Since the dawn of time, MooTools used a method named $ to get an HTML element by it’s id or direct reference. This method name, being the coolest and shortest you can find in JavaScript, is also used by a number of other javascript frameworks and libraries for similar functionality. Now, we do not think including 2 libraries or frameworks is OK. It’s not. Never. It’s an overhead of duplication you do not want to have. However, you might not have the full control of the page in some circumstances, and we recognize that. That’s why we implemented this: Dollar Safe Mode(TM). It’s nothing special really, but it should help in those situations where including mult...

Today we announce the simultaneous release of MooTools Core 1.3.2 and More 1.3.2.1. This is mostly a bugfix release and does not contain many new features. The most important fix is within our selector engine, Slick, which failed in some cases where the selectors began with an operator (ex. ~div).A new component has been added to MooTools More: Table. Table was slated to be added in MooTools Core 2.0, but we’re making it available in MooTools More now. Table is similar to the JavaScript object literal, but where an object can only have a scalar value (string or number) as a key, Table can have any value as a key. Where the order of values in an object is not static like an array (by...

As mentioned in the new features in MooTools More in 1.2.4.1, there’s a new plugin called Depender which uses MooTools dependency mappings to allow you to lazy load additional scripts on the fly based on what you need. Rather than list every single file you depend on, you just list the features you want to use and it computes all the specific files needed and each of the files that they need (and so on), excludes the files you already have, and then injects the remaining scripts into the document, providing a callback.Unfortunately this method is rather slow. The JavaScript plugin must inject each individual script in the dependency list and all these requests can only go as fast as...

Users wishing to upgrade any large site from MooTools 1.1 to 1.2 can sometimes find it difficult. The API for 1.2 changed quite a bit, so without help upgrading your code can be fraught with danger.Our solution is an upgrade helper that will allow you to replace your old MooTools 1.1 code with 1.2 code by logging deprecated methods to the console and telling you what needs to be changed.The upgrade helper also attempts to automatically convert 1.1 calls to 1.2 calls. However, this helper is not really meant to be a compatibility script so much as a script designed to help you migrate your code. In almost all cases methods that have been deprecated or have had their API altered will provid...

Over on Clientcide we’ve got a post up asking for feedback about changes planned for MooTools 1.3. Most of the changes are things you won’t notice - things under the hood as well as bug fixes and the like. But there are some changes under consideration that would effect existig code. We’d love to hear your feedback as we consider these changes.

The foundation of every great open source project is its community. The MooTools Team creates the base framework code but it's all of you that take the framework and build outstanding plugins. Here are some great plugins and tutorials that have been released recently.MooTools Dependencies CheckerThe MooTools Dependency Checker by Arian Stolwijk parses you javascript files to determine which MooTools classes you need to make the file’s javascript code work. Arian’s dependency checker is a great tool for those looking to implement a MooTools plugin or use minified code.http://www.aryweb.nl/projects/mooDeps/MooTools InputMaskInputMask is a useful MooTools plugin by Core Develope...

The first beta for MooTools 1.2 is finally here!After months in the making, we can confidently say that MooTools 1.2 is now feature complete. However, there are still some bugs left to squash.Head over to MooTools download page to start playing with it right away.A Note About CompatibilitySome parts of MooTools 1.2 aren't immediately compatible with those found in MooTools 1.1. In the downloads page, you'll find a box that says: "include compatibility with previous version". Clicking that box will add the missing pieces and will make MooTools 1.2 play nice with code written for MooTools 1.1.New stuff that we already covered:The amazing HashSpecs!Effects EnhancementsImportant stuff thats ...

Another new feature that's been built into the latest version of MooTools is the Element Storage. This article describes the usage of this great new feature, as well as why it was developed, and how it can be used to keep your applications organized and efficient.What's all this storage business about?When developing advanced JavaScript applications, it's sometimes beneficial to associate extra properties or attributes to DOM Elements. While we have always been able to use DOM Elements as storage containers for all sorts of other data, this generic technique has a few drawbacks. While the problems associated with this technique are almost exclusively Internet Explorer problems, they mu...

With the initial release of Adobe AIR, a lot of web developers (myself included) are starting to get excited about developing rich web applications that run natively on the desktop across platforms. We've already seen several great AIR apps popping up all over the Internet, and thought we'd try our hand at creating one of our own.Snippely was created by myself, Tom Occhino, and Valerio Proietti as our first attempt at creating a robust and useful AIR application. What can we do with MooTools and a little bit of fresh AIR?When we were thinking about what type of application to make our AIR playground, we tried to think of something that we'd want to use ourselves. Valerio and I are ...

For all the interested MooToolers in the making out there, I have compiled a list of resources which should give you everything you need to know to get started in client-side development.Tools of the TradeThese are the prerequisites of Web development.Firefox: You'll want to use Firefox for development. But you'll also need to have all the browsers you can manage to install on your machine (and other machines) in order to check cross browser support.Essential ExtensionsFirebug: The best plugin ever, Firebug is the difference between bashing your head against the keyboard and knowing what's going on with the browser.Web Developer Toolbar: Gives you awesome power over websites. Turn off ...