Prototype’s Element.on with MooTools

By  on  

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.

Recent Features

  • By
    How to Create a RetroPie on Raspberry Pi – Graphical Guide

    Today we get to play amazing games on our super powered game consoles, PCs, VR headsets, and even mobile devices.  While I enjoy playing new games these days, I do long for the retro gaming systems I had when I was a kid: the original Nintendo...

  • By
    Create a CSS Cube

    CSS cubes really showcase what CSS has become over the years, evolving from simple color and dimension directives to a language capable of creating deep, creative visuals.  Add animation and you've got something really neat.  Unfortunately each CSS cube tutorial I've read is a bit...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    DWRequest: MooTools 1.2 AJAX Listener & Message Display

    Though MooTools 1.2 is in its second beta stage, its basic syntax and theory changes have been hashed out. The JavaScript library continues to improve and become more flexible. Fellow DZone Zone Leader Boyan Kostadinov wrote a very useful article detailing how you can add a...

  • By
    dwProgressBar v2:  Stepping and Events

    dwProgressBar was a huge hit when it debuted. For those of you who didn't catch my first post, dwProgressBar is a MooTools 1.2-based progress bar which allows for as much flexibility as possible. Every piece of dwProgressBar can be controlled by CSS...

Discussion

  1. Lorenzo S.

    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?

  2. @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.

  3. Arian

    @Lorenzo S.: If you want jQuery syntax in MooTools, have a look at this repository: http://github.com/cheeaun/mooj/blob/master/mooj.js

  4. Nikolaj

    @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.

  5. 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?

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!