Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action

Description

“Shows how Prototype and Scriptaculous let you concentrate on whats important: implementing your ideas.”
 —Thomas Fuchs, Creator of Scriptaculous, from the Foreword

“Of all the books on my shelf, this is the one I go to the most.”
 —Philip Hallstrom, CardPlayer.com

“Simplifies Ajax development—a great reference.”
 —Mark Eagle, MATRIX Resources, Inc.

“Cant wait to implement ideas from this book!”
 —Jeff Cunningham, The Weather Channel Interactive

Common Ajax tasks should be easy, and with Prototype and Scriptaculous they are. Prototype and Scriptaculous are libraries of reusable JavaScript code that simplify Ajax development. Prototype provides helpful methods and objects that extend JavaScript in a safe, consistent way. Its clever Ajax request model simplifies cross-browser development. Scriptaculous, which is based on Prototype, offers handy pre-fabricated widgets for rich UI development.

Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action is a comprehensive, practical guide that walks you feature-by-feature through the two libraries. First, youll use Scriptaculous to make easy but powerful UI improvements. Then youll dig into Prototypes elegant and sparse syntax. See how a few characters of Prototype code can save a dozen lines of JavaScript. By applying these techniques, you can concentrate on the function and flow of your application instead of the coding details. This book is written for web developers with a working knowledge of JavaScript.

 

Table of Contents

foreword
preface
acknowledgments
about this book
about the title
about the cover illustration

Part 1 Getting Started

1 Introducing Prototype and Scriptaculous

1.1 A brief history of Ajax

1.2 What is Prototype?

1.3 What is Scriptaculous?

1.4 Applying Prototype and Scriptaculous

1.5 Summary

2 Introducing QuickGallery

2.1 Design and implementation

2.2 Evaluating the classic web app model

2.3 Summary

3 Simplifying Ajax with Prototype

3.1 Redesigning for Ajax

3.2 Using XML and Ajax

3.3 Using JSON and Ajax

3.4 Summary

4 Using Prototypes Advanced Ajax Features

4.1 Prototypes advanced Ajax classes

4.2 Using HTML and Ajax

4.3 Comparing data- and content-centric Ajax

4.4 Summary

Part 2 Scriptaculous Quickly

5 Scriptaculous Effects

5.1 Quick win: adding an effect with only one line

5.2 Setting up Scriptaculous and the examples

5.3Types of Scriptaculous effects

5.4 Understanding the effects

5.5 Easy toggling of Show and Hide effects

5.6 Working with transitions

5.7 Gaining control during effects

5.8 Canceling effects

5.9 Controlling multiple effects

5.10 Summary

6 Scriptaculous Controls

6.1 Using the sample programs for this chapter

6.2 The in-place text editor

6.3 The InPlaceCollectionEditor

6.4 The Ajax autocompleter control

6.5 The Scriptaculous local autocompleter control

6.6 The slider control

6.7 Summary

7 Scriptaculous Drag and Drop

7.1 The sample code for this chapter

7.2 The sample code for this chapter

7.3 Dragging things around

7.4 Dropping dragged things

7.5 Sorting by drag and drop

7.6 Summary

Part 3 Prototype in Depth

8 All About Objects

8.1 Introducing the Scratchpad application

8.2 The Object type

8.3 Objects and Prototype

8.4 Summary

9 Fun with Functions

9.1 JavaScript functions

9.2 Extending functions with Prototype.js

9.3 Summary

10 Arrays Made Easy

10.1 Introducing Arrays

10.2 The native JavaScript Array

10.3 Prototype.js and Arrays

10.4 Methods of the Enumerable object

10.5 Working with Hashes and ObjectRanges

10.6 Summary

11 Back to the Browser

11.1 A crash course in DOM methods

11.2 Prototype and the DOM

11.3 Extending the Event object

11.4 Working with HTML forms

11.5 Summary

Part 4 Advanced Topics

12 Prototype and Scriptaculous in Practice

12.1 QuickGallery application requirements

12.2 Building the slideshow editor

12.3 Adding Ajax-based persistence

12.4 Creating the toolbar

Building the slideshow player 384

12.5 Putting it all together

12.6 Summary

13 Prototype, Scriptaculous, and Rails

13.1 Generating JavaScript

13.2 Ajax helpers

13.3 Scriptaculous helpers

13.4 To JavaScript or not to JavaScript

13.5 The next level: RJS

13.6 Summary
 
HTTP Primer
Measuring HTTP Traffic
Installing and Running Tomcat 5.5
Installing and Running PHP
Porting Server-Side Techniques
index