Prototype’s Element.on with MooTools
Prototype 1.7RC1 was released on Monday. While the big news with this release appears to be the implementation of John Resig's Sizzle selector engine, what caught my eye was the new on method. This new Element.on method is very similar to Prototype's Element.observe method but with a few enhancements (event relaying, event stop). While I don't necessarily care about the enhancements, I simply love that the event method is called "on." Using "on" as the method name makes it sound more like the event itself. Here's how easy it is to use "on" instead of "addEvent" for your events.
The MooTools JavaScript
/* the directive */
Element.alias('addEvent','on');
/* the usage */
$('myElement').on('click',fn);
Using on instead of addEvent is as easy as a quick MooTools Element.alias directive.
It's weird that I like "on" so much considering a generally don't like jQuery's css and attr methods. Oh well. Congrats to the Prototype team for their impending release.
![An Interview with Eric Meyer]()
Your early CSS books were instrumental in pushing my love for front end technologies. What was it about CSS that you fell in love with and drove you to write about it?
At first blush, it was the simplicity of it as compared to the table-and-spacer...
![fetch API]()
One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for. We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better. Our effort to...
![Multiple Background CSS Animations]()
CSS background animation has been a hot topic for a long time, mostly because they look pretty sweet and don't require additional elements. I was recently asked if it was possible to have multiple background animations on a given element and the answer is yes...with...
![Create a 3D Panorama Image with A-Frame]()
In the five years I've been at Mozilla I've seen some awesome projects. Some of them very popular, some of them very niche, but none of them has inspired me the way the MozVR team's work with WebVR and A-Frame project have.
A-Frame is a community project...
Hi David. Nice idea. I like also css() and other jQuery methods’ name (for their simplicity), but I prefer Mootools core. So, why not:
Element.alias('addEvent','on'); Element.implement({ 'css': function(p, v) { if (v == undefined) return this.getStyle(p); else return this.setStyle(p, v); }, 'attr': function(a, v) { if (v == undefined) return this.getProperty(a); else return this.setProperty(a, v); }, 'html': function(h) { if (h == undefined) return this.get('html'); else return this.set('html', h); });What do you think?
@Lorenzo S.: I’ve done posts like that in the past. I can’t stand .css and .attr for MooTools, but what you have would work.
@Lorenzo S.: If you want jQuery syntax in MooTools, have a look at this repository: http://github.com/cheeaun/mooj/blob/master/mooj.js
@David
Fully agree with “on” seems acceptable, whereas .css, .attr etc. doesn’t :)
I guess the reason you might like “on” – when not other jQuery shortcuts – might be due to we’re used to “on” in “onClick” etc. for regular JavaScript, which probably makes the mind having positive thoughts.
Great advice, thanks a lot.
However, how much slower will this be? I mean, will on() trigger addEvent() and that in turn will trigger whatever internal functions are used?