Getting Started with Development

Working with JavaScript

Introduction

The Open Library website makes heavy use of jQuery libraries.

Except jquery and jquery-ui, all other third-party javascript libraries are combined and included as vendor.js.

All the custom javascripts are combined and includes as all.js.

vendor.js and third party libraries

All third-party javascripts are added in the vendor/js directory in the repository and static/build/vendor.js is generated by combining these javascripts. The files included in static/build/vendor.js are specified in a shell script static/js/vendor.jsh.

To include a new third-party library:

• Add that library in vendor/js in the repository

• Add an entry in static/js/vendor.jsh

• Generate vendor.js by running make

  $ make js
  

• Commit vendor.jsh and the library added to the repository

all.js and custom javascripts

All the custom javascript files are put in the repo at openlibrary/plugins/openlibrary/js. All these javascript files are combined to generate build/js/all.js.

The order in which these files are included is determined by the sort order of the names. In general, it is a bad idea to depend on the order of files loaded.

If you make any changes to any of the javascript files, run make js to regenerate build/js/all.js.

Working with CSS

All stylesheets are in static/css. They are combined to generate build/css/all.css, which is included in all the web pages.

It’s a good idea to break CSS into multiple logical files, instead of putting it in one monolithic file.

If you make changes to any CSS, run make css to regenerate build/css/all.css.