Flask Sijax - Flask

What is flask sijax?

Sijax stands for ‘Simple Ajax’ which is a Python/jQuery library designed to bring Ajax to the application. It uses jQuery.ajax for making AJAX requests.

Installation

Installation of Flask-Sijax is easy.

pip install flask-sijax

Configuration

• SIJAX_STATIC_PATH − static path where the Sijax javascript files have to be mirrored. Default location is static/js/sijax. In this folder, sijax.js and json2.js files are kept.
• SIJAX_JSON_URI − URI to load the json2.js static file from

Sijax uses JSON for passing data between the browser and the server which means that the browsers either has to support JSON natively or get JSON support from the json2.js file. Functions registered in that way will not provide Sijax functionality as they cannot be accessed using a POST method by default (and Sijax uses POST requests).

For making a View function capable of handling Sijax requests, make it accessible via POST using @app.route('/url', methods = ['GET', 'POST']) or use the @flask_sijax.route helper decorator like this

@flask_sijax.route(app, '/hello')

Every single Sijax handler function will receive at least one parameter automatically, like Python passes ‘self’ to the object methods. ‘obj_response’ parameter is the function's way of talking back to the browser.

def say_hi(obj_response): obj_response.alert('Hi there!')

When Sijax request is detected, Sijax handles it as shown below

g.sijax.register_callback('say_hi', say_hi) return g.sijax.process_request()

Sijax Application

A minimal Sijax application code looks as shown below

import os from flask import Flask, g from flask_sijax import sijax path = os.path.join('.', os.path.dirname(__file__), 'static/js/sijax/') app = Flask(__name__) app.config['SIJAX_STATIC_PATH'] = path app.config['SIJAX_JSON_URI'] = '/static/js/sijax/json2.js' flask_sijax.Sijax(app) @app.route('/') def index(): return 'Index' @flask_sijax.route(app, '/hello') def hello(): def say_hi(obj_response): obj_response.alert('Hi there!') if g.sijax.is_sijax_request: # Sijax request detected - let Sijax handle it g.sijax.register_callback('say_hi', say_hi) return g.sijax.process_request() return _render_template('sijaxexample.html') if __name__ == '__main__': app.run(debug = True)

When a Sijax requests (a special jQuery.ajax() request) to the server, this request will be detected on the server by g.sijax.is_sijax_request() and allows Sijax to handle the request. All the functions registered using g.sijax.register_callback() will be exposed for calling from the browser. Calling g.sijax.process_request() tells Sijax to execute appropriate (previously registered) function and return the response to the browser.