Rails - Dec 2006 - borrowing periodically_call_remote (and update_page!!) for an in-page timer

Railoids:

The following is either a FAQ, a clever code snippet, a plea for help, or a 
candidate for simplification, depending on the reaction it generates.

Guess what this does:

  <span id=''abuse_me'' style=''background-color:
orange;''>
    whip me beat me       <br/>
    make me install oracle
  </span>

  <%= periodically_call_remote(
        :frequency => 5,
              :with => ''new
Effect.Shake("abuse_me")''
        )
  %>

It bypasses Ajax, doesn''t call remote, it simply creates a timer that
shakes
our SPAN (not DIV!) every five minutes. (Those of us who don''t want our
websites to look like the cheapest of untargeted web ads may think of an 
action better than shaking!)

Question: Is this actually more portable, robust, whatever, than calling a 
lowly setTimeout()? At least I don''t need to reset it. Are there any
other
benefits?

(Technical question: Is a better method than :with available to call the 
timed method?)

Now try this:

  <%= periodically_call_remote(
        :frequency => 5,
             :with => ''shakes()''
        )
  %>

<script>
  function shakes() {
  <%    update_page do |page|
      page.visual_effect :shake, ''abuse_me''
    end
  %>
  }
</script>

Oookay. Now I reach out to RJS for the JavaScript. If the contents of 
shakes() were, again, more useful, then I might need them to be more 
browser-neutral. I am tired of writing raw JavaScript from scratch and then 
letting my various browsers vote on it. Thats what Script.aculo.us did for 
us! (Right?)

(And how much of the <script> tags and function shakes() {} lines could I 
have pushed inside that render :update?

Is this technique an awesome discovery of mine? Or have I gone astray and 
need simplifying??

-- 
  Phlip
  http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!! 


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