Pro JavaScript with MooTools: Learning Advanced JavaScript Programming

Pro JavaScript with MooTool is unlike any other JavaScript book on the market today. While similar books focus on either JavaScript as a language of the browser or how to use JavaScript frameworks, Pro JavaScript with MooTools fills the gap between these topics and moves beyond—exploring the advanced features of JavaScript and how the MooTools framework uses these features to further improve the language itself.

The book itself takes a unique three-pronged approach. It first walks you through the advanced features of JavaScript and the MooTools framework, including native augmentation and type creation, a comprehensive discussion of JavaScript functions, object-oriented programming with native JavaScript and MooTools Classes, and the MooTools Class internals. You’ll then learn all about Javascript in the DOM: the Elements classes and its internals, the MooTools Event system, Selector engines and MooTools Slick, Ajax and the Request Object, and animation and the Fx classes.

The final section really sets the book apart from all others, as it discusses JavaScript outside the browsers. You’ll take an in-depth look at CommonJS and MooTools, using MooTools outside the browser to build ORM, creating simple CommonJS applications via the MooTools Deck framework, and creating complex server-side applications using Raccoon.

What you’ll learn

• How MooTools augments natives and creates new types via the Type constructor and how it uses the advanced features of JavaScript functions to extend the language.
• All about object-oriented programming in native JavaScript and MooTools Class counterpart—the internals of the Class Type and other special object-oriented features that the framework adds to the language.
• How MooTools improves the DOM API via Element and the Events Types; and how Slick, the MooTools selector engine, uses advanced JavaScript features to create a fast and easy way to control the DOM.
• How MooTools wraps the native XMLHttpRequest to create a truly cross-browser implementation and how the MooTools Fx classes create smooth, powerful animations for the browser.
• About the CommonJS initiative and MooTools support for it and how MooTools can be used without the DOM to create an ORM that talks to a database outside the browser.
• About Deck and Raccoon: two simple, yet powerful, frameworks built atop MooTools that enable you to create server-side JavaScript applications.

About the Author

Mark Joseph Obcena is a freelance software developer, graphic designer, and writer from Manila, Philippines. Popularly known as keeto online, Mark is a big fan of open source development and regularly contributes to several open source projects, including MooTools where he's a member of the official Community Team. He's currently experimenting with new programming languages while working on several CommonJS projects, which are available from his Github page, and he sometimes gets bullied by the MooTools community into writing a post for his web site, Keetology (keetology.com).