This helper used JavascriptHelper. It create a div which open a another onclick with a visual effect. The content of the div is the template's result of a call to a module/action.

/**
 * Fonction my_div_to_remote
 * @author Julien Levasseur
 * @since - 13 sept. 07
 * Extend of my_button_to_remote. return a div.
 * 
 * Returns an html button to a remote action defined by 'url' (using the
 * 'url_for()' format) that's called in the background using XMLHttpRequest.
 *
 * See link_to_remote() for details.
 *
 */
function my_div_to_remote($name, $options = array(),$effect, $html_options = array())
{
  return my_div_to_function($name, $effect, remote_function($options), $html_options);
}
 
function my_div_to_function($name,$effect, $function, $html_options = array())
{
  $html_options = _parse_attributes($html_options);
  $html_options['onclick'] = $function.';'.$effect['onclickadd'].';return false;';
  return content_tag('div', $name, $html_options);
}
 

Example:

<?php echo my_div_to_remote('div de test',array('url'=>'principal/pret'),array('onclickadd' => visual_effect('toggle_blind', 'rem', array('duration' => 4.0))),array('style'=>'border: solid 1px;width:40px;height:40px;')) ?>
    <div id="rem" style="display:none;height:300px;border:solid 1px;">youpi</div>
 

(note: you can look up the options for the other various visual_effects from the script.aculo.us wiki tags page. Their usage is identical to this example.)

visual_effect('highlight', 'vendor',
array('startcolor' => "'#000000'", 'endcolor' => "'#ffffff'", 'restorecolor' => "'#FF0000'")))

simple, but has a few caveats:

-if you dont enclose the quotes with the color params, the js function color isnt quoted, and the highlight wont occur.

-i found behavior inconsistent without using 6 character RGB values (e.g., #000 didnt work).

-restorecolor can be omitted, but non web-safe colors wont always be restored to the original background color.

passing an options array works for any of the visual_effect() aliases.