Script.aculo.us – a fabulous javascript framework

Script.aculo.us has gained much recognition from javascript programmers as a useful animation framework.  It is available for free and can be used for adding the much needed eye candy that is becoming predominant in today’s multimedia rich websites.  Fly out menus, text fading in and out, and objects zooming in and out usually required the use of specialized software to create.

Years before, Internet Explorer introduced DHTML or Dynamic HTML to allow these kinds of effects to be done from within the browser.  However, this was available to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer only.  There is a way to implement these effects via Javascript however, you had to know about animation and mathematical and physics equations to create them.  However, with the arrival of Script.aculo.us, these effects can now be easily created.

Script.aculo.us is not only for animation though.  It also has several functions that allow the programmer to add drag and drop functionality, in place editing, dynamic creation of Document Object Model(DOM) elements on the page, AJAX functionality, playing sounds, and unit testing.  That’s quite a mouthful of useful features that could not only make pages you make attractive but also make it functional and easier to program.

Checking out the homepage of Script.aculo.us, we can find links for all the features of the framework.  They are categorized into 6 groups.  These categories include: Core Effects, Combination Effects, Effect Helpers, Behaviours, Controls, and Miscellaneous.

The functions for the animation effects are found in the Core Effects, Combination Effects, and Effect helpers groups.  Some of the effects that can be created include:

  • highlight
  • morph
  • move
  • opacity
  • scale
  • parallel
  • queues

Parallel and queues are not really separate effects but are instead a way for the programmer to string together several effects to create the illusion of one continuous effect.  Combination effects are a mixture of the core effects that have already been customized in a way so that they appear to be one smooth effect.

As for behaviors, script.aculo.us includes the following functions:

  • draggable
  • droppable
  • sortable
  • form element dalayed observer

These functions allow the programmer to create elements on the page that can be dragged and dropped using the mouse, sort values and text, and provide a way to monitor page events and respond to them after a specified time delay.

For AJAX programmers, the controls group of script.aculo.us would be beneficial.  These functions include:

  • in place editor
  • in place editor for collections
  • auto-complete
  • auto-complete with results from a local array
  • slider

The in place editors allows the programmer to allow the user to change values of elements on the page and save them immediately.  The auto-complete features on the other hand allows the user to experience a more responsive system while typing information in the form of auto-suggest lists.  Finally, the slider feature allows the user to use slider bars to choose from a range of values instead of typing in the values manually.

The miscellaneous group of features are truly varied.  The builder feature allows the programmer to insert new elements to the page, while the sound feature provides a way to play and stop music on the page.  Finally, the unit testing features allows the programmer to test sections of their program without much difficulty.

So if you’re a web programmer looking for a way to integrate great effects and features to your page without the pain of creating them all from scratch, you may want to give script.aculo.us a test drive today!

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