• Demos and Downloads!
• MooTools Plugins
• About / Contact

Using Dotter for Form Submissions

One of the plugins I'm most proud of is Dotter. Dotter allows you to create the typical "Loading..." text without using animated images. I'm often asked what a sample usage of Dotter would be; form submission create the perfect situation. The following code changes a submit button's text to "Submitting..." (and animated dot patterns) during the submission process, resetting the button text when the AJAX request is complete.

The MooTools JavaScript

window.addEvent('domready',function() {
	/* get elements */
	var submit = document.id('submit'), form = document.id('share-comment');
	/* create Dotter instance */
	var dotter = new Dotter(submit,{
		delay: 200, //character delay
		message: 'Submitting',
		property: 'value'
	});
	/* when the form is submitted */
	form.addEvent('submit',function(e) {
		//stop the event
		e.stop();
		//assuming it's a valid post...
		if(validatePost()) {
			//stop / failure action
			var action = function() {
				dotter.stop();
				submit.set('value','Submit');
			};
			//create an AJAX request
			var request = new Request({
				url: form.get('action'),
				method: form.get('method'),
				link: 'ignore',
				//start the Dotter when the request is sent
				onRequest: function() {
					dotter.start();
				},
				//stop it when the AJAX request is successful
				onSuccess: action,
				//stop it when the AJAX request is failure
				onSuccess: action
			}).send(document.id('share-comment').toQueryString());
			//put the form back!
		}
	});
});

When the form is submitted the Dotter instance begins its animation. Once the AJAX request is complete (regardless of success or failure), the Dotter is stopped, changing the button text to its original text.

There you have it: a practical, straight-forward usage of MooTools Dotter. Feel free to download Dotter from the Forge and let me know if you have questions or suggestions!

Discussion

The Bottom Line