Groot
A UI tree for working with nested content.
Prerequisites
If you intend to use Groot as an ES2015 module, you will need:
- a transpiler such as Webpack + babel to build your project,
- an ES2015 polyfill library, such as babel-polyfill, and
- a Handlebars template loader, such as handlebars-loader.
To see how these work together refer to the project's webpack.config.js file, specifically the entry
and modules
sections.
If you intend to use Groot as an ES5 script, no other prerequisites are necessary.
Installation
As an ES2015 module
Install Groot with npm.
$ npm install --save @enotes/groot
Import the Groot
constructor into your own module.
import { Groot } from 'groot';
As an ES5 script
Copy the Groot assets in the dist/
folder to the appropriate vendor location in your project structure, e.g., scripts/vendor/groot/
.
Reference the Groot assets in your HTML document.
<!-- creates window.Groot -->
<script src="scripts/vendor/groot/groot.es5.js"></script>
<script>console.log(window.Groot);</script>
Styles and fonts
The Groot style sheet and fonts are located in the dist/
folder. You can copy these artifacts to your own project, but be aware that the stylesheet assumes that its fonts are located in a sibling fonts/
directory. If this does not match your project structure you can:
- manually edit the groot.css file to suit your needs, or
- if you use Sass, you can:
- set the
$icomoon-font-path
variable to the path where your font files reside - import the
src/groot.scss
file into your own stylesheet - recompile your stylesheet
- set the
The core Groot css style selectors are:
Selector | Purpose |
---|---|
.groot-tree |
Base unordered list. Contains .groot-leaf list items. |
.groot-leaf |
Individual list item. May contain neseted .groot-tree element. |
.groot-icon |
All icons. |
.groot-leaf__toggle |
The expand/collapse icon. |
.groot-leaf__up |
The up arrow icon. |
.groot-leaf__down |
The down arrow icon. |
.groot-leaf__label |
The text in a .groot-leaf element. Will have .active or .inactive classes. Will have .drag-target class on drag events. Has :hover pseudo-selector. |
.groot-leaf__label-field |
The input element for creating/editing leafs. |
.groot-menu |
The pop-up menu. |
.groot-menu__label |
Items on the pop-up menu. |
.groot-menu__close |
The pop-up menu close button. |
Building the project
Install the Groot npm dependencies to ensure that the build tools are present.
$ npm install
The Groot distribution artifacts are pre-built and are located in the dist/
folder. These assets are re-built with the command:
$ npm run-script build
The build script relies on bash shell commands and will not work correctly in non-bash environments.
Usage
Creating your tree
Create a tree by iterating over some data and transforming it into instances of Groot.Leaf
.
const rootLeaf = new Groot.Leaf('root leaf');
let child = rootLeaf.branch('child leaf 1');
child.branch('child leaf 1.1');
child.branch('child leaf 1.2');
rootLeaf.branch('child leaf 2');
child = rootLeaf.branch('child leaf 3');
child.branch('child leaf 3.1');
// etc.
const containerElement = document.querySelector('#some-container');
const tree = new Groot(containerElement, rootLeaf);
rootLeaf.expand(true);
tree.render();
See src/demo.js for a more complete example.
Adding custom meta-data
Leafs can contain custom meta-data in the form of attributes.
const leaf = tree.branch('child leaf');
leaf.setAttribute('myCustomID', 123);
Setting custom meta-data on a leaf allows you to dereference the leaf against your application's own data. Custom meta-data also plays a part in Groot events (discussed below) and may be changed during leaf creation, or when async events are raised.
Listening for events
Groot raises events for nearly every tree operation. Some of these will require you to commit to, or cancel an operation before it completes.
