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# Creating Annotations #

We'll use two objects to create annotations: a page-mod to find page elements
that the user can annotate, and a panel for the user to enter the annotation
text itself.

## Selector page-mod ##

### Selector Content Scripts ###

The content script for the selector page-mod uses [jQuery](http://jquery.com/)
to examine and manipulate the DOM.

Its main job is to maintain a "matched element": this is the page element that
is the current candidate for an annotation. The matched element is highlighted
and has a click handler bound to it which sends a message to the main add-on
code.

The selector page mod can be switched on and off using a message from the
main add-on code. It is initially off:

    var matchedElement = null;
    var originalBgColor = null;
    var active = false;

    function resetMatchedElement() {
      if (matchedElement) {
        $(matchedElement).css('background-color', originalBgColor);
        $(matchedElement).unbind('click.annotator');
      }
    }

    self.on('message', function onMessage(activation) {
      active = activation;
      if (!active) {
        resetMatchedElement();
      }
    });

This selector listens for occurrences of the
[jQuery mouseenter](http://api.jquery.com/mouseenter/) event.

When a mouseenter event is triggered the selector checks whether the element
is eligible for annotation. An element is eligible if it, or one of its
ancestors in the DOM tree, has an attribute named `"id"`. The idea here is to
make it more likely that the annotator will be able to identify annotated
elements correctly later on.

If the page element is eligible for annotation, then the selector highlights
that element and binds a click handler to it. The click handler sends a message
called `show` back to the main add-on code. The `show` message contains: the URL
for the page, the ID attribute value, and the text content of the page element.

    $('*').mouseenter(function() {
      if (!active || $(this).hasClass('annotated')) {
        return;
      }
      resetMatchedElement();
      ancestor = $(this).closest("[id]");
      matchedElement = $(this).first();
      originalBgColor = $(matchedElement).css('background-color');
      $(matchedElement).css('background-color', 'yellow');
      $(matchedElement).bind('click.annotator', function(event) {
        event.stopPropagation();
        event.preventDefault();
        self.port.emit('show',
          [
            document.location.toString(),
            $(ancestor).attr("id"),
            $(matchedElement).text()
          ]
       );
      });
    });

Conversely, the add-on resets the matched element on
[mouseout](http://api.jquery.com/mouseout/):

    $('*').mouseout(function() {
      resetMatchedElement();
    });

Save this code in a new file called `selector.js` in your add-on's `data`
directory.

Because this code uses jQuery, you'll need to
[download](http://docs.jquery.com/Downloading_jQuery) that as well, and save it in
`data`.

### Updating main.js ###

Go back to `main.js` and add the code to create the selector into the `main`
function:

    var selector = pageMod.PageMod({
      include: ['*'],
      contentScriptWhen: 'ready',
      contentScriptFile: [data.url('jquery-1.4.2.min.js'),
                          data.url('selector.js')],
      onAttach: function(worker) {
        worker.postMessage(annotatorIsOn);
        selectors.push(worker);
        worker.port.on('show', function(data) {
          console.log(data);
        });
        worker.on('detach', function () {
          detachWorker(this, selectors);
        });
      }
    });

Make sure the name you use to load jQuery matches the name of the jQuery
version you downloaded.

The page-mod matches all pages, so each time the user loads a page the page-mod
emits the `attach` event, which will call the listener function we've assigned
to `onAttach`. The handler is passed a
[worker](packages/api-utils/docs/content/worker.html) object. Each worker
represents a channel of communication between the add-on code and any content
scripts running in that particular page context. For a more detailed discussion
of the way `page-mod` uses workers, see the
[page-mod documentation](packages/addon-kit/docs/page-mod.html).

In the attach handler we do three things:

* send the content script a message with the current activation status
* add the worker to an array called `selectors` so we can send it messages
later on
* assign a message handler for messages from this worker. If the message is
`show` we will just log the content for the time being. If the message is
`detach` we remove the worker from the `selectors` array.

