Implementing .css() and .attr() in MooTools 1.2.3

By  on  

Very rarely does a developer have the ability to work with just one framework. Often a developer needs to float between MooTools and jQuery. As you can imagine, doing so can make a developer loopy due to the syntax difference. One of the small differences that gets used often is jQuery's attr() and css() vs. MooTools' set() and setStyle(). I've implemented css() and attr() into MooTools for jQuery users.

The MooTools JavaScript Code

/* implement */
Element.implement({
	css: function(property,value) {
		var type = $type(property);
		if(value == undefined && type != 'object') {
			return this.getStyle(property);
		}
		else {
			var pvs = property;
			if(type != 'object') { pvs = {}; pvs[property] = value; }
			return this.setStyles(pvs);
		}
	},
	attr: function(property,value) {
		var type = $type(property);
		if(value == undefined && type != 'object') {
			return this.get(property);
		}
		else {
			var pvs = property;
			if(type != 'object') { pvs = {}; pvs[property] = value; }
			return this.set(pvs);
		}
	}
});

/* css testing! */
//will return "200px"
console.log('css(width) = ' + $('subject').css('width'));
//will set width value to "500px"
console.log('css(width,500) = ' + $('subject').css('width',500));
//will set width value to "700px"
console.log('css(width,700) = ' + $('subject').css({width:700}));

/* attr testing! */
//will return "moo"
console.log('attr(rel) = ' + $('subject').attr('rel'));
//will set width value to "500px"
console.log('attr(rel,mootools) = ' + $('subject').attr('rel','mootools') + ' :: ' + $('subject').attr('rel'));
//will set width value to "700px"
console.log('attr(rel,mootools ftw!) = ' + $('subject').attr({rel:'mootools ftw'}) + ' :: ' + $('subject').attr('rel')

I personally don't prefer this syntax in MooTools but hopefully this helps someone!

Recent Features

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

  • By
    Chris Coyier’s Favorite CodePen Demos

    David asked me if I'd be up for a guest post picking out some of my favorite Pens from CodePen. A daunting task! There are so many! I managed to pick a few though that have blown me away over the past few months. If you...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Introducing MooTools ElementSpy

    One part of MooTools I love is the ease of implementing events within classes. Just add Events to your Implements array and you can fire events anywhere you want -- these events are extremely helpful. ScrollSpy and many other popular MooTools plugins would...

  • By
    Introducing MooTools Dotter

    It's best practice to provide an indicator of some sort when performing an AJAX request or processing that takes place in the background. Since the dawn of AJAX, we've been using colorful spinners and imagery as indicators. While I enjoy those images, I am...

Discussion

  1. While this is cool to show off MooTools’ flexibility, the verbs set/get are useful because, well, they are verbs and the user can easily tell their purpose. There is no way that id see a css() method and know that it acts as both the getter and setter. People who would find this useful should just use jQuery.

    Your code does illustrate a good point — setStyle and setStyles could probably be combined into a single method — probably.

  2. I agree with Em, while the simplicity is nice in JQuery, the MooTools functions use logical naming conventions

  3. I use the below to speed up logging :) Hope it helps someone.

    Window.implement({
        'log':    function() {
                      return console && console.log ? console.log : new function(){};
                  }()
    });
    
  4. I also agree with Em. Combining the setStyle and setStyles function would be cool and also could lead to a bigger flexibility imo.

    The naming convention of mootools is much better in this example. Regardless of knowing the framework or not, every programmer does instantly understand what the code is “doing”.

    Another demonstration of mootools > all ;)

  5. fsdgdf

    niec..

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