readOnly', true);
                          }
                        });
                      }
                    });
            else
              if (user.suspendedRating)
                script(type='text/javascript')
                  $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
                    path: '/img',
                    round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
                    score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
                    readOnly: true
                  });
              else
                script(type='text/javascript')
                  $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
                        path: '/img/',
                        round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
                        score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
                        readOnly: false,
                        click: function (score, event) {
                          var self = this;
                          $.meow({
                            message: 'Thanks for voting. Your rating has been recorded.',
                            icon: 'http://png-3.findicons.com/files/icons/1577/danish_royalty_free/32/smiley.png'
                          });
                          $.ajax({
                            type: 'POST',
                            url: '/games/rating',
                            data: {
                              slug: $(self).attr('id').slice(1),
                              rating: score
                            },
                            success: function () {
                              console.log('setting to read-only');
                              $(self).raty('readOnly', true);
                            }
                          });
                        }
                      });
          else
            script(type='text/javascript')
              $('#_#{game.slug}').raty({
                path: '/img',
                round : { down: .25, full: .6, up: .76 },
                score: #{game.rating}/#{game.votes},
                readOnly: true
              });

          script(type='text/javascript')
            $('##{game.slug}').click(function() {
              var game = this;
              $.ajax({
                type: 'post',
                url: '/buy',
                data:  {
                  slug: $(game).attr('id')
                }
              }).success(function () {
                $('#price-#{game.slug}').attr('disabled', 'true');
                $('#modal-' + $(game).attr('id')).modal('hide');
                humane.log('Your order has been submitted!');
              });
            });

Big wall of text but a pretty good question. +1

Ben
– Ben

2012-11-27 07:36:14 +00:00
Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 7:36 — Ben
– Ben, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 7:36

Ian · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-27 07:37:36Z

3

That was way too long to read. Anyways, I think I get the gist of what you're saying and would use a format like this:

<div id="some_container">
    <!-- The following div would be generated in each iteration of the for loop you speak of -->
    <div class="item-container" data-game-name="Your game name" data-game-id="23">
        <span class="button delete-button">X</span>
    </div>
</div>

And your script would be something with delegation (to minimize the number of bindings greatly):

$(document).ready(function () {
    $("#some_container").on("click", ".delete-button", function () {
        var $this = $(this);
        var $container = $this.closest(".item-container");
        var game_name = $container.data("game-name");
        var game_id = $container.data("game-id");
        // Do whatever with the above 2 variables
    });
});

As for the modal stuff, you could either create a <div> that has a "template" for what to display for whatever. Then, when you click on whatever button, you use logic like the above (get the first parent .item-container to get details on the item, them fill in the "template" in the modal with this information. Then that way, the "OK" button doesn't need a million hardcoded things - just one - grab the information from the template and make whatever call or submit the form.

answered Nov 27, 2012 at 7:37

Ian

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1 Comment

Sahat Yalkabov Over a year ago

Thanks, I ended up using something similar by putting my server data into HTML data-* attributes. Although I can't put too much information, like all usernames who voted on a particular game (privacy concerns), so I end up doing some logic in my template which will result in a boolean variable True/False which will be passed to client-side inside data-* attribute.

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