As a JavaScript developer, you will already be aware of some of the time saving, convenience, and functionality provided to you by JavaScript/Ajax libraries in general. Prototype and its sister effects library, script.aculo.us, are among the most popular and bestsupported JavaScript libraries, and now Prototype Core team member Andrew Dupont has written this book to provide you with an essential guide to getting the most out of using Prototype and script.aculo.us. Practical Prototype and script.aculo.us will help you leverage the Prototype and script.aculo.us libraries to enhance your daytoday work, speeding up mundane tasks and providing advanceduser interfaceeffects in a way that is crossbrowser complianttaking many worries off your shoulders. Take a whirlwind tour of the different timesaving functions and features Prototype provides and how it extends the basic JavaScript objects, including events, Ajax techniques, DOM elements, enumerables, and advanced object-oriented programming. Understand how script.aculo.us fits into the wider world of DOM Scripting/DHTML; find out how to use it to enhance your user interfaces quickly and effectively, with UI controls, effects, and drag and drop; and discover Prototype and script.aculo.us as a platform. The author avoids needless theory and rhetoric throughout the book, moving you through the topics at a fast pace. He incorporates several realworld examples to help you gain valuable practical experience as you learn. Practical Prototype and script.aculo.us is completely up to date and features serverside examples written in PHP that show the framework can be used effectively in more environments than just Ruby on Rails. Master all the convenience functions of Prototype to speed up your JavaScript/Ajax development Leverage script.aculo.us to turbo charge your dynamic UIs Learn from JavaScript expert Andrew Dupont, one of the Prototype Core team members What youll learn How to use all of the basic timesaving/convenience functions of Prototype How to use enumberables to speed up looping, arrays, etc. How to enhance your Ajax applications with Prototype How Prototype makes working with events and DOM elements a cinch How script.aculo.us fits into DOM Scripting/DHTML How to make use of the basic effects available in script.aculo.us Mastery ofuser interfacecontrols and drag and drop in script.aculo.us How to treat Prototype and script.aculo.us as a platform How to use Prototype and script.aculo.us effectively with PHP and other serverside setups besides Ruby on Rails Who this book is for This book is for any JavaScript developer who wants to employ Prototype/script.aculo.us in his or her daytoday work.