MooTools Wall Plugin

One of the more impressive MooTools plugins to hit the Forge recently was The Wall by Marco Dell'Anna.  The Wall creates an endless grid of elements which can be grabbed and dragged, fading in elements as they are encountered.  Let me show you a quick usage of the Wall!

The HTML

There are two elements in the setup: a viewport and a wall holder:

<div id="viewport">
	<div id="wall"></div>
</div>

Easy enough.

The CSS

The CSS must be configured to accommodate your wall.  Your viewport's height and width properties should be multiples of your block heights.  You don't have to configure the viewport that way, but it you wall will be more visually appealing.

#viewport		{ border:1px solid #ccc; width:450px; height:450px; position:relative; overflow:hidden; }
#wall			{ z-index:1; }
#wall img		{ width:150px; height:150px; display:block; float:left; }

My viewport will be 450 x 450, with each element being 150 x 150.

The MooTools JavaScript

It all starts by creating a Wall instance, providing width, height, rangex, and rangey attributes, providing them as the size of the elements (or not):

// When the DOM is ready
window.addEvent("domready", function() {
	
	// Define a few variables, including the number of images and the "current index"
	var numImages = 23, // 24 images, 0 index
		counter = 0;
		
	// Create the Wall
	new Wall("wall", {
		width: 150,
		height: 150,
		rangex: [-150,150],
		rangey: [-150,150],
		callOnUpdate: function(items) {
			// For every item returned...
			items.each(function(item) {
				// Inject a new image, fade it in
				new Element("img", {
					src: (++counter) + ".jpg",
					styles: {
						opacity: 0
					}
				}).inject(item.node).fade(1);
				// Reset to image one if the maxlength is greater than the counter
				if(counter > numImages) counter = 1;
			});
		}
	}).initWall();	
});

The callOnUpdate method is most important, providing an index by which you can inject your new element (in our case, an image).  Once the counter reaches its maximum length, the index is reset, and the wall continues!

Awesome work by Marco.  My example is just the most basic of usages -- visit Marco's website to see the additional options and examples he has provided.  I can see someone using The Wall to generate a very creative, all-encompassing website!