url.rewrite-once = (    
    "^/(css|files|img|js)/(.*)" => "/$1/$2",
    "^/([^?]*)(?:\?(.+))?$" => "/index.php?url=$1&$2"
)

Posted via email from shakeit

Anyone who has kept up with the advancements of JavaScript knows the Prototype library. For those who don’t know, it’s a JavaScript library that wraps a whole bunch of functionality into easy to use (and remember) “shortcuts” for doing things like getting elements on a page, manipulating said elements, and dealing with data. It’s all written in JSON notation and allows you do things like:

$('element-id').addClassName('active').show();

Instead of

var element = document.getElementById('element-id');
    element.className = 'active';
    element.style.display = 'block';

Anyway, things like Prototype, jQuery, Dojo, and YUI all provide some convenience to writing custom JavaScript applications. I haven’t dug super deep into any of the frameworks’ source (mostly because the code has been somewhat obfuscated and “compressed” to save space), but I imagine that they all have one thing in common; they make use of the prototype property to extend both existing and custom built objects/classes in JavaScript.

The prototype Property

Even if you don’t make heavy use of one of the afforementioned framework/toolkits, using the prototype property to extend existing JavaScript objects and/or classes can be quite useful. Say you want an easy way to print out a date. Rather than createing a separate function, just extend the Date object itself.

Date.prototype.months = new Array(
    {name: "January",   abbrev: "Jan", number: "01"},
    {name: "February",  abbrev: "Feb", number: "02"},
    {name: "March",     abbrev: "Mar", number: "03"},
    {name: "April",     abbrev: "Apr", number: "04"},
    {name: "May",       abbrev: "May", number: "05"},
    {name: "June",      abbrev: "Jun", number: "06"},
    {name: "July",      abbrev: "Jul", number: "07"},
    {name: "August",    abbrev: "Aug", number: "08"},
    {name: "September", abbrev: "Sep", number: "09"},
    {name: "October",   abbrev: "Oct", number: "10"},
    {name: "November",  abbrev: "Nov", number: "11"},
    {name: "December",  abbrev: "Dec", number: "12"}
);
Date.prototype.dow = new Array(
    {name: 'Sunday',    abbrev: 'Sun', number: "01"},
    {name: 'Monday',    abbrev: 'Mon', number: "02"},
    {name: 'Tuesday',   abbrev: 'Tue', number: "03"},
    {name: 'Wednesday', abbrev: 'Wed', number: "04"},
    {name: 'Thursday',  abbrev: 'Thu', number: "05"},
    {name: 'Friday',    abbrev: 'Fri', number: "06"},
    {name: 'Saturday',  abbrev: 'Sat', number: "07"}
);
Date.prototype.getShortDate = function() {
    return this.months[this.getMonth()].abbrev + ' ' + this.getDate() + ' ' + this.getFullYear();
};
Date.prototype.getLongDate = function() {
    return this.dow[this.getDay()].name + ', ' + this.months[this.getMonth()].name + ' ' + this.getDate() + ', ' + this.getFullYear();
};
Date.prototype.getValueDate = function() {
    var d = (this.getDate() < 10) ? '0'+this.getDate():this.getDate();
    return this.getFullYear() + '/' + this.months[this.getMonth()].number + '/' + d;
};

var now = new Date();
document.write(now.getLongDate());

And you get something like this . Handy.

Now, there’s a couple of issues with the above script. One, the names aren’t localized and two, there’s probalby a more efficient way to formatting a date (much like the example on this page). But, it works in all the browsers I tested (Chrome, Firefox, IE7, Safari [Mac]).

You can prototype most of the default objects in JavaScript. Say you have an application the has to validate a bunch of text fields. Prototype the String objects to add built in parsing methods for various fields.

String.prototype.isValidEmail = function() { ... }
String.prototype.isValidPhone = function() { ... }

You get the idea.

The prototype property is a handy little tool. There maybe some limitations between browsers, but overall, it should help simplify your code and prevent repetitive and reduntant methods.