Adding a new Ajax responder to be able to run custom JS callbacks.

Hi,

I was running into a problem yesterday when a client asked me to create a button who will send the result of a form to Drupal on server A, and then, with the result of that, it needs to be sent to server B.
I've been asked why the server A cannot communicate directly with the server B and for some reason, it's not possible.

I've created a small patch of 10 lines max for CTools to allows people to create callbacks.

Another solution would have been to create two recursive $.post(), but I wanted to see if I could do it with CTools before.

How does it works ?

First, you need to create a link, having the 'ctools-use-ajax' class.

Then, add the js corresponding:

ctools_add_js('ajax-responder');

Now let's see the callback code of that menu entry:

function ctoolscallback_callback($js = FALSE) {
  if ($js) {
    ctools_include('ajax');
    $commands[] = ctools_ajax_command_callback('mycallback', time());
    ctools_ajax_render($commands);
  }
}

If you run this, nothing will happend because your callback 'mycallback' is not defined.
To do this, you have to define it in a JS file like this:

Drupal.CTools.AJAX.commands.callback.mycallback = function(data) {
  alert("This is my custom callback: " + data.data);
}

This will return a popup box with the text and the value of the function 'time()' previously runned in PHP.

Patch for CTools 6.x-1.x is following.

I've created a small module to test my patch, here it is:

function ctools_callback_menu() {
  $items = array();

  $items['ctoolscallback/%ctools_js/go'] = array(
    'page callback' => 'ctoolscallback_callback',
    'page arguments' => array(1),
    'access arguments' => array('access content')
  );

  return $items;

}

function ctools_callback_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array()) {
  switch ($op) {
    case "list":
      $block = array();
      $block[0]['info'] = t('Ctools Callback');
    break;
    case "view":
      $block['subject'] = t('Ctools Callback');
      $block['content'] = _get_block_content();
      break;
  }

  return $block;

}

function _get_block_content() {
  $output = l('Ctools callback', 'ctoolscallback/nojs/go', array('attributes' => array('class'=>'ctools-use-ajax')));
  ctools_add_js('ajax-responder');
  return $output;
}

function ctoolscallback_callback($js = FALSE) {

  if ($js) {
    ctools_include('ajax');

    $commands = array();
    $commands[] = ctools_ajax_command_callback('moncallback1', time());
    $commands[] = ctools_ajax_command_callback('moncallback2', time());
    $commands[] = ctools_ajax_command_callback('moncallback3', time());

    ctools_ajax_render($commands);

  }

}

Don't forget to create those JS functions in a JS file:

Drupal.CTools.AJAX.commands.callback.moncallback1 = function(data) {
    alert("Message1: " + data.data);
}

Drupal.CTools.AJAX.commands.callback.moncallback2 = function(data) {
    console.log("Message2: " + data.data);
}

Drupal.CTools.AJAX.commands.callback.moncallback3 = function(data) {
    alert("Message3: " + data.data);
}