I have recently decided I need to get a little more Web 2.0 ish. That means more Ajax in what I do. More usability. More everything. It’s always good to stay fresh.
Most recently, Alex Micek has introduced me to the fine javascript library known as mootools (http://www.mootools.net/) . This has lead me to try to produce a few applications using the tool, that I thought I would share with you. It will be awhile before anything really useful is put together, but it’s fun to build stuff non the less.
Here’s what I’ve managed to put together so far, using both AJAX to save the data, and sortable to keep it sorted in some way… Hope someone enjoys its… Realize, however you leave the letters, it will appear that way for the next person to see it:
Code is here (for now): http://pms.jrcorps.net/
I will be working on it on and off over the next few days, so feel free to keep checking back to see how it changes.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Have you looked at jQuery? It's very small and easy to use. I haven't used it extensively, but my instinct is to like it. If I wanted to do a lot with Javascript, I'd look at YUI. I've used Dojo and I don't like it. Ruby on Rails comes with Prototype and Script.aculou.us which make them pretty popular. I don't have any experience building anything with them, but I've seen them do some neat stuff.
It's on my todo list to look at all of the libraries out there and come up with a more objective evaluation, so what I've just said is pretty much just gut feel.
So glad to hear you gave it a try, Justin! I used YUI for tumbledry for months, but the download per page load (even when the JS was downloaded from Yahoo!'s servers, which is a free part of YUI) was just too much. Prototype and Scriptaculous are a good combo, but again, there was just too much (unused) code that the end user had to download.
JS libraries really are getting to be a dime a dozen, but MooTools has two _killer_ features. One is the modularized download, allowing you to download only the parts of MooTools you will use. This can cut down on code tremendously, and allow you to build lean JS implementations for your clients. Plus, there are different compression options built in to the download. Nice! Secondly, when I rewrote all my JS earlier this year, I used the MooTools documentation non-stop for about 3 weeks… it's some of the best documentation I've ever used, if not THE best. Just my 2 cents 🙂
I've tried a few others, in fact I use the Yahoo library for their calendar drop down. I've found mootools to be the most lightweight version of all the ones I've tried, but to each it's own.
Time to see if I can add more to this little demo of mine.