This document takes you step by step through the process of setting up a Web project to use the UIZE JavaScript Framework. "Hello, world" awaits you.

If you haven't already downloaded the zip archive of the UIZE Web site, DOWNLOAD IT NOW.

Once you've downloaded the zip archive, come back to this page and continue on with the rest of the instructions.

You may want to consider joining the UIZE JavaScript Framework Group, so you can ask other developers questions as you start using the UIZE JavaScript Framework.

The official UIZE JavaScript Framework Group is the place where developers can discuss ways that they're using UIZE in their own projects. Join up so you can get support, give support, learn tips and tricks, show off your cool projects built on UIZE, and generally get involved in the discussion on all things UIZE. JOIN NOW

Locate the uize.zip archive file that you downloaded (probably on your desktop) and unzip it (probably by double-clicking on it).

Extract the contents of the uize.zip archive to your desktop, or any other desired location. You'll end up with a UIZE-JavaScript-Framework folder that contains a local copy of the uize.com Web site.

To use UIZE in a Web site project, you should copy the js folder from the UIZE-JavaScript-Framework folder to a desired location in your project's folder.

5.1. What If I Already Have a "js" Folder?

Now that you've copied over the necessary JavaScript files, you're ready to get the special test page running in your own Web site project.

6.1. Copy the Page

6.2. Modify the Script Tag, If Necessary

<script type="text/javascript src="js/Uize.js"></script>

6.3. Test the Page

The many example pages, documentation pages, explainers, and other pages of this Web site all use the UIZE JavaScript Framework to some degree or another - some of them only minimally, and others quite extensively.

By far the most heavily UIZE'd pages are the example pages, while the documentation pages typically just wire up a tree widget for their contents list. The example pages are fair game for hacking, since they show off features that may be compelling for your own projects and provide working examples of the use of various features and widgets.

7.1. Hacking the Examples

<script type="text/javascript src="../js/Uize.js"></script>

... ... ...
required:[
  'UizeSite.Page.Example.library',  // <-- DELETE THIS LINE
  'UizeSite.Page.Example',
  ...,
  ...,
  ...
],
... ... ...

... ... ...
required:[
  'UizeSite.Page.Example',
  ...,
  ...,
  ...
],
... ... ...

... ... ...
required:[
  'UizeSite.Page.Example',  // <-- CHANGE THIS LINE
  ...,
  ...,
  ...
],
... ... ...

... ... ...
required:[
  'Uize.Widget.Page',
  ...,
  ...,
  ...
],
... ... ...

var page = window.page =
  UizeSite.Page.Example ({evaluator:function (code) {eval (code)}})
;

var page = window.page = Uize.Widget.Page ();

<script type="text/javascript src="../js/Uize.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript src="../js/~source/Uize.js"></script>

The UIZE JavaScript Framework provides a number of convenient build scripts that will ease tasks like scrunching (aka compressing or minifying) JavaScript files.

These build scripts run using Windows Script Host and must therefore be run on a Windows machine. The good news is that no software needs to be installed for developers with access to a Windows machine on which to run the scripts. The bad news is that Mac and Linux are not currently supported by the build scripts. The build scripts are the only aspect of the framework requiring Windows.

Assuming you can access a Windows machine for running the scripts, even if Windows is not your regular development environment, setting up the build scripts is quite easy.

Most likely you'll be interested in the _build-scrunched.js build script. Double-clicking on this file in Windows should run this build script and a log file should be created. For a more in-depth discussion of the various build scripts and tips on different configuration settings, consult the explainer JavaScript Build Scripts.

There are some JavaScript files that you can remove from your "js" folder, if you wish to tidy things up a bit.

In an earlier step you copied the UIZE-JavaScript-Framework folder's "js" folder to your Web site project. Now, because this folder is used by the UIZE Web site, it contains a number of JavaScript modules that are specific to UIZE Web site. You don't need these modules for your own Web site project, since they are not part of the framework, per se. These modules are the ones under the UizeSite namespace. You can delete all the JavaScript files prefixed with "UizeSite" (eg. UizeSite.Page.js) from the "js" folder that you copied over, and from the "~source" folder inside the "js" folder. You don't need the source or the scrunched versions of these files.

A PACKAGE DEAL

Beyond the obviously unnecessary UizeSite files, there are likely to be a bunch of framework JavaScript files that you won't end up using, but it might be more bother than it's worth trying to whittle down the contents of the "js" folder any further, and you might remove some files that you end up wanting later on, or you might accidentally remove some files that you don't think you'll need but actually will. If server space is a major concern, you can try to handpick just what you need, but that won't be fun.

As mentioned earlier, you can get support by joining the official UIZE JavaScript Framework Group.

And for additional support tips, consult the SUPPORT page.

Now that you have successfully installed the UIZE JavaScript Framework and set up a Web site project to use it, you will want to learn more about the many feature areas of the framework and how you might use different parts of its large feature set in your own projects.

To get an overview of the functionality of the UIZE JavaScript Framework, consult the explainer Overview of Features.