At the top of the file import the `page-mod` module and declare an array for
the workers:

    var pageMod = require('page-mod');
    var selectors = [];

Add `detachWorker`:

    function detachWorker(worker, workerArray) {
      var index = workerArray.indexOf(worker);
      if(index != -1) {
        workerArray.splice(index, 1);
      }
    }

Edit `toggleActivation` to notify the workers of a change in activation state:

    function activateSelectors() {
      selectors.forEach(
        function (selector) {
          selector.postMessage(annotatorIsOn);
      });
    }

    function toggleActivation() {
      annotatorIsOn = !annotatorIsOn;
      activateSelectors();
      return annotatorIsOn;
    }

<span class="aside">We'll be using this URL in all our screenshots. Because
`cfx run` doesn't preserve browsing history, if you want to play along it's
worth taking a note of the URL.</span>
Save the file and execute `cfx run` again. Activate the annotator by clicking
the widget and load a page: the screenshot below uses
[http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/02/04/
overview-amo-review-process/](http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/02/04/overview-amo-review-process/).
You should see the highlight appearing when you move the mouse over certain elements:

<img class="image-center"
src="static-files/media/annotator/highlight.png" alt="Annotator Highlighting">

Click on the highlight and you should see something like this in the console
output:

<pre>
  info: show
  info: http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/02/04/overview-amo-review-process/,
  post-2249,When you submit a new add-on, you will have to choose between 2
  review tracks: Full Review and Preliminary Review.
</pre>

## Annotation Editor Panel ##

So far we have a page-mod that can highlight elements and send information
about them to the main add-on code. Next we will create the editor panel,
which enables the user to enter an annotation associated with the selected
element.

We will supply the panel's content as an HTML file, and will also supply a
content script to execute in the panel's context.

So create a subdirectory under `data` called `editor`. This will contain
two files: the HTML content, and the content script.

### Annotation Editor HTML ###

The HTML is very simple:

<script type="syntaxhighlighter" class="brush: html"><![CDATA[
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Annotation</title>
  <style type="text/css" media="all">
  body {
    font: 100% arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
    background-color: #F5F5F5;
  }
  textarea {
    width: 180px;
    height: 180px;
    margin: 10px;
    padding: 0px;
  }
  </style>

</head>

<body>

<textarea rows='10' cols='20' id='annotation-box'>
</textarea>

</body>

</html>

]]>
</script>

Save this inside `data/editor` as `annotation-editor.html`.

### Annotation Editor Content Script ###

In the corresponding content script we do two things:

* handle a message from the add-on code by giving the text area focus
* listen for the return key and when it is pressed, send the contents of the
text area to the add-on.

Here's the code:

    var textArea = document.getElementById('annotation-box');

    textArea.onkeyup = function(event) {
      if (event.keyCode == 13) {
        self.postMessage(textArea.value);
        textArea.value = '';
      }
    };

    self.on('message', function() {
      var textArea = document.getElementById('annotation-box');
      textArea.value = '';
      textArea.focus();
    });


Save this inside `data/editor` as `annotation-editor.js`.

### Updating main.js Again ###

Now we'll update `main.js` again to create the editor and use it.

First, import the `panel` module:

    var panels = require('panel');

Then add the following code to the `main` function:

    var annotationEditor = panels.Panel({
      width: 220,
      height: 220,
      contentURL: data.url('editor/annotation-editor.html'),
      contentScriptFile: data.url('editor/annotation-editor.js'),
      onMessage: function(annotationText) {
        if (annotationText) {
          console.log(this.annotationAnchor);
          console.log(annotationText);
        }
        annotationEditor.hide();
      },
      onShow: function() {
        this.postMessage('focus');
      }
    });

We create the editor panel but don't show it.
We will send the editor panel the `focus` message when it is shown, so it will
give the text area focus. When the editor panel sends us its message we log the
message and hide the panel.

The only thing left is to link the editor to the selector. So edit the message
handler assigned to the selector so that on receiving the `show` message we
assign the content of the message to the panel using a new property
"annotationAnchor", and show the panel:

    var selector = pageMod.PageMod({
      include: ['*'],
      contentScriptWhen: 'ready',
      contentScriptFile: [data.url('jquery-1.4.2.min.js'),
                          data.url('selector.js')],
      onAttach: function(worker) {
        worker.postMessage(annotatorIsOn);
        selectors.push(worker);
        worker.port.on('show', function(data) {
          annotationEditor.annotationAnchor = data;
          annotationEditor.show();
        });
        worker.on('detach', function () {
          detachWorker(this, selectors);
        });
      }
    });

Execute `cfx run` again, activate the annotator, move your mouse over an
element and click the element when it is highlighted. You should see a panel
with a text area for a note:

<img class="image-center"
src="static-files/media/annotator/editor-panel.png" alt="Annotator Editor Panel">
<br>

Enter the note and press the return key: you should see console output like
this:

<pre>
  info: http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/02/04/overview-amo-review-process/,
  post-2249,When you submit a new add-on, you will have to choose between 2
  review tracks: Full Review and Preliminary Review.
  info: We should ask for Full Review if possible.
</pre>

That's a complete annotation, and in the next section we'll deal with
[storing it](dev-guide/addon-development/annotator/storing.html).
