MooTools Essentials: The Official MooTools Reference for JavaScript and Ajax Development (FirstPress) [Paperback]

Aaron Newton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2008 | ISBN-10: 1430209836 | ISBN-13: 978-1430209836 | Edition: 1

Mootools is a light, modular JavaScript framework that makes adding Ajax, animations, and interactive elements to your site a breeze. But it’s more than fancy effects and shortcuts; Mootools enhances the JavaScript language and makes writing clean, object–oriented code almost pleasant. Unlocking the power of Mootools, and therefore JavaScript, isn’t that hard, but knowing where to start can be. Mootools Essentials aims to help you accomplish that task with the following:

• Illustrations of nearly every class and function in the library
• Real–world examples of how to use them
• Written by Mootools user/contributor and Mootorial author, Aaron Newton.

See how Mootools makes JavaScript more powerful!

What you’ll learn

• Access the complete reference to the Mootools library.
• See how to use the library and understand how JavaScript/Mootools is different from other programming languages.
• Get step–by–step code authoring examples.
• Explore real–world examples of how to accomplish common fundamental tasks.

Who this book is for

This firstPress book is for web developers who want to learn an easier and productive way to develop/use JavaScript and Ajax.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with MooTools
2. Reviewing MooTools
3. Shortcuts and Helpful Functions
4. Native Objects
5. Elements
6. Utilities
7. Classes and Inheritance
8. Getting Started with Classes
9. Fx
10. Request
11. Plug-Ins
12. Third-Party Plug-Ins
13. Real-World Examples
14. Writing a Tab Class
15. Writing Flexible Classes
16. Where to Learn More

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Aaron Newton is a product manager, developer, interface designer, and writer. He is a contributor to the Mootools JavaScript framework where he writes code, the documentation, free online tutorials and the first Mootools book published by Apress. His experience includes founding music startup, Epitonic.com, launching CNET's Download.com Music, and several years product managing application development for various projects at CNET Networks. His startup, Iminta.com, is based in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (August 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430209836
• ISBN-13: 978-1430209836
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,194,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry but... November 26, 2008

By D. Crowell

Format:Paperback

I have never written a book review before. I have read hundreds of technical computer books. I have a huge library that is used frequently. Maybe it's because I am more familiar with jquery but.... This is possibly the worst technical book I have ever purchased. Would it have been too much to include an index? I'm old so I appreciate the large print, but I suspect that they increased the font size to fill out the length to the sparse 276 pages. Chapter 13. Real World examples has a GIANT 3 examples on 5 pages. In fact the real problem with this book is the overall dearth of examples. With all the online resources available I still buy books because I like their portability and ease of use. Unfortunately with this book the only portability I am interested in is it's trip across the room onto the nearest wall. I feel bad about writing a bad review and I apologize to the author, as I am sure it was a lot of work. I'm afraid that it is probably the result of the editor and publisher that they released a product that was not yet polished. It may have been rushed out the door. Of course this is just my opinion, but please take an extra long look at the contents before you purchase.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars MooTools is awesome. This book, not so much. August 18, 2009

By Jon

Format:Paperback

I bought this book because I fell in love with MooTools, and figured that it would be a great reference. It's a horrible reference - mainly because there is --- I still can't believe this --- NO INDEX! Frankly, I don't care if the documentation is amazingly detailed and fully comprehensible, if you can't find how the Element.GetStyle() function works when you need to, what good is it?

If you're learning MooTools, I recommend you stick with the online docs. Unless they reprint this book with an index.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Good module overview, not so good for "how to use" March 9, 2009

By John Porra

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Unfortunately, this book only covers a brief overview of what the components of MooTools offers. It doesn't really go into how you can use them to your benefit.

That being said, even the author thinks that there was a lot left out of this book, and is putting it into version 2.

One thing that's really missing is an index. That alone would have given it an extra star.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A usefull book October 15, 2010

By framontb

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a reference book about Mootools, with a lot of litle examples. I miss a more complete set of examples in the chapter about ajax and many others. But in short: a usefull book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Ditto to the Feelings of Other Reviewers February 22, 2010

By Radd Berkheiser

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I must concur with the views expressed by a number of other reviewers: the lack of an index in anything that calls itself a "reference" is pretty inexcusable. Additionally, none of the pages give an indication as to which section/chapter you are in, making even flipping into a particular area likely to hold needed information a chore as well. Instead, every page lists nothing but the book title and product series... as if I didn't already know what I was holding.

The information contained inside isn't bad per se, but the organization is at times less than straightforward and made more so by the lack of simple publishing standards mentioned above.

The PDF version may be preferable as it should at least be search-able to make up for the structural oversights of the publisher. Hopefully a second edition will include more material and correct these problems, but until then, I couldn't recommend it as a reference.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Technically inaccurate December 15, 2008

By B. Schick

Format:Paperback

While it is great to have a book about MooTools, this one unfortunately has problems. It is filled with small and large technical inaccuracies and omissions. If you already know JavaScript and the DOM and can read past the errors, this book provides an average overview of MooTools. If you are new to JavaScript or the DOM, I'd suggesting staying away from this book until you know more. Otherwise it will leaving you with misconceptions.

For example, the description of the very important 'this' keyword is just wrong. The book says that 'this' "represents the current scope", which is not true. The 'this' keyword actually refers to the object on which a method is executing or the global object. A common small error is for the author to write "syntax" when he means "semantics". An error by omission is that the reason for needing all the 'bind' stuff is never even discussed (the reason being that MooTools uses a custom event dispatch system rather than assigning functions directly to event properties). There are plenty more.

I also find it misleadings that the tagline on the front cover is "The Official MooTools Reference for JavaScript and Ajax Development", yet in many places the author says something like "I'm not going to describe that feature here, see the online documentation for information". That makes for a rather poor "official reference".

3.0 out of 5 stars Not good for reference August 8, 2009

By John Jetter

Format:Paperback

Good content but no index which makes it difficult to refer back to a subject.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read for intermediate to advanced JavaScript developers September 19, 2008

By Alejandro Diaz

Format:Paperback

Having had experience with both Prototype and jQuery, this book actually made me a MooTools convert. Loaded with great examples, detailed explanations of each and every class and method in the library, and extremely insightful comments and tips on how and when to use use them.

Of particular interest to me were the chapters dedicated to writing classes in MooTools, as well as the last sections which lead the reader through the complete life cycle of creating reusable components. Most importantly, the thought process involved in adding each layer of complexity which helps one understand things which in other books are just a "given". I found myself saying several times: Oh! so _that's_ why they do that!

Even the appendixes are packed with clear explanations of core JavaScript concepts which are tricky and somewhat hard to grasp for the novice (bindings, closures, etc.)

The only inconvenience I found to the book was an extremely large font (at least on the PDF version, not sure about the hardcopy) which made reading code a tad obtrusive at times. Other than that, a must-have for any MooTools developer and a definite recommendation for those initiating themselves in JavaScript frameworks.