creating a working moottools download

[Jon Hancock]

As a new user, I'm having difficulty getting a working mootools lib.
As near as I can tell, the online build tools are too complex. I
download an uncompressed mootools-1.2.3-core-nc.js and head over to
http://www.clientcide.com/js to get the dbug script. Wow this page
has way too many options. I've tried many different ways of getting a
dbug script as well as a script that includes tons of stuff I don't
need right now, which is fine for my dev purposes. It downloads as
clientcide-trunk-2.1.0.js. Do I need mootools more stuff? I've tried
multiple ways of building this lib as well. This is way too complex
for someone wanting to go from the online tutorials to playing with
their own code.

When I try something simple like a header script:

window.addEvent('domready', function(){
dbug.log("HELLO")
});

All I get is a console error in firegub:
fn is undefined
http://localhost:4000/javascripts/clientcide-trunk-2.1.0.js?090915380490
Line 2080

Any advice for a noob?

thanks, Jon

[Aaron Newton]

Hi Jon,

The dbug script (which I authored) has no dependencies. You can download it and run it on its own if you like. You can download the MooTools library from the mootools download page and then download additional scripts (from MooTools More or from the Clientcide libraries). If you do this, you'll have more than one script to include; -core, -more and/or the Clientcide libraries.

The Clientcide builder gives you the option of building a single file with the things you need. So you can download all of -core, and then specific plugins you need from -more and the Clientcide libs and get a single js file.

As for all of this being too complex, we've tried our best to make this as simple and usable as we can. Is there something specific that you're having problems with?

Looking at the error that you get with dbug, I don't think the problem is with dbug (as, again, it has no dependencies). Your example script uses domready (note that dbug.log doesn't interact with the DOM, so you don't need to wait for it to log things), so if your clientcide download only included dbug, and you didn't also include the MooTools -core (or at least DomReady from it), then you'd get an error.

Can you post your test online?

[Jon Hancock]

I have a working library now. thanks. The problem is, I can't repeat
the process of creating a lib with the same set of dependencies. I
think this is really the heart of the problem with the online builder
tools: if I get something that works for me, how do I get a refreshed
version of the same thing in the future?

I had to download various forms of clientcide and mootools-core many
time before I ended up with a version that had the right
dependencies. So how do I repeat this task, for example when I'm
ready to have a minimized version or update to a bug fix release?

How about this idea: have the dependency tool generate a config file
or long url which describes the build. Force the end user to use this
config and/or url to download the js. This process will leave a
readable, re-usable legacy artifact for the end user.

thanks, Jon

On Sep 10, 12:30 am, Aaron Newton <aa...@iminta.com> wrote:
> Hi Jon,
> The dbug script (which I authored) has no dependencies. You can download it
> and run it on its own if you like. You can download the MooTools library
> from the mootools download page and then download additional scripts (from
> MooTools More or from the Clientcide libraries). If you do this, you'll have
> more than one script to include; -core, -more and/or the Clientcide
> libraries.
>
> The Clientcide builder gives you the option of building a single file with
> the things you need. So you can download all of -core, and then specific
> plugins you need from -more and the Clientcide libs and get a single js
> file.
>
> As for all of this being too complex, we've tried our best to make this as
> simple and usable as we can. Is there something specific that you're having
> problems with?
>
> Looking at the error that you get with dbug, I don't think the problem is
> with dbug (as, again, it has no dependencies). Your example script uses
> domready (note that dbug.log doesn't interact with the DOM, so you don't
> need to wait for it to log things), so if your clientcide download only
> included dbug, and you didn't also include the MooTools -core (or at least
> DomReady from it), then you'd get an error.
>
> Can you post your test online?
>

> On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Jon Hancock <shellsha...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > As a new user, I'm having difficulty getting a working mootools lib.
> > As near as I can tell, the online build tools are too complex.  I
> > download an uncompressed mootools-1.2.3-core-nc.js and head over to

> >http://www.clientcide.com/jsto get the dbug script.  Wow this page

[Aaron Newton]

Jon,

The Depender app which I've mentioned previously does exactly that. It produces a file you can download, but in the header of the file gives you a url to reproduce that file. It will be in the next version of the downloader.

[cbolson]

Hi,
I must admit to have not been famliliar with the clientside depender,
how could I have missed that?

However, I think that it would be a good idea to add a list of the
components selected to the more.js file so that one could see at a
glance what has been included.
Just my 2p :)

Chris

On Sep 10, 5:41 pm, Aaron Newton <aa...@iminta.com> wrote:
> Jon,
> The Depender app which I've mentioned previously does exactly that. It
> produces a file you can download, but in the header of the file gives you a
> url to reproduce that file. It will be in the next version of the
> downloader.
>

> > > >http://www.clientcide.com/jstoget the dbug script.  Wow this page

[Aaron Newton]

The depender app is still in development and not really released yet. I'm writing a Django version presently, which is far more performant w/ regards to caching. The API and interface may change slightly.

Also note that if you want to use it interactively, there's a javascript client that lets you lazy load components on the fly. This is also still in development (it works fine, but the interface may change). Further, there's a version of Depender written entirely in Javascript. Both of these are in the current trunk of mootools-more.