SPServices 2013.01 Is Underway – Learnings Ensue

I’ve started really cranking on the new version of SPServices and I’m having a blast, as usual. I’ve learned a few things already, and I thought I’d capture them in a post.

“use strict”;

Just gotta do it. I balked at implementing this previously, as it kept hating my code. Well, it hated my code for a reason. "use strict"; makes you fix some pretty dumb mistakes, and I had quite a few of them. SPServices ran just fine with those mistakes, but by implementing "use strict";, they aren’t even there anymore.

If you want to understand why "use strict"; is a good idea with jQuery, read John Resig’s post ECMAScript 5 Strict Mode, JSON, and More.

JSLint vs. JSHint

As part of my refactoring and housecleaning. I went to run SPServices through JSLint as I usually do. It seems that Douglas Crockford, godfather of JavaScript and author of JSLint, has introduced what amounts to either an annoying new feature or a bug into JSLint. I saw the message “Use spaces, not tabs.” on so many lines that JSLint only was making it through about 1% of my code before giving up.

There’s a post over on StackOverflow called New JSLint errors “use spaces, not tabs” and “unsafe character” wherein someone has tracked down what’s going on. I like using tabs in my code, so I took the hint and the advice in the post and headed over to JSHint instead.

It turns out that JSHint does some nice things that JSLint doesn’t do, anyway. Each message shows the line number as a link which takes you into the code at the proper spot to fix it right there. With JSLint, I was always copy/pasting back and forth to SharePoint Designer to make my fixes. JSHint also color codes your code in the edit window so that you can really do editing. Very nice. The only drawback is that JSHint throws an error when I try to run it in IE9, but I’m fine with working in Firefox.

Refactoring

Every single time I go through SPServices, I do a lot of refactoring. I’m a learning human, and each time I know more (at least I like to think I do) about good coding practices than the last time. Sometimes I really want to slap myself up side the head seeing what I did in some of my earliest efforts. I’m taking this opportunity to refactor things yet again, creating many more complex objects to store things than I had originally. This is a good thing, not a complicating thing, as it will make the code far more manageable and readable over the long haul. (Yes, there is a long haul. SPServices still has a good number of years in it, IMO.)

I’m also taking advantage of some of the SharePoint 2010 context information which is available in JavaScript variables (if we’re in 2010, of course, with nice fall back for 2007). Thanks to John Liu’s post SharePoint – JavaScript current page context info which gave me the impetus for this.

Version Numbers

You may have noticed that I’ve switched my version numbering scheme. I have been confusing myself with the version numbers over the last year or so. On one level I wanted to sort of align with the jQuery version numbers, and on another I was being coy and avoiding ever getting to version 1.0. (I’m asymptotic in my tendencies.)

With this version, I’ve switching the versing scheme altogether. This next version will be 2013.01, meaning the first version in 2013. It moves things away from the jQuery alignment and still is an increasing function, so it should make everyone happy. Except the people who will complain about it.

OK, enough chit chat. Back to work. Mark Miller and I are working on some magic and hijinks for his keynote next week at SPTechCon in San Francisco. Hope to see you there!