MooTools 1.2 Beginner's Guide: Learn how to create dynamic, interactive, and responsive cross-browser web applications using this popular JavaScript framework

Table of Contents

MooTools 1.2 Beginner's Guide

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewer

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. MooTools and Me

What is MooTools?

Why use MooTools?

The advantages of using MooTools

Writing terse and elegant code

Extending native JavaScript

Cross-browser compatibility

Working with the Document Object Model

The advantage of using open-source projects

Downloading and installing MooTools

Time for action—downloading and installing the MooTools Core

What just happened?

Different MooTools downloads

The domready event listener

Rolling your own MooTools

MooTools Core

Time for action—exploring the MooTools Core Builder

What just happened?

Have a go hero — — explore the MooTools Core Builder output

MooTools More

Time for action—exploring the MooTools More Builder

What just happened?

The API concept

MooTools resources

MooTools Docs

MooTools Users Google groups

mooforum

The MooTorial

Summary

2. Writing JavaScript with MooTools

Writing unobtrusive JavaScript with MooTools

An obtrusive JavaScript example

What's so bad about it?

Don't repeat it if you don't have to

It'll be hard to maintain

It's a bad practice to have functionality in your content structure

Time for action—rewriting our script unobtrusively

What just happened?

Removing our inline event handlers

Using the DOM to handle events

Pop quiz — — rewriting our script unobstrusively

Creating MooTools classes

What the heck is a class?

Real-world analogy

Creating a MooTools class

The Implements property

The options property

The initialize method

Our own Dog class methods: .bark() and .sit()

Time for action—creating an instance of Dog

What just happened?

Have a go hero — — use the .sit() class method

Time for action—giving our class instance some custom options

Time for action—determining the value of our options

Extending classes

Time for action—extending the ShowDog class with the Dog class

What just happened?

Class inheritance

Have a go hero — doing more with the thing

Using MooTools classes

The concept of chainability

The Chain class

A Chain example

A look ahead: Chaining Fx .Tween

Time for action—create a chain of Fx.Tween methods

What just happened?

Isn't MooTools classy?

Chainability

Have a go hero — doing more with chaining Fx.Tween methods

Summary

3. Selecting DOM Elements

MooTools and CSS selectors

Working with the $() and $$() functions

The $() dollar function

The $$() dollars function

When to use which

Time for action—selecting an element with the dollar function

Time for action—selecting elements with the dollars function

Time for action—selecting multiple sets of elements with the dollars function

What just happened?

$() versus document.getElementById()

Selecting multiple sets of elements

Have a go hero — tween the list item element

Common errors with the dollar and dollars functions

The dollar function doesn't work with CSS selectors!

Drop the pound # sign when using the $() function

Pop quiz — find the bad apple in the bunch

Selection using pseudo-classes

Pseudo-class example: Zebra striping a table

Time for action—using pseudo-classes to zebra stripe a table

What just happened?

Other pseudo-class selectors

Working with attribute selectors

Attribute selector operators

Attribute selector example: Styling different types of links

Time for action—using = attribute selector

Time for action—using != attribute selector

Time for action—using ^= attribute selector

Time for action—using $= attribute selector

What just happened?

Attribute selector case sensitivity

DOM selection makes unobtrusive JavaScript do-able

Summary

4. The Core's Useful Utility Functions

What is the Core?

Browser: Getting information about the client

Determining if the client has a specific feature

Browser.Features.xpath

Browser.Features.xhr

Getting information about the client's rendering engine

Determining the client's rendering engine and version

Time for action—determining the client's rendering engine and version

Checking if the client is using a particular web browser

Have a go hero — checking to see if your browser uses Gecko

Determining if the client has Adobe Flash installed

Finding out information about the client's operating system

Potential uses of this property

Example scenario: Offering the correct download based on the client's platform

SuperSoftware HTML

SuperSoftware CSS

Time for action—using Browser.Platform to customize SuperSoftware's download page

What just happened?

Pop quiz — finding out information about the client's operating system

Exploring the Core utility functions

Checking to see if objects are defined

Seeing if an object has a value with $chk

Checking if an object is defined with $defined

Selecting the first defined object using $pick

Getting the return of first working function with $try

Dealing with time and intervals

The $time() function

Time for action—the $time() function

What just happened?

The $clear() function

Time for action—exploring the $clear() function with periodical()

What just happened?

Utility functions for working with objects

Extending objects with $extend()

Merging objects with $merge()

Iterating through objects using $each

Time for action—exploring the $each function

What just happened?

