Screencast - MooTools Action Suite Preview - Building Accordion Menu’s
Runtime: 9min, 10 seconds
One of the hardest parts about buying software is not being able to see how it’s more popular features work in your own personal workflow. Usually a demo of the software is offered with some-functionality with a 30-day limit to try it out. Within those 30-days you hope to walk away with an understanding of what you’re going to be paying for and if it’s procedures are manageable for your business.
However, when it comes to purchasing 3rd-party Freeway actions, there are not any demo’s. You may get some documentation, but you really need some time to mess around with it. So, this week I’m taking on a product showcase to those people contemplating whether or not they need to buy the MooTools Action Suite ($15). I’ve taken the liberty to show one of the more popular features of building an “Accordion” style menu.
This screen-cast will walk you through the process and give you a better idea of what the Action Suite can do. I’ve used it on several of my own sites and in one example I used it to show a clever navigation system.
(This Action screencast has not been discussed with Weaver, perhaps a contact e-mail should have happened first, but there are no sample files and I saw no way to duplicate it’s features. This is purely an attempt to showcase a paid 3rd-Party Action suite in action. If a request is properly made, I can/will remove the file completely.)
Links can be found on the bottom of the post on my website found here:
Essentially there are really no big differences to the TransitionFX and the MooTools. They both run on javascript libraries and both can do the “Accordion” deal. I actually have a screen-cast sitting in a folder here that shows how to build the same effect with TransitionFX. It’s merely a matter of preference and Weaver’s MooTools was there before the TransitionFX Actions so for a while it kept the gears of Freeway turning in the 3rd-Party Action department in this specific category.
As far as the screen-cast:
Thanks for the responses plus to the 30+ people that have downloaded it already. I have about 4-5 more of these laying around slowly trickling out as I work on my site (and finding a full-time job) to host and stream these on my own terms. Some for Express users coming up as well as a thorough one on making an iPhone site. For now they’ll be at the FreewayCast.com site until I can get my site up and running.
Cool stuff. Now all I need is to have Joe Muscara send me my Expression Engine Actions.
Thank you all very much. By all means continue sharing ideas and support. No doubt the community will find novel ways to utilize FW.
Don’t forget the authors of the source libraries and the plugins (mootools.net and such). All the Suite does is merge that fine code into the FW output.
If I may take the same liberty, I’ll add a link to the screencast with the Suite’s info.
Sometime around 19/9/08 (at 03:02 -0400) Dan J said:
For now they’ll be at the FreewayCast.com site until I can get my
site up and running.
Woo-hoo! Thanks Dan, the Amazon downloader process you’re using on http://www.freewaycast.com/ is much better than the previous
almost-spamsite process, and I’m absolutely delighted to hear that
streaming in the web page is on the horizon. Really, really great
news for Freeway users.
I went through the tutorial in detail and my results is incorrect. When clicking on the menu items, the boxes appear. The problem is that the whole container doesn’t shrink.
It appears that the area that contains ‘text’ has a defined height. Toggle off the height widget in the Inspector. This should allow collapse.
An Accordion really does not prevent or allow an item’s collapse, it just exaggerates the underlying structure by artificially changing a child element’s size.
I get that undefined box height that comes up because in my Freeway 5 “Preferences” under the “Layout” tab, there’s a drop down whether or not you want Freeway to “Ask” for undefined height, “Yes” automatically do it, or “No” don’t ever do it. I have mine set to “Ask” because sometimes I need it and sometimes I don’t.
This screencast also works for MooTools in Freeway 4. You’ll have to undo the height box yourself, but the concept is still the same.
Nope there’s no way to close them when another one open’s. As far as the conflict that’s a problem Weaver states on his site that he wants to update the action to fix that.
