Fragment

When XBlock views are used to make a web page, each block produces just one piece of the page, by returning a Fragment. A Fragment carries content (usually HTML) and resources (for example, Javascript and CSS) needed by the content. These allow for the composition of HTML, Javascript and CSS elements in a predictable fashion.

Widgets have a number of attributes:

• Content: Content is most often HTML, but could also have an arbitrary mimetype. Each widget only has a single content value.
• Javascript: Javascript resources can include both external files to link to, and inline Javascript source code. When widgets are composed, external Javascript links will be uniqued, so that any individual page isn’t loaded multiple times.
• CSS: Like Javascript, CSS can be both external and inline, and the external resources will be uniqued when widgets are composed.
• Javascript initializer: The Javascript specified for a widget can also specify a function to be called when that widget is rendered on the page. This function will be passed the DOM element containing all of the content from the widget, and is then expected to execute any code needed to make that widget operational. The Javascript view will also be passed a Javascript runtime object containing a set of functions that generate links back to the XBlocks handlers and views on the runtime server.

Since XBlocks nest hierarchically, a single XBlock view might require collecting renderings from each of its children, and composing them together. The parent will be responsible for deciding how the children’s content composes together to create the parent content. The widget system has utilities for composing children’s resources together into the parent.

Other information on widgets [[TODO: write this.]]:

Caching information specifying how long a widget can be cached for. This can be specified at widget creation, or by using a decorator on the view function (if the cache duration is known ahead of time)

See also

The Fragment API documentation.