Removing @region does not remove JS dependencies

[bulatyaminov]

I want to customize document library page by removing some components, for example tags selector on the sidebar. However if I try to do that via Share extension and a

<@region target="tags" action="remove"/>‍

, I get a JavaScript error in browser, coming from tag-filter.js:
<blockquote>Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'innerHTML' of null tag-filter_cfe8eb842c90afad615db8da193e9ce1.js:213</blockquote>

So the JavaScript of tag-filter is still there on the page, while the HTML is removed.

Seems like when it comes to executing custom freemarker overrides, a tag-filter WebScript is already evaluated, and its JavaScript (and probably CSS) dependencies are already in the model. And @region removal does not exclude them.

Does anybody know of a way to get rid of such dependencies, either via .ftl or .js overrides?

(Steps to reproduce on Alfresco 4.2:
1. Create a Share extension
2. Create a file overriding templates/org/alfresco/documentlibrary.ftl:
<@region target="tags" action="remove"/>
3. Load the document library page. The tag filter is not there, but there is an error in browser console.)

[afaust]

Hello,

I had a different issue with markups a few months back and the behavior you describe sounds like a potential consequence of the same core behaviour that tripped me up. This is <a href="https://issues.alfresco.com/jira/browse/ALF-19976">the JIRA ticket</a> I opened in September. If you read through the comments you should come to understand that any output generated by <@script> or <@link> is independant of the <@markup> (and by extension <@region>) it is contained in.
By removing the <@markup> or <@region> you remove the model of rendered elements associated with that element, but since the deferred models of <@script> and <@link> are <b>not</b> associated with their original <@markup> / <@region>, they will not be removed along with it and are still present in the output.

Now my interpretation may be flawed as there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I have not fully retraced on a code level yet. This is something that Dave Draper or Kevin Roast may be best suited to answer.

Since you can reproduce this issue please create a JIRA or - if you are an Enterprise customer or working for one - create a support ticket for this.

The only way I can think of working around this would be by using sub-component configuration instead of customization to remove the component instead of "just" the <@region>. That way, the tag-filter web script will not even be evaluated and nothing needs to be removed after it has generated some output.

Regards
Axel

[byaminov]

Hi Axel,

Thank you for your reply!

What I did as a quick workaround is just override the whole body region of documentlibrary and hide the tag-filter via CSS. This is of course not the best solution as the JS and HTML is still there on the page.

I will try with sub-component configuration as well. And raise the support ticket.

Regards,
Bulat

[bulatyaminov]

Hi,

In the end Alfresco recommends to use sub-components indeed, as Axel also mentioned. A proper way to hide tag-filter on sidebar of document library is to create a Share module extension with following code:

<blockcode>
<module>
  <id>Remove Tag filter</id>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <components>
    <component>
      <region-id>tags</region-id>
      <source-id>documentlibrary</source-id>
      <scope>template</scope>
      <sub-components>
        <sub-component id="default">
          <evaluations>
            <evaluation id="guaranteedToHide">
              <render>false</render>
            </evaluation>
          </evaluations>
        </sub-component>
      </sub-components>
    </component>
  </components>
</module>
</blockcode>