Event | Description | Async? | Multisource? | Special Properties |
---|---|---|---|---|
rendering | the tree is about to be rendered in the DOM | no | no | |
rendered | the tree has been rendered in the DOM | no | no | |
leaf.moving | a leaf is moving | yes | yes | direction=up,down,first,last,to,parent,before,after |
leaf.moved | a leaf has moved | no | yes | see: leaf.moving |
leaf.clicking | a leaf is being clicked on | no | no | isRightClick={Boolean} |
leaf.clicked | a leaf has been clicked on | no | no | see: leaf.clicking |
leaf.dragging | a leaf is starting to be dragged | no | no | |
leaf.dragged | a leaf has been dragged | no | no | |
leaf.dropping | a leaf is starting to be dropped onto another leaf | no | yes | |
leaf.dropped | a leaf has been dropped onto another leaf | no | yes | |
leaf.renaming | a leaf is about to be renamed | yes | no | isNew={Boolean}, label={String} |
leaf.renamed | a leaf has been renamed | no | no | see: leaf.renaming |
leaf.unnamed | a leaf has been unnamed (pending rename is canceled) | no | no | see: leaf.renaming |
leaf.expanding | a leaf is about to expand | no | no | deep={Boolean} |
leaf.expanded | a leaf has expanded | no | no | see: leaf.expanding |
leaf.collapsing | a leaf is about to collapse | no | no | deep={Boolean} |
leaf.collapsed | a leaf has collapsed | no | no | see: leaf.collapsing |
leaf.deleting | a leaf is about to be deleted | yes | no | |
leaf.deleted | a leaf has been deleted | no | no | |
leaf.creating | a leaf is about to be created | no | no | projectedPosition={Number} |
leaf.created | a leaf has been created | no | no | see: leaf.creating |
leaf.pruning | a leaf is about to be pruned | no | no | |
leaf.pruned | a leaf has been pruned | no | no | |
leaf.activating | a leaf is about to be activated | no | no | deep={Boolean} |
leaf.activated | a leaf has been activated | no | no | see: leaf.activating |
leaf.disabling | a leaf is about to be disabled | no | no | deep={Boolean} |
leaf.disabled | a leaf has been disabled | no | no | see: leaf.disabling |
menu.clicking | a menu item is about to be clicked | no | no | action=create,rename,delete,move-to,move-up,move-down,move-first,move-last,move-before,move-after,make-parent,activate-children,disable-children,close |
menu.clicked | a menu item has been clicked | no | no | see: menu.clicking |
menu.showing | the menu is about to show | no | no | |
menu.shown | the menu has been shown | no | no | (menu options) |
menu.hiding | the menu is about to be hidden | no | no | |
menu.hidden | the menu has been hidden | no | no | (menu options) |
For convenience, event names may be referenced by using the Groot.EVENTS
object. For example:
Groot.EVENTS.RENDERED === 'rendered'
Groot.EVENTS.LEAF.DELETING === 'leaf.deleating'
Groot.EVENTS.MENU.HIDDEN === 'menu.hidden'
// etc.
Subscriptions to Groot events are established by calling its on()
method with a callback.
tree.on(Groot.EVENTS.LEAF.MOVING, (eventArgs) => {
// handle the event
});
All event callbacks will receive an eventArgs
object. This will contain contextual information about the event. If a single node is involved, the eventArgs
object will contain a source
property with information about that node. If two nodes are involved (e.g.., drag-n-drop, or "Assign parent"), the event is deemed "multisource", and the eventArgs
object will contain both source
and target
properties with information about the originator of the action (source
) and the receiver of the action (target
). These properties will also contain all of the custom meta-data added to their corresponding leafs.
Synchronous events cannot be stopped, but asynchronous events can be stopped. An asynchronous eventArgs
object will contain two methods, commit()
and cancel()
, either of which must be called to finish the asynchronous operation. For example:
tree.on(Groot.EVENTS.LEAF.DELETING, (eventArgs) => {
api.delete(eventArgs.source.myCustomID).then(() => {
// success -- the tree node will be removed
eventArgs.commit();
}, (err) => {
// failure -- the tree node will remain
eventArgs.cancel();
});
});
The public Groot API
After a Groot object is created the tree may be manipulated through the Groot public API, and through events that it raises. At present the public API is fairly terse but more functionality may be added later. The Groot object is designed to emit events, and perform its own internal operations as the application code responds to those events, so the public API is fairly limited.
Note that Groot methods are designed to locate leafs by custom attributes, which means that if you intend to manipulate the Groot instance through its public API, you will want to assign some unique attribute to each leaf as you are creating it (perhaps a database ID). See: Adding custom meta-data.
