Book Review: Découvrez MooTools - Un framework JavaScript pour des sites dynamiques et interactifs

Written by Jean-Philippe Déry on 4 December 2012 – Posted under features, newsComments

Until recently, French literature about MooTools was pretty much non-existent. Thanks to Xavier Lecomte, now there is a very good book about MooTools in your native tongue that will get you up to speed in no time.

Découvrez Mootools - Un framework JavaScript pour des sites dynamiques et interactifs (Discover MooTools - A javascript framework for dynamic and interactive websites) is aimed at beginner and intermediate developers who wish to create spectacular effects using MooTools. This book does not go deep into topics that would likely only confuse you, but instead it keeps everything simple and provides many clear cut examples and illustrations that will facilitate your understanding. Priced at 12.5 Euros (~15$) it’s a must-have if you’re looking to learn MooTools.

As the author says, it does not cover the entire framework. Instead, Xavier Lecomte selected the most commonly used MooTools pieces and explains them in detail. Throughout this book, you’ll learn how to create classes, handle DOM elements, create AJAX requests and create effects using Fx classes. The latter is probably the most discussed topic of this book as it goes through almost every Fx-based class in MooTools. When it comes to Fx classes, the most complex part is probably options. Although they are well named, they could be difficult to grasp, especially to the novice user. This book makes this type of functionality very clear by explaining all the options for each class discussed, at times, through the use of illustrations. The Fx chapter wraps up with a complete example, where the author builds a pong game using tools explained throughout the chapter.

Finally, the book discusses work done by the MooTools community. Although it does not go deeply into each project (most of them would require a book on their own), it gives a good idea of what MooTools is able to offer.

To conclude, if you're a native French speaker interested in learning MooTools, this book is a must-have, especially at that price. I hope Xavier Lecomte will continue writing about MooTools, the in-depth detailing of this book is amazing and will certainly benefit many.


JxLib: An Introduction

Written by Aaron Newton on 26 December 2011 – Posted under featuresComments

Jon Bomgardner is a contributor to the jxlib.org project. After recently joining the MooTools Developer mailing list and sharing his experience in upgrading jxlib to MooTools 1.4.2 we asked him to share his work here on the blog.

###What is JxLib JxLib is a JavaScript UI framework built on MooTools. It allows web developers and designers to quickly build user interfaces for their applications. JxLib is based on some sweet HMTL markup and strives to be fully CSS compliant. It is also a modular library allowing you to pick and choose from the available components as well as giving you the ability to override default behaviors and extend core classes.