Other utility functions in the Core

Generating a random number with $random

Converting objects to arrays with $splat

Determining the data type using $type

Limited use functions

Creating a function placeholder with $empty

Returning arguments using $lambda

Creating a function that returns the specified value using $arguments

Summary

5. Working with Events

What are events exactly?

Window events

Form events

Keyboard events

Mouse events

MooTools custom mouse events

Adding event listeners

Adding a single event listener

Time for action—highlighting focused fields of web forms

What just happened?

Adding multiple event listeners

Time for action—adding tooltips to the web form

What just happened?

Creating custom events

Time for action—creating a custom event for showing help tips

What just happened?

Have a go hero — create your own custom event

Removing, cloning, and firing off events

Removing events from elements

Removing a single event from elements

Time for action—removing an event

Removing a type of event, or all events, from elements

Cloning events from another element

Firing off events

Time for action—firing off a click event

The MooTools event object

Using event object methods

Preventing the default behavior

Time for action—preventing the default behavior of a hyperlink

Preventing event bubbling

Time for action—preventing event bubbling

What just happened?

Stopping default behavior and event propagation

Using event properties

Summary

6. Bringing Web Pages to Life with Animation

MooTools' Fx class

Basic syntax

Fx options

Animating a CSS property with Fx.Tween

Time for action — creating a hide/show FAQ page

What just happened?

Have a go hero — modifying the hide/show transition effect

Tweening a single CSS property using the tween() method

Time for action—toggling the visibility of a div

What just happened?

Fading elements

Time for action - fading an image in and out

What just happened?

Highlighting elements

Time for action - indicating blank form fields that are required

What just happened?

Animating multiple CSS properties with Fx.Morph

Time for action - enlarging an image

What just happened?

Have a go hero — modify the transition type

Using the morph() shortcut method

Time for action - experimenting with morph

What just happened?

Other Fx methods

Starting an effect

Setting properties immediately

Cancelling a transition

Pausing effect

Resuming a paused effect

Summary

7. Going 2.0 with Ajax

What you'll need

Creating a Request object

Request object options

Request events options

Running a function immediately when a request is made

Running a function when the request is completed

Running a function when the request is cancelled

Other Request events

Requesting data

Time for action—requesting remote data

What just happened?

Requesting HTML and JSON data

Working with HTML data

Time for action—updating a web page with HTML

What just happened?

Loading HTML documents remotely

Time for action—loading HTML data

Working with JSON data

Time for action—working with Ajax and JSON

What just happened?

Cancelling a Request

Sending data

Time for action—sending data to PHP

What just happened?

Setting and getting HTTP headers

Setting an HTTP header for an Ajax Request object

Getting an HTTP header

Time for action—getting the Last-Modified HTTP header

What just happened?

Have a go hero — get the content length of the requested page

Summary

8. Beefing Up MooTools: Using the MooTools More Plugins

Downloading MooTools More plugins

Time for action—downloading the Fx.Accordion plugin

What just happened?

Installing MooTools plugins

Time for action—installing Fx.Accordion

What just happened?

Discovering a handful of MooTools More plugins

Creating engaging content using Fx.Accordion

Time for action—creating an accordion

What just happened?

Fx.Accordion options

Downloading all the MooTools More plugins we need

Time for action—downloading more Mootools More plugins

Extending JavaScript's native Date object

Time for action—building a Date calculator tool

What just happened?

Making web forms more user-friendly with the OverText plugin

Time for action—creating a web form that uses OverText

What just happened?

Drag-and-drop with Drag and Drag.Move

Time for action—creating a simple drag-and-drop game

What just happened?

Summary

9. Creating Your Own Plugin

Why create a plugin?

Designing the plugin

Time for action—creating a design sheet for our plugin

What just happened?

Creating the ImageCaption script

Time for action—writing the ImageCaption script

What just happened?

Noting down pitfalls and places of improvement to the script

Converting the script to a flexible plugin

Time for action—creating the ImageCaption plugin

What just happened?

Instantiating the plugin

Time for action—basic instantiation of the ImageCaption plugin

What just happened?

Creating a more complex instance of the plugin

Time for action—creating new instances of the plugin

Creating multiple instances of the plugin

Time for action—multiple instances of the ImageCaption plugin

What just happened?

Preparing your plugin for the public

Documenting your plugin with comments

Time for action—documenting the ImageCaption plugin

What just happened?

External documentation

Time for action—creating a basic download page for the ImageCaption plugin

What just happened?