/**
* @typedef {Object} Groot
* @property {Boolean} isEnabled
* @method {Function} prune
* @method {Function} remove
* @method {Function} rename
* @method {Function} expand
* @method {Function} disable
* @method {Function} enable
* @method {Function} render
* @method {Function} closeMenu
*/
The public Leaf API
Once a Groot object has been created with its initial tree of nodes, it will handle all interactions among its leafs. However, the initial tree must be created manually, so understanding the public Leaf API can be beneficial.
/**
* @typedef {Object} Leaf
* @augments {leafPrototype}
* @property {Number} id - unique, internal identifier
* @property {Leaf|null} parent
* @property {Array.<Leaf>} leafs
* @property {Number} leafCount
* @property {String} label
* @property {Number} level
* @property {Number} position
* @property {Boolean} isRoot
* @property {Boolean} isFirstSibling
* @property {Boolean} isLastSibling
* @property {Boolean} isExpanded
* @property {Boolean} isBeingRenamed
* @property {Boolean} isBeingGrafted
* @property {Boolean} isActive
* @property {Object} attributes
* @method {Function} moveBefore
* @method {Function} moveAfter
* @method {Function} makeParentOf
* @method {Function} makeChildOf
* @method {Function} remove
* @method {Function} move
* @method {Function} branch
* @method {Function} graft
* @method {Function} ungraft
* @method {Function} inosculate
* @method {Function} activate
* @method {Function} deactivate
* @method {Function} getParent
* @method {Function} hasChildren
* @method {Function} hasAnyActiveChildren
* @method {Function} hasAnyInactiveChildren
* @method {Function} getChildren
* @method {Function} getFirstChild
* @method {Function} getLastChild
* @method {Function} getSiblings
* @method {Function} getSiblingsBefore
* @method {Function} getSiblingsAfter
* @method {Function} get
* @method {Function} traverse
* @method {Function} find
* @method {Function} findByAttributes
* @method {Function} isParentOf
* @method {Function} isChildOf
* @method {Function} isAncestorOf
* @method {Function} isDescendantOf
* @method {Function} isSibling
* @method {Function} isBefore
* @method {Function} isAfter
* @method {Function} isLeftOf
* @method {Function} isRightOf
* @method {Function} expand
* @method {Function} expandChildren
* @method {Function} collapse
* @method {Function} collapseChildren
* @method {Function} toggle
* @method {Function} requestLabelChange
* @method {Function} cancelLabelChange
* @method {Function} commitLabelChange
* @method {Function} setAttributes
* @method {Function} setAttribute
* @method {Function} mergeAttributes
* @method {Function} hasAttribute
* @method {Function} anyChildHasAttribute
* @method {Function} equals
* @method {Function} length
* @method {Function} toString
*/
Special terms
Leaf.attributes
A leaf may have custom attributes, defined by application data but irrelevant to Groot itself. For example, in a tree of TV shows, each leaf might contain a tvShowID
attribute that is associated with an entry in a TV show database. The public Groot API is designed to manipulate the tree by looking up leafs by attributes, not by using internal leaf identifiers.
Leaf.level
and Leaf.position
The level
of a leaf defines its depth in the leaf hierarchy. The root leaf exists at level 0, its children exist at level 1, and so on.
The position
of a leaf defines its order within its siblings. The root leaf will have a position 0.
Groot.remove()
and Groot.prune()
Removing a leaf from the tree will delete it and raise the asynchronous leaf.deleting
event, which may be cancelled.
Pruning a leaf from the tree will delete it, but will raise the synchronous leaf.pruning
event which may not be cancelled. Prune leafs when you do not care about confirmation or errors.
Leaf.graft()
, Leaf.ungraft()
, Leaf.inosculate()
, and Leaf.isBeingGrafted
When a new leaf is created within the tree by choosing the "Create" option on the Groot menu, it exists as a "grafted" leaf; that is to say, it is not yet formally part of the tree. After the user enters a label for the leaf, the asynchronous leaf.creating
event will be raised. If the event is committed, the leaf will officially be inosculated, and its grafted status (isBeingGrafted
) will be revoked. If the event is cancelled the leaf will be ungrafted, which will remove it from the tree entirely.
Leaf.activate()
, Leaf.disable()
, and Leaf.isActive
The active status of a leaf is purely abstract and has no affect on tree operations other than to change the visual representation of a leaf in the DOM (it will be a lighter color).
TODO
- polish demo
- enhance documentation