Hi khoosys!

Thanks for your mail, but I prefer this matter to be discussed in this thread so others might benefit from it using the search function (which very few only seem to know about...).

Your code looks like taken from the Wiki article about custom filebrowser implementation.

Let's have a closer look:

function myFileBrowser (field_name, url, type, win) {
//   alert("Field_Name: " + field_name + "\\nURL: " + url + "\\nType: " + type + "\\nWin: " + win); // debug/testing
    var fileBrowserWindow = new Array();

    var cmsURL = '/pop_editor/browser.htm';      // script URL

I don't understand why you changed the value of "cmsURL" to this string (used to be window.location.pathname). Isn't your server-side script going to answer the request by using your HTML file (called '/pop_editor/browser.htm') as a template? Since such a filebrowser usually needs to be somewhat dynamic a static HTML file won't offer you all the files available on the server if there have been recent file uploads or deletions...

This might already pose some problems but I can't tell you anything substantial since you haven't given me any link to a test scenario or any portion of this HTML file's code!

Let's go on...

    var query = '?'+'{query}';  // possible parameters

What's '{query}' supposed to mean? If this is to be sent to the browser as is then it might provoke some funny results if any at all. The filebrowser call would request this URL: "http://yourdomain.com/pop_editor/browser.htm?{query}". If you intended "query" to be a variable in your script then this is the first time this variable has been used (or is it a global variable defined in some other part?) and as such is "undefined". But since you have put it in single quotes (doesn't matter in double quotes either) the variable name is treated as string data and will lead to the URL as I mentioned earlier.

    fileBrowserWindow["file"] = cmsURL + query + "&type=" + type; // PHP session ID is now included if there is one at all

Now this is downright senseless! You do use a variable named "query" here which isn't defined! If you wanted to change my original variable ("searchString") and use a different name for it then you still need to define it and give it a value! Compare the respective part of code in the Wiki article!

All this fuzz about meddling with the request URL is to keep a possible session variable in the URL because if a client doesn't accept cookies this information usually is transported via search string.

The rest of your code matches my example in the Wiki article.

I strongly recommend that you change your code to exactly my version and use a server-side script to answer the request of the custom filebrowser function! Let me give you an example to show you how server-side script and filebrowser script can interact. Remember that the location of this script will be the only "page" to be called since it will answer all requests accordingly be they a filebrowser window, a file upload or the editor itself.

[ script ]
1.) determine what to do (either from a value in the search string or from a POSTed value)
    // "filebrowser"? "editor"? "file upload"? Let's see...

2.) get the according template (HTML) file
    // "filebrowser"? OK. Get template and fill it with either images to select from
        or possible pages/images to link to. Find out the needed information by taking
        the value for "type" inside the search string
    // I use a variable "cms_action" in my search string to react to requested actions... e.g.
        "http://mydomain.com/mycms/script.php?cms_action=filebrowser&type=image&path=/images/products"

3.) modify the template file if necessary (like adding the HTML code of the page to be edited into the editor)
    // OK. filebrowser needs to contain images because "type" in the search string was
       set to "image". Get list of images to select from and insert it into the filebrowser
       template HTML code.

4.) send template to browser
[ /script ]

Since you only need one single URL to get your information, the filebrowser window needs to call the server-side script rather than a static HTML file (like "pop_editor/browser.htm"). To get the URL correct all you need to do is to get the editor's URL since it is the one you also need for your filebrowser! This is why I used window.location.pathname in my script.

Now to what you wrote in your mail:

267function insertAction() {
268 var inst = tinyMCE.getInstanceById(tinyMCE.getWindowArg('editor_id'));
269 var elm = inst.getFocusElement();
270 var formObj = document.forms[0];
271 var src = formObj.src.value;

Why don't you do it the way I described in the Wiki article? Don't meddle with "inst" and "editor_id" since you don't want to access the editor itself but a dialogue window's form elements! Please read my article more thoroughly, especially the part on how to return values to understand that your approach simply can't work!

Next time please provide more relevant information! My guess is that you use some kind of CMS which you want to modify...

Greetings from Germany and a Happy New Year!

Felix Riesterer.

Last edited by Felix Riesterer (2007-01-05 23:01:05)

Hi Dr Stephen Khoo!

khoosys wrote:

get rid of some of the confusion (and incidentally not make us look quite as dim as you imply!)

Sorry if I gave you this impression but lately I found many people here asking for help who had very little understanding of JavaScript. Your code had a few things in it which made me wonder why, and by not adding any explanatory comments I couldn't understand what these things were supposed to be or do or - and here comes the unintended implication - what made you put these things into your code in the first place. Again I apologize for my misunderstanding of your posted material and for my misjudgement.

khoosys wrote:

To make it really clear what the issue when I try this:

1) Open link browser - click import (nothing in the image field). The popup closes with no problems. OK the link is rubbish and sets to / or something, but that's ok

2) Open link browser - click on custom browser (a blank html screen), using init as per your example. Then close the custom browser using usual window close box. Then click "import" button and you get the error I am refering to.

I see, the "inst has no properties" error. OK. And it occurs where exactly? I think I know...

Hmm, you still haven't answered my question about the piece of code you sent me in your mail:

267function insertAction() {
268 var inst = tinyMCE.getInstanceById(tinyMCE.getWindowArg('editor_id'));
269 var elm = inst.getFocusElement();
270 var formObj = document.forms[0];
271 var src = formObj.src.value;

I really believe that the error must be here since everything else looks alright. Where exactly is this portion of code? Is it in your filebrowser popup or is it in a plugin of yours? To clarify things you might want to debug whether "editor_id" contains a valid ID _every_ time this function is executed.

Otherwise I'm out of ideas.

khoosys wrote:

BTW khoosys is only my screen name.

Yes, and since you signed your post with "Stephen" I should have called you by that instead of by your screen name. This time I won't make the same mistake again.

Greetings from Germany,

Felix Riesterer.

I'm trying to add this function but I have no JavaScript experience.

I've almost got the function working, but am getting the debug errors.  Although I have tried many different ways, I can't figure out how to customize the field_name, url, type and win fields that the function calls.

Any help will be appreciated!

Hi!

So the advimage plugin has a bug! Since I don't use it I couldn't reproduce the error. Thanks to neonox the bug has been found.

Greetings from Germany,

Felix Riesterer.

bodgekaloopie wrote:

but when I click on the browse icon, I don't get a list of files, I just get a copy of the current web page that I am on.

function myFileBrowser (field_name, url, type, win) { [code taken from wiki article - unaltered]

The code of the wiki article assumes that depending on some additional parameters the server-side script (which is your part to develop!) serves different HTML documents under the same URL. This is why this line
    var cmsURL = window.location.pathname;      // script URL
is written like this. It directly leads to the same URL the editor itself was loaded from.

I don't know how much you know about Javascript, HTML and server-side scripting languages so I can't give you any more elaborate hints.

You need to know how your server-side script works. If you haven't written it yourself then I strongly recommend that you contact the author(s)!

It is in the nature of a custom filebrowser that it needs server-side scripting in order to work dynamically. If you are happy with a static list of files that can be chosen from a drop down list then this setting might be of interest for you (which means that you can forget all about this custom filebrowser completely!): external link list

Greetings from Germany,

Felix Riesterer.