Articles :: JavaScript :: Mootools Primer/Tutorial

written by Toby Miller on December 26, 2006

December 26, 2006

If you're tired of writing browser detection, animation timers, document.documentElement and a slew of other annoying repetitive pieces of JavaScript code then you'll thank yourself for checking out the mootools framework. Even if you've just give up entirely and gone completely Flash, if you did so for the previously mentioned reasons then you still might want to check this out. It's a really nice compact javascript framework that brings back things like structured OOP programming with inheriting, extending and implementing functionality as well as a slew of pre-built widget sets and extended DHTML libraries. It's also the most compact javascript framework I've ever seen.

Primer/Tutorial - Table of Contents:

Moo.js
    - Class Creation
    - Adding a Function to a Class
    - Extending Classes
    - Implementing Classes
    - Extending Objects
    - Object.Native
Native
    - String.js
    - Array.js
    - Function.js
    - Element.js
Addons
    - Ajax.js
    - Dom.js (functions, element extensions, document extensions)
    - Drag.js
    - Fx.js
Plugins: Basic Functions
    - Cookie.js
    - Json.js
    - Window.js
Plugins: Widgets
    - Accordian.js
    - Fxpack.js
    - Fxtransitions.js
    - Fxutils.js
    - Sortables.js
    - Tips.js

So go check it out:

http://clientside.cnet.com/examples/mootools-primer/

And when you're ready to try your own hand at it go to the mootools website and download the libraries yourself:

http://mootools.net/

The coolest two things that I took away from this library, aside from it's obvious usefulness and well thought out execution, is that:

It's licensed under MIT so you can pretty much do whatever you want with it
The entire mootools library (compressed) becomes a 26k js file. So while you tech heads are saying "wow!" you modem humpers should be saying "thank you!".

Anyhow, don't take my word for it, go download it and play away!

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