script.aculo.us

script.aculo.us

Developer(s)	Thomas Fuchs
Stable release	1.9.0 / December 23, 2010 (2010-12-23)
Repository	github.com/madrobby/scriptaculous
Written in	JavaScript
Type	Javascript toolkit
License	MIT License
Website	script.aculo.us

script.aculo.us is a JavaScript library built on the Prototype JavaScript Framework, providing dynamic visual effects and user interface elements via the Document Object Model (DOM).

It is most notably included with Ruby on Rails and Seaside, but also provided separately to work with other web application frameworks and scripting languages.

script.aculo.us was extracted by Thomas Fuchs from his work on fluxiom, a web based digital asset management tool by the design company wollzelle. It was first released to the public in June 2005.

Features

script.aculo.us extends the Prototype JavaScript Framework by adding visual effects, user interface controls, and utilities.

Visual effects

There are five core effects script.aculo.us offers: Opacity, Scale, MoveBy, Highlight, and Parallel. Through these effects there are over 16 additional effects using combinations of the core effects out of the box. Programmers can also extend existing and create new effects.

Enabling an effect is a matter of assigning an element with an ID name and one line of code for the effect. Below is an example for the Effect.Fade effect applied to a DOM element with ID of 'id_of_element':

new Effect.Fade('element_id');

This will cause the target ID to fade in opacity and end by setting the CSS "display" property to "none".

You can also modify various settings within the effect such as duration of the effect and range of the effect:

new Effect.Fade('element_id', { 
    duration: 2.0, 
    from: 0.0, 
    to: 0.8 
});

This would fade the element, but stop when the effect is 80% complete (with an opacity of 20%).

Controls

Controls offers user interface elements including:

• Drag And Drop
  • Draggables
  • Droppables
  • Sortables
  • Slider
• Autocompletion
• In Place Editing

Builder

Builder allows creating DOM elements dynamically. Using the sample code below:

element = Builder.node('div',{id:'ghosttrain'},[
  Builder.node('div',{className:'controls',style:'font-size:11px'},[
    Builder.node('h1','Ghost Train'),
    "testtext", 2, 3, 4,
    Builder.node('ul',[
      Builder.node('li',{className:'active', onclick:'test()'},'Record')
    ])
  ])
]);

Creates the following (without newlines):

<div id="ghosttrain">
  <div class="controls" style="font-size:11px">
    <h1>Ghost Train</h1>
    testtext234
    <ul>
      <li class="active" onclick="test()">Record</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

External links

• Official website
• script.aculo.us documentation wiki
• script.aculo.us cheat sheet
• Unofficial Prototype & Script.aculo.us wiki and FAQ created by community members