madrobby/scripty2

== scripty2: for a more delicious web

scripty2 is an open source JavaScript framework for advanced HTML-based user interfaces. Or simply put, scripty2 helps you build a more delicious web:

• Visual effects: scripty2's heartpiece is an versatile real-time effects framework
• CSS utilities
• UI components (experimental)

And there's more coming! scripty2 is currently in alpha status, so APIs can change and there's still a lot more functionality planned.

scripty2 is a complete rewrite and reimplementation of script.aculo.us, with are modular structure intended to ease the development of highly customized user interface effects and behaviours.

Please use http://groups.google.com/group/scripty2 for any development questions for scripty2. Patches, tests, demos, updates and documentation are always welcome.

= Build

For building, development and testing, you need to have a working Ruby setup. You'll need the bluecloth, treetop and coderay gems installed.

To build the distribution, run:

rake && rake package

This will build the documentation (in /doc) and provides ready-to-deploy JavaScript packages in /dist.

The build process uses the YUI Compressor to build a minified version of the library file. This requires Java to be installed and available.

After the build process is done, you'll find two files in /dist:

• s2.js (for debugging)
• s2.min.js (minified version for production use)

Though scripty2 has been used to great effect on several high-volume websites, keep in mind that scripty2 effects are in beta. APIs are subject to change before final release.

== Build with UI

The scripty2 UI controls are under heavy development and are still in alpha. They're not included when you run the standard rake tasks. To build a distributable with UI controls included, run:

rake dist:experimental

There are several other *:experimental tasks corresponding to common actions. Run rake -T to see the list of tasks.

= Usage

scripty2 is dependent on the Prototype JavaScript framework. The download and source comes with a compatible version, or grab the latest version yourself from http://prototypejs.org/.

Put prototype.js and s2.js in a folder of your website, and include them as follows:

You're ready to go! Now look at the documentation and demos (see below!).

= Documentation

To build the documentation, run:

rake doc

The documentation is built with PDoc, which uses specially formatted source code comments to build a fully interactive HTML documentation set.

Navigate a browser to /doc/index.html to view and browse the documentation.

= Tests

To run the unit tests, use:

rake test

You can run specific tests, or use only specific browsers:

rake test BROWSERS=safari TESTS=css,heartbeat

= License

scripty2 is is licensed under the terms of the MIT License, see the included MIT-LICENSE file.