Ajax pros, especially in the Rails world, often know the Prototype and Scriptaculous JavaScript libraries inside and out. When faced with the prospect of writing on top of the competing jQuery framework, they may quickly stumble upon seemingly missing features.
The culprit? jQuery’s less-is-more approach, in which advanced or specialized features come via plugins instead of the core library. The greater reliance on single-purpose plugins gives jQuery a lean footprint and a vibrant ecosystem, but they come at a cost. You often must rope in several plugins to accomplish things Prototype and Scriptaculous can do out of the box.
If you want to encourage your team to step out of the Prototaculous mindset, it helps to have a readymade list of plugins that approximate those libraries’ core features. At this point jQuery and Prototype approach feature parity, but once Scriptaculous is in the mix, jQuery relies on multiple plugins to keep up with the Joneses. Here’s a quick stab at how to trick out jQuery:
- jQuery UI: jQuery’s user-interface library. Some components offer effects functionality similar to Scriptaculous’s, while others offer prefab UI components like the ones that are starting to roll out from Prototype UI. If you’re looking for tried-and-true effects such as drag-and-drop, this is where you’ll find them.
- jQuery FxQueues 2.0: The latest version of Luciano German Panaro’s effects-queue plugin. It rewires jQuery’s native global effects queue with fine-grained effects queues like the ones that ship with Scriptaculous.
- jEditable: In-place editing for the jQuery crowd. When coupled with other plugins, it offers in-place versions of utilities ranging from time pickers to character counters.
- jQuery Autocomplete: Dylan Verheul’s much-revised solution to the original killer app of the Ajax era.
- jQuery Easing 1.3: Advanced animation tweening algorithms for jQuery visual effects.
It’s worth noting one additional feature that Scriptaculous offers: A built-in unit-testing library that can be utilized for your outside JavaScript code. Of course, several standalone JS unit-testing solutions exist out in the wild, including the well-known jsUnit. Michael Grosser also offers jqUnit, a jsUnit-compatible testrunner for jQuery code.
What about you, readers? What jQuery plugins give you the most seamless transition from Prototype and Scriptaculous?