Summary

Index

MooTools 1.2 Beginner's Guide

Jacob Gube

Garrick Cheung

MooTools 1.2 Beginner's Guide

Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2009

Production Reference: 1111209

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847194-58-9

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Authors

Jacob Gube

Garrick Cheung

Reviewer

Chirstoph Pojer

Acquisition Editor

Douglas Paterson

Development Editor

Steven Wilding

Technical Editor

Bhupali Khule

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Editorial Team Leader

Akshara Aware

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinators

Rajashree Hamine

Srimoyee Ghoshal

Proofreaders

Cathy Cumberlidge

Andy Scothern

Production Coordinator

Adline Swetha Jesuthas

Cover Work

Adline Swetha Jesuthas

About the Authors

Jacob Gube is a massive MooTools developer. He is the founder and Chief Editor of Six Revisions, a website dedicated to web developers and web designers. He's also written for other popular web publications such as Read Write Web and Smashing Magazine, discussing web technologies and development. A web professional for 8 years, Jacob is an in-house web developer specializing in distance-learning education and web accessibility, using PHP, MooTools, and jQuery (alongside other web technology acronyms like VB.NET and AS3/Flash) to get the job done.

Garrick Cheung is a designer-developer and a member of the official Mootools Community team. He's currently a Senior Technical Producer for CBS Interactive developing for sites such as GameSpot.com, TV.com and MP3.com. He's passionate about code optimization and loves to teach and develop in MooTools. Garrick also writes about code and development at his site, http://www.garrickcheung.com.

About the Reviewer

Christoph currently studies Software Engineering and Business Management at the Graz University of Technology. He is an experienced web developer and has worked on numerous web applications for the past 7 years. He focuses on JavaScript and is a core developer of the MooTools JavaScript framework, as he enjoys pushing the limits of the Web. You can find a lot of his open source work on cpojer.net. In his free time he enjoys watching TV series and hanging out with friends.

Preface

This book is geared towards web developers who have a basic understanding of JavaScript and the related technologies that are involved with it, namely HTML and CSS. If you're familiar with a programming or server-side scripting language, code authoring in MooTools will be very familiar.

The goal of this book is to give you a functional and pragmatic understanding of MooTools and is not intended for learning JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and concepts such as the DOM and unobtrusive JavaScript.

This is the first book specifically designed for absolute newcomers to MooTools. It is a Packt Beginner's Guide, which means it is packed with clear step-by-step instructions for performing the most useful tasks.

MooTools is an open source, lightweight, modular object-oriented programming JavaScript web application framework. The goal of the software is to provide a means for intermediate to advanced web developers to write cross-browser JavaScript in an elegant, flexible, and efficient fashion. The MooTools JavaScript framework includes built-in functions for manipulation of CSS, DOM elements, native JavaScript objects, AJAX requests, and more.

You will start learning by 'doing' immediately. As each chapter in the book progresses, the topics get more complex. First you get to grips with the fundamentals of MooTools including downloading, installation, and basic syntax. Once you've grasped the basics you learn to make the most of MooTools' powerful framework. You will learn to bring web pages to life with animation and create exciting web pages with AJAX. You will also learn to customize MooTools to suit your own needs by creating your own plug-ins. You will soon be well on the way to creating web applications and web pages worthy of the Web 2.0 world

What this book covers

Chapter 1, MooTools and Me shows how to download and install Mootools. It demonstrates how to troubleshoot the most common installation problems. Writing a simple MooTools code block to test that the installation has worked is also explained.

Chapter 2, Writing JavaScript with MooTools demonstrates the difference between normal JavaScript against MooTools code. It explains how MooTools code can be far simpler and more efficient than ordinary JavaScript to achieve the same task.

Chapter 3, Selecting DOM Elements gives an overview of the Document Object Model tree and an in-depth discussion of the $() function in the Element class. It showcases basic DOM relationships such as parents, children, and siblings. It also demonstrates how to select page links and then give them a certain color or style

Chapter 4, The Core's Useful Utility Functions introduces native JavaScript variable definitions. It goes through each function and demonstrates how it works.

Chapter 5, Working with Events explains different browser events such as mouse click, mouse hover, mouse moving and key press. It demonstrates how to build a super-charged web form in MooTools. Events are covered showing how to add event listeners to web page elements.

Chapter 6, Bringing Web Pages to Life Using Animation introduces the different animation options available in MooTools. It demonstrates how to create a featured area slider. It demonstrates the MooTools Fx class and its useful methods for working with MooTools effects.

Chapter 7, Going 2.0 with Ajax shows the basics of Ajax. It demonstrates how MooTools makes working with Ajax easy. It will explain how XML files can be used to simulate a relational database.

Chapter 8, Beefing up MooTools Using the MooTools More Plugins demonstrates how to install and use the plug in system. It will explain how the Accordion area can be used to display content in