awonderphp/notreallypsrresourcemanager

A Proposal for a web application JS/CSS resouce manager

dev-master 2018-03-15 11:52 UTC

This package is not auto-updated.

Last update: 2024-12-25 06:57:33 UTC


README

This is a set of interfaces that PHP libraries can use to provide sane management of third party JavaScript and CSS resources uses by the web applications.

The current namespace \AWonderPHP\NotReallyPsrResourceManager sucks and will change. It was never intended as permanent. I was hoping a standards body would want to take this idea and create some standard interfaces with fancy lingo that includes RFC 2119.

While not strictly required, it is highly recommended that classes that implement these interfaces extend the abstract classes within the \AwonderPHP\FileResource namespace.

That allows the resulting objects to be served by any class that understands how to serve a FileResource object.

It is also intended that the JavaScriptResource and CssResource objects be generated from JSON configuration files as described in this document.

  1. FileResource Methods
  2. JavaScriptResource Interface Methods
  3. CssResource Interface Methods
  4. ResourceManager Interface
  5. JSON Configuration File
  6. JavaScript JSON
  7. CSS JSON
  8. File System and Config File Naming
  9. Wrapper Script

FileResource Methods

These methods are specified in both the JavaScriptResource and CssResource interfaces and are identical to the methods of the same name in the abstract \AwonderPHP\FileResource\FileResource class:

  • public function getMimeType()
    Returns the $mime property.

  • public function getChecksum()
    Returns the $checksum property.

  • public function getCrossOrigin()
    Returns the $crossorigin property.

  • public function getFilePath()
    Returns the $filepath property.

  • public function validateFile()
    If the $checksum property is set and the $filepath property is set and the file exists, returns true if the file matches the checksum and false if it does not.

  • public function getSrcAttribute($prefix = null)
    Builds the contents of the src or href attribute needed to embed the resource in a web page. Note that this will return null if the $urlscheme property is http and the file does not have a $checksum property that uses an algorithm in the $validIntegrityAlgo property. The optional parameter $prefix is a file system path to put in front of the $urlpath property, useful for web applications using a wrapper to serve the file.

  • public function getIntegrityAttribute()
    Builds the contents of an integrity attribute, if the $checksum property uses a suitable algorithm.

  • public function getTimestamp()
    If the $lastmode property is not null, returns a UNIX time stamp (seconds from UNIX epoch).

JavaScriptResource Interface Methods

These methods are in the JavaScriptResource interface but are not defined in the previously mentioned FileResource abstract class.

  • getTypeAttribute()
    What goes into the type attribute of a <script> node. Usually the MIME type but not always.

  • getAsyncAttribute()
    Whether or not the Boolean async attribute should be present.

  • getDeferAttribute();
    Whether or not the Boolean defer attribute should be present.

  • getNoModuleAttribute()
    Whether or not the Boolean nomodule attribute should be present.

  • generateScriptDomNode($dom, $nonce = null)
    Creates a \DOMNode <script> node, with an optional nonce.

  • generateScriptString(bool $xml = false, $nonce = null)
    Creates a string, either HTML or XHTML, for the script node with an optional nonce. If the $xml parameter is true, a string that is XML compliant should be returned (every attribute is a key="value" pair, Boolean attributes are usually just key="key" but it does not really matter. Script node is self-closing). When the $xml parameters is false, the default, an HTML compliant string is generated (boolean attributes may just be key and are not required to have an ="value" and a self-closing script tags are not recognized as closed, so a closing </script> is required).

Both the generateScriptDomNode() and generateScriptString() methods should call the getSrcAttribute() method, so the constructor of an implementing class should have a property for the $prefix that is null by default but can be set by the constructor.

CssResource Interface Methods

  • getTypeAttribute()
    What goes into the type attribute of a CSS <link> node. This should ALWAYS return text/css

  • getMediaAttribute()
    Returns what goes into the media attribute of a CSS <link> node. This is rarely used, but it is very powerful and should be used more often IMHO as it can reduce the bandwidth the client needs to have to successfully use a web application.

  • getHreflangAttribute()
    Returns what goes into a hreflang attribute. When not null, it MUST be a BCP47 string.

  • getReferrerPolicyAttribute()
    Returns what goes into a referrerpolicy attribute of a CSS <link> node. I suspect it will not be used much, but it is there.

  • getRelAttribute()
    The contents of the rel attribute, should return stylesheet.

ResourceManager Interface

This is the interface that defines how web applications will interact get the JavaScriptResource and CssResource objects that they need.

It describes two public methods:

  • getJavaScript(string $vendor, string $product, string $name, $version, $variant = null);

  • getCSS(string $vendor, string $product, string $name, $version, $variant = null);

The web application calls those methods which will either return null if the implementing class can not create the object, or it returns eith a JavaScriptResource or CssResource implementing object, depending upon which of the methods were called.

The Parameters:

  • $vendor String:
    Lower case vendor string for who packaged the JavaScript or CSS, similar to the first level namespace in PSR-4 PHP classes but lower case. In Composer terms, it would be the top level directory within the Composer created vendor directory of your web application.

  • $product String:
    Lower case product string for the package the JavaScript or CSS is part of, similar to the second level namespace in PSR-4 PHP classes but lower case. In Composer terms, it would be the directory within the previously mentioned directory.

  • $name String:
    The name of the JavaScript or CSS sans version and other info, e.g. jquery or jquery-ui or normalize.

  • $version String or Integer:
    The version needed, e.g. 3.3.1 to specifically ask for jQuery 3.3.1 or 3.3 to specifically ask for latest in 3.3 branch or simply 3 to ask for the latest in 3 branch.

