Exclusive updates on:

Prototype 1.6 and Script.aculo.us 1.8 Bring Performance and Ajax Enhancements

by Scott Delap on Nov 07, 2007 |

The final versions of Prototype 1.6.0 and script.aculo.us 1.8.0 have been released. The Prototype website states that this is the most significant update to the framework since its inception over two years ago. Among the new Prototype features:

Ajax transport objects are now automatically wrapped in an Ajax.Response object.
Ajax.Response includes support for accessing JSON response bodies as JavaScript objects via the responseJSON property.
The class API now includes full support for inheritance and superclass method calls. (See Mislav’s tutorial for more info.)
Class objects now have an addMethods method for adding instance methods after creation.
Prototype’s event API now supports firing DOM-based custom events with Element#fire.
The new dom:loaded custom event fires when the entire document has loaded and is ready for manipulation.
Object properties can now be used in template replacement strings.

The complementary Script.aculo,us 1.8 includes new features as well:

Complete rewrite of the in-place editing controls.
Full CSS inheritance support for Effect.Morph.
Support for tweening between two values of an element property or method call with Effect.Tween.
A new sound API for playing interface sound effect MP3s.
Numerous bug fixes and performance improvements.

In addition related news core contributor Christophe Porteneuve’s book Prototype & script.aculo.us which covers the final versions Prototype 1.6.0 and script.aculo.us 1.8.0 is now available. Finally, Andrew Dupont and Tobie Langel have been added to the Prototype development team.