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updated mooInputLabel class for MooTools

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:02:54 +0000

I have taken the advice of 2 contributors to my original post (red link below), and have finally posted an update to this MooTools class that…

adds the ability to set the blur and focus colors in the options
sets the reusable reference to the element in the label class

So, without any further explanation, here’s the new code/instructions…

mooInputLabel

1 – copy and paste the following code into your favorite text editor and save it as a new .js file (“mooInputLabel.js”, for example)…

var mooInputLabel = new Class({

Implements: [Options, Events],

     options: {
          inputs: [ ],
          blurColor: '#ccc',
          focusColor: '#000'
     },

initialize: function(options) {
this.setOptions(options);

          var self = this;
          var inputs = this.options.inputs;
          var blurColor = this.options.blurColor;

this.blurColor = blurColor;
this.focusColor = this.options.focusColor;

          inputs.each(function(e) {
               e.addEvent('focus', function() {
                    e = new Event(e).stop();
                    self.inputFocus(this, e.id);
               })
               .addEvent('blur', function() {
                    e = new Event(e).stop();
                    self.inputBlur(this, e.id);
               })
               .setProperty('value', e.id)
               .setStyle('color', blurColor);
          });
     },

     inputFocus: function(x, id) {
          if (x.value == '') {
               x.value = '';
          }
          x.setStyle('color', this.focusColor);
     },

     inputBlur: function(x, id) {
          if (x.value == '') {
               x.value = id;
               x.setStyle('color', this.blurColor);
          }
          else if (x.value == id) {
               x.setStyle('color', this.blurColor);
          }
          else {
               x.setStyle('color', this.focusColor);
          }
     }
});

2 – then, make sure to place links to your new .js file as well as the MooTools core in the of your document

3 – add the appropriate code to each tag on the page that you want to use this feature – example(s)…

* the “label” class signifies this input field as one that uses this feature.
The “id” is also the text used as the “label” value.

4 – finally, we add a MooTools “domready” event to the page to set everything up once the page has completed loading and the DOM is ready. The following code will apply our new feature to all elements with a class of “label”…

window.addEvent('domready', function() {
     new mooInputLabel({
          inputs: $$('input.label')
     });
});

working example:

Click here to view the original article

defaultValueActsAsHint for MooTools

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:07:05 +0000

Click here to view my newer post with an updated class and new code

I just got done reading a great article on Ajaxian about Thomas Fuchs’ new JavaScript creation – defaultValueActsAsHint. It’s best described in his words…

An often occuring UI pattern is “use the value of a textfield as hint what to input”. These fields all auto-clear when the user first focuses it (by clicking or tabbing it), and if nothing is entered, the hint will be shown once again once the user leaves it.

Then it hit me. We’ve been doing this in schmedley for quite some time now in several of our schmidgets (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Sticky Note, To-Do List, Bookmarks and POP3/IMAP4 Email). It makes perfect sense that widget development would make good use of this User Interface Pattern, as screen real estate in a widget is extremely limited. There is no point in making space for “labels” for text input fields when you can put that text directly IN the field.

So – to make a long story short – I decided to do as Thomas has done and share my little JavaScript tidbit with the world. My version will be in the form of a MooTools class (since that is the framework that powers schmedley).

I’ve named it…

mooInputLabel

1 – copy and paste the following code into your favorite text editor and save it as a new .js file (“mooInputLabel.js”, for example)…

var mooInputLabel = new Class({

Implements: [Options, Events],

     options: {
          inputs: [ ]
     },

initialize: function(options) {
this.setOptions(options);

var inputs = this.options.inputs;
var self = this;

          inputs.each(function(e) {
               e.addEvent('focus', function() {
                    self.inputFocus(e.id);
               })
               .addEvent('blur', function() {
                    self.inputBlur(e.id);
               })
               .setProperty('value', e.id)
               .setStyle('color', '#ccc');
          });
     },

     inputFocus: function(x) {
          if ($(x).value == x) {
               $(x).value = '';
          }