Getting Started with MooTools
1. The “Mootorial”
The Mootorial at //clientside is a comprehensive, practical tutorial
on the MooTools framework. The tutorial allows you to execute the
sample code either by Firebug or the website’s built-in console.
2. MooTools Overview Video Tutorial
Here’s an excellent screencast that introduces the MooTools
framework. It covers the basics such as the concept of chaining,
customizing MooTools to your needs, and where to find documentation for
MooTools code.
3. Increasing User Experience With Javascript
Beauty By Design provides a nine-part video series on improving user
interaction using JavaScript (primarily MooTools). A couple of topics
covered in the lessons include: using mooTabs, creating sliding sub
menus, and using Fx.styles to control font size.
4. Understanding Mootools Selectors
One of the most powerful features of MooTools (as well as other
frameworks/libraries like jQuery and Prototype) is the ability to
easily select page objects for you to work on. This tutorial covers the
basics of selectors in MooTools: $(), $$(), $E(), and $ES() functions.
5. MooTools MooTools Classes: How to use them
This tutorial is an entry-level introduction on working with classes
in MooTools. The tutorial works with a hypothetical scenario (buying a
car from a car store) to illustrate the concept of classes. The last
section of the article discusses the differences of MooTools and
script.aculo.us classes.
Intermediate/Advanced Topics
6. Mootools: Ajax and XHR classes
MooTools’ Ajax/XHR classes provides developers a much simpler
way of working with XMLHTTPRequests by reducing the amount of code you
have to write and by handling browser differences for you. This
tutorial talks about the Ajax and XHR classes in brief.
7. Ajax Responder in MooTools
This article delves into the use, extension, and capabilities of the
Ajax class in MooTools. It discusses chaining Ajax requests and events,
and how you can extend the Ajax class for your needs (also applicable
to other MooTools classes).
8. How well do you know Mootools?
Getting started with MooTools is easy, and it won’t be long
until you can create wonderful effects and increase user interactivity
in your web pages. To help you become a MooTools master, here’s a
checklist of common coding mistakes and its corresponding correct usage.
9. Mootools Short-cuts
This is a follow-up article from the one above, focusing more on
MooTools syntax usage. Examples involve using shorter code for
selection of objects, shorthand for the Ajax class, and creating new
elements.
10. Mootools: JSON explained
Here’s an excellent introduction to using JSON with MooTools
to provide server-side interaction to your web applications. Topics
covered include converting a JSON string into a JavaScript object and
vice versa.
11. Using MooTools’ Hash.Cookie API
This article explains how to take advantage of MooTools’
powerful Hash.Cookie API to make working with complex cookie
utilization a cinch. The example showcases a working example of how you
can store the number of times a user visits a page.
12. Chaining with MooTools 1.2
Chaining is beneficial for several reasons including the ability to
sequentially execute events (“in a chain”) as well as reduce the number
of lines of code you have to write. If you’re wondering about the
“who, what, where” of chaining in MooTools, check out this brief but
informative tutorial.
Practical/Working Tutorials and Examples
13. AJAX mootools secure contact form
Learn how to protect your public web forms from spam and SQL
injections with this tutorial on how MooTools can be used to make safer
public web forms.
14. Using CSS and Mootools to simulate Flash horizontal navigation effect
Create a navigation area that smoothly scrolls left or right depending on where you hover your mouse.
15. Facebook Sliders With Mootools and CSS
Check out this nifty tutorial on how to build a Facebook-inspired
set of slider controls that manipulate the opacity, width, and height
of an image.
16. MooTools Gone Wild: Element Flashing
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to make page elements
flash. It’s an effective way of drawing attention to a particular
section of a web page or alerting users of status changes.
17. Nice Ajax effect for message box using Mootools
Here’s a tutorial on how to display messages that fades in
after the user clicks on the submit button. It’s designed for use
with web forms, but it can be modified into similar applications.
18. Two CSS vertical menu with show/hide effects
This tutorial shows you how to build a navigation menu that slides
up and down smoothly using MooTools. The article also covers how to
make a similar effect using plain JavaScript.
19. Mootools Content Slider With Intervals
Here’s an excellent step-by-step tutorial on how to make a
content area that slides left-to-right at set intervals – great
for slideshows.
20. Jazz Up Your Forms With MooTools
This is a two-part series that goes over how to make your web forms
fancier. The first part shows you how to add animated field
highlighting and how to display instructions to users. In the second part, you’ll step it up a notch by adding live comment previewing and auto-resizing of text areas.
Have you got your own personal MooTools resources to share? Got an interesting MooTools application you want to show us? Talk about it in the comments!
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