| New product: jTAC: JavaScript Types and Conditions |
jTAC: JavaScript Types and Conditions is the first free, open source product from PeterBlum.com. It adapts many of the ideas from Peter's Data Entry Suite to a stand-alone JavaScript library.
jTAC is a JavaScript library for enhancing data entry user interfaces. It expands
jquery-validate, adding new rules and features. It also includes several
jquery-ui widgets, including the DataTypeEditor, DateTextBox, and Calculator.
jTAC is not jquery specific. You can use it in all of your JavaScript libraries.
Underlying validation are three tools that you will want to use in other situations:
TypeManagers, Conditions, and Connections.
- TypeManagers understand data types, like integers, dates, currencies, and email
addresses. They provide parsers to convert strings into the native type and report
errors when conversion fails. As a result, validation delegates significant work
to TypeManagers.
- Conditions are the actual validation rules, like “compare to value”, “range”, and
“text length”.
- Connections are used to access data from elements on the page or other sources.
They work with HTML form elements, custom widgets that are composed of several form
elements (like a checkbox list) or use API calls to get a value, and even your custom
calculations that return a value. Conditions use Connections for all their data
retrieval.
While jQuery is obviously supported, the jTAC core does not use jQuery, making its
classes useable in other JavaScript frameworks. The jQuery tools are merely fully
realized uses of these classes. It’s these classes that will contribute most to
your application.
Like with other PeterBlum.com products, it includes extensive documentation, both in PDF and inline code, and forums for support.