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Disable Mootools Javascript from Joomla 1.5 frontend

// June 25th, 2009 // Joomla

Whilst I have nothing against the MooTools javascript library for websites (it’s an awesome resource), I have built a lot of Joomla 1.0.x sites using the Jquery Javascript library. Now, this can cause a few conflicts, and it seems that with the introduction of Joomla 1.5.x, you’re pretty much forced into using it. or so I thought….

A quick google search on the subject revealed some nice ways to disable it from the frontend of your website (not appropriate for the backend, as it uses the MT library extensively.

I am by far no Javascript or php guru, but can get done what I need. Anyhow, the nicest bit of code i found to do the job was:

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<?php
$user =&amp; JFactory::getUser();
if ($user-&gt;get('guest') == 1 || $user-&gt;get('usertype') == 'Registered') {
$headerstuff = $this-&gt;getHeadData();
$headerstuff['scripts'] = array();
$this-&gt;setHeadData($headerstuff); }
?>

Perfect, just add it to your template > index.php file, right above:

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  <jdoc:include type="head" />

I wanted to take it a step further (since I am building a few templates), and make it easy for anyone to change. Since Joomla 1.5 has a parameters file (which stores settings selected from templateDetails.xml), I simply added my on/off select button to the .xml file, defined the parameters in my template index file, and it works.

This is the code, and steps to make this happen.

In your Joomla 1.5 template folder:
templates > your_template_folder

open up: templateDetails.xml and add the following:

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<param name="@spacer" type="spacer" default="" label="" description=""/>	
 
<param name="Use_Mootools" type="radio" default="1" label="Disable Mootools Javascript library frontend?" description="Do you want to Disable the MooTools javscript library frontend?">			
<option value="0">No</option>			
<option value="1">Yes</option>		
</param>

The Parameters are usually at the end of the .xml file. You can declare many tyopes of parameters this way (as long as you also declare them in the index.php heade). If your .xml file doesn’t have any parameters yet, simply add the code between:

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<params>
add it here
</params>

Now open up your templates index.php file. in between the < head > … < /head > area, AFTER:

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defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' );

we need to declare our new parameter, so add the following:

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/* Definition whether to enable or disable Mootools and captions.js files
This parameter should be turned off if you don't use any modules or Core Joomla compoinents that require it */
$Use_Mootools = ($this->params->get("Use_Mootools", 1) == 1)?"yes":"no"; // yes | no

Now that we have declared our variable, we need to envoke the code (or not).
So, add the following code:

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  <?php if($Use_Mootools == "yes") {
  	$user =& JFactory::getUser();
	if ($user->get('guest') == 1 || $user->get('usertype') == 'Registered') {
	$headerstuff = $this->getHeadData();
	$headerstuff['scripts'] = array();
	$this->setHeadData($headerstuff); }
 	} ?>

right before:

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<jdoc:include type="head" />

Now, Open up your admin, edit the template, on the right you’ve got the parameters, select no/yes, and test. hopefully it all went smoothly!

Edit:

There is plugin available, that will do just this for you, in case you don’t want to edit your templates. :
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/core-enhancements/scripts/8403/details , my code gives template developers the opportunity to turn it off…

As pointed out by 2estrellas, this code may strip all code. I stumbled across a great blog over at
highub, so def check it out, but try changing:

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  <?php if($Use_Mootools == "yes") {
  	$user =& JFactory::getUser();
	if ($user->get('guest') == 1 || $user->get('usertype') == 'Registered') {
	$headerstuff = $this->getHeadData();
	$headerstuff['scripts'] = array();
	$this->setHeadData($headerstuff); }
 	} ?>

to

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  <?php if($Use_Mootools == "yes") {
$headerstuff = $this->getHeadData();
reset($headerstuff['scripts']);
$moo = key($headerstuff['scripts']);
unset($headerstuff['scripts'][$moo]);
$this->setHeadData($headerstuff);
 	} ?>