The thing about Protaculous is that it has always been a (very) thin
wrapper around Prototype and Scriptaculous, and as such, there’s not
much I could write about Protaculous itself. Here’s the entire manual:
##Protaculous
Protaculous provides a predictable way to attach the prototype.js and
scriptaculous.js JavaScript libraries to your Freeway page. Within its
interface, you are presented with a picker to choose which library or
libraries you wish to use, and two text editor fields where you can
add your hand-written scripts. The basic premise here is that you will
read some breathless article on a Web design site, and decide to
integrate their hand-written code into your Freeway-designed page.
Protaculous provides the basic plumbing to make that possible, but it
cannot write the JavaScript code for you, nor can it explain why
things works or do not.
###The Library picker
The Library picker offers four options: prototype, prototype-packed,
scriptaculous, and scriptaculous-packed. Choose the -packed versions
when you have finished debugging your script, and are ready to deploy.
This avoids conflicts with the other Softpress and Scripty Actions,
which use the packed versions all the time. You want to never include
the same library more than once, and including it in both packed and
unpacked versions in the same page is a neat recipe for none of your
code working at all.
###The Top Function Body editor
This button exposes an editor window where you can add script to the
dom:loaded listener function. This function fires when the entire page
is “stable” in the browser’s memory. Not all the images may be
downloaded, the browser may not have finished painting the screen with
your design, but it understands the starting point of the DOM
(Document Object Model) that it uses to create the visual layout of
your page. Anything that happens inside this function will (depending
on other factors) probably be completed before the visitor sees the
page in her browser. Use this for any effect setup or other
modifications to your page that you want to be in place and visible
when the page is first loaded.
###The Bottom Function Body Editor
This button exposes an editor window where you can add script to the
window:loaded listener function. This function fires when the entire
page and all of its children are completely downloaded. In old-style
JavaScript, you would write this into the body’s onload event handler,
like this:
<body onload="someScriptFireNow();">
The difference between the old-school method and the modern Prototype
method is that in the latter, you can stack multiple handlers on the
same event, and they will each take their turn. There’s no need to
write a bunch of conditional code into your script to sense that there
is already an event listener on the body load event.
Use this function for anything that you want to happen after the page
has visually loaded in the browser. For example, if you want a window
to fade into view over the top of the page, showing an ad or a survey,
you want to fire that off when the page is finished loading, so the
visual transition is obvious to the user, rather than firing it at the
dom:loaded event, when it will simply appear as though the page “just
looks that way”.
###That’s all it does
I wish there was some way to create a script-writing engine in an
Action. That would be extremely cool. The trouble is, a programming
language is not the same as a descriptive language like HTML.
JavaScript is a deceptively easy to use language, but it has roots as
deep as you care to go, and complexities and powers that continue to
amaze me. The more I learn about it, the more impressed I am by it.
To actually use Protaculous in anger, you have to get up the
JavaScript hill a little ways. Join a mailing list, ask some
questions, read some books, and by all means buy a decent programmer’s
editor like TextMate. TM is particularly useful here, not just because
its syntax highlighting will often tip you off to an unclosed quote or
parenthesis, but also because its auto-folding and indenting and
bracket-pairing will keep you from making mistakes in the first place.
(Any time you see an e-mail from me where I didn’t close the
parenthesis, blame TextMate! It’s made me lazy about that.)
If you haven’t already, install Firebug in your Firefox browser, and
start using it to check your pages. Any JavaScript errors will turn
the little bug red in the bottom-right corner of your browser. When
you see that, copy the error into Google and see what you can find.
Learning to program is mostly a process of making mistakes and
learning from them. Like learning any foreign language, the first step
is understanding basic vocabulary, then sentence structure, and
finally idiom and metaphor. The trouble with it is that until you do
get well into sentence structure, your program won’t run at all.
That’s why the learning curve often resembles a coffee table.
But whatever you do, stay with it long enough to have a little
success. It’s a great feeling, to be able to write a program and have
it do something. At that point, as Obi-Wan said, you’ll have “taken
your first step into a larger world.”
Walter
On Jul 29, 2011, at 5:59 AM, Thomas Kimmich wrote:
If I could have a wish on more infos would be about the
“Protaculous” Action. This would be the other 10 Bucks and I think
it would be a good deal. You as well as we usual mortal could have
then some more comfort - but this is just a wish.
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