  • $variant String or Null:
    The variant of the JavaScript needed, e.g. min for minified or slim or slim.min.

With that information, the ResourceManager implementing class would be able to find the JSON file describing the object and load it into an object.

The constructor for an implementing class should define the Base directory directory resources are installed into so the methods can find the needed configuration files and also the $prefix to use with the getSrcAttribute() method.

Example Usage:

$base = "/whatever/path";
$RM = new \namespace\whatever\ImplementingClass($base);
$jsObj = $RM->getJavaScript('flossjs', 'jquery', 'jquery', 3, "min");

Then from $jsObj the web application can create the <script> node needed.

JSON Configuration File

The ResourceManager will hunt for a JSON configuration file that matches the resource the web application requests and then create the object to return from the JSON file. That needs a standard JSON file format.

Common JSON Elements to JavaScript and CSS

  • name String, required:
    The name of the script or css, sans version and variant, e.g. jquery.
  • homepage String, not strictly required:
    The URL homepage of the project
  • version String, required:
    The version of the script being described.
  • license Array, required:
    An array containing one or more applicable license for the script. Each element of the array should contain license name and a URL for the license.

Those fields are not utilized by the classes but are metadata that is useful to a system administrator. Other fields common to both JS and CSS:

  • mime String, required:
    The MIME type that should be used when serving the file.
  • checksum String, recommended:
    The algo:checksum described in the FileResource abstract class.
  • filepath String, optional:
    If the file is present on the server, the file system path to the file.
  • lastmod String, recommended:
    A string that can be parsed by strtotime() to create a UNIX time stamp indicating when the file was last modified. For many projects, this is specified in a comment header of the file itself, and in those cases, that string should be used.
  • srcurl String, required:
    What should go in the src or href attribute. Must be parseable by the parse_url function and internationalized domains should be in punycode.
  • minified Boolean, optional:
    Use of this field may be used by some implementations but is not required. It defines whether the JS/CSS in the file is minified.

JavaScript JSON

A sample of what a JavaScript JSON might look like:

{
    "name": "jquery",
    "homepage": "https://jquery.com/",
    "version": "3.3.1",
    "license": [
        {
            "name": "MIT",
            "url": "https://jquery.org/license/"
        }
    ],
    "mime": "application/javascript",
    "checksum": "sha256:160a426ff2894252cd7cebbdd6d6b7da8fcd319c65b70468f10b6690c45d02ef",
    "filepath": "flossjs/jquery/js/jquery-3.3.1.min.js",
    "lastmod": "2018-01-20T17:24Z",
    "minified": true,
    "srcurl": "/js/jquery-3.3.1.min.js"
}

JavaScript Specific Fields:

  • async Boolean, optional:
    Only needed if it is desired to have that attribute, then set to true.
  • defer Boolean, optional:
    Only needed if it is desired to have that attribute, then set to true.
  • nomodule Boolean, optional:
    Only needed if it is desired to have that attribute, then set to true.
  • ??type?? Needs Exploration:
    In most cases, the type attribute is set to the MIME type, but it may be necessary to set it to modular for ES6 modular feature, I still need to learn about that.

CSS JSON

A sample of what a CSS JSON might look like needs to be written.

CSS Specific Fields:

  • media Array, optional:
    An array containing the media tyes the CSS file applies to when it does not apply to everyone (browsers assume all when not specified)
  • hreflang String, optional:
    The BCP47 language string that applies to the CSS file.
  • referrerpolicy String, optional:
    When present, must be one of no-referrer, no-referrer-when-downgrade, origin, origin-when-cross-origin, unsafe-url -- browsers assume no-referrer-when-downgrade which is almost always the best policy for CSS style sheets. It is my opinion that unsafe-url should never be used as it can leak information. It only has meaning when the remote server does not use TLS but your web application uses TLS and that scenario should be blocked by browsers anyway.

File System and Config File Naming

All scripts should be installed with a hierarchy of $base/VendorName/ProductName where VendorName and ProductName are lower case, as is Composer convention for PHP libraries.

In the case of Composer install of JS/CSS libraries, the Composer vendor directory would be the $base directory.

Within the ProductName directory, an etc directory MUST exist that has the JSON configuration files, and it is RECOMMENDED that the actual JavaScript files reside in a js directory and CSS files reside in a css directory.

An example of what this would look like is at AliceWonderMiscreations/CommonJS

Default configuration files would be named using:

ScriptName-Version-Variant.json.dist

Where ScriptName is the name of the script (e.g. jquery), Version is the version of the script (e.g. 3.3.1), and if present, Variant would be the script variant (e.g. min or slim or slim.min).

The default configuration should have the srcurl point to a local URL, e.g.

"srcurl": "/js/jquery-3.3.1.min.js",

When a system administrator wants to customize what is in the configuration, they simply copy the file so that it no longer ends in .dist and then they can modify it (e.g. to set srcurl to a CDN).

The ResourceManager MUST give priority to the configuration file without the .dist if it is found.

With the major.minor.point versioning scheme, a configuration file should exist for both major.minor and major that are identical to the default configuration file for the most recent major.minor.point that match.

Wrapper Script

Web Applications that implement this MUST be able to handle requests to the default /js/ and /css/ locations.

This can be accomplished by a wrapper script. An abstract class that extends the FileWrapper class to work for this has been written, that abstract class is part of the AWonderPHP\FileResource namespace.

An interface exists in this namespace that can be used to define a class that extends the class that serves FileResource objects described above.

EOF