jQuery sliding menu revisited
A few months ago I posted a sliding menu using jQuery and some users asked for a few changes in it: the ability to preload images and making the entire block clickable. So here it is, check the example, a new improved sliding menu based on our favourite JavaScript library, jQuery.
The markup
It will not be different from the previous one, and all the changes will be made in the script and the css style.
<ul id="iconbar"> <li><a href="#"> <img src="key.gif" alt="" /> <span>Change your password</span> </a></li> <li><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ilovecolors" target="_blank"> <img src="rss.gif" alt="" /> <span>Suscribe to our RSS!</span> </a></li> <li><a href="#"> <img src="sel.gif" alt="" /> <span>Choose your options!</span> </a></li> </ul>
As you can see, it’s a simple list with an img and a span tag nested inside an anchor. In the first moment, the span is hidden due to the anchor width. When mouse rolls over the anchor, we will expand its width to reveal the span.
Style
In order for the span to appear next to the icon, we will position it absolutely. To do so, we will add relative positioning to the li item. We will give the anchor a width of 24px, which is the width of our icon and then a bit of padding to give it some fresh air.
#iconbar li {
float:left;
position:relative;
overflow: hidden;
margin-right:20px;
background:#E8E8F9;
border: 1px dashed #ffc0ff;
}
#iconbar a {
text-decoration: none;
outline: none;
color:#d00000;
display: block;
width: 24px;
padding: 10px;
cursor:pointer;
}
#iconbar span {
width: 100px;
height: 35px;
position: absolute;
display: none;
line-height:110%;
color:#409BED;
padding-left: 10px;
}
Script
The Javascript code for this slide menu adds the image preloading even before the document is ready.
jQuery.preloadImages = function()
{
for(var i = 0; i<arguments.length; i++)
jQuery("<img>").attr("src", arguments[i]);
}
jQuery.preloadImages("key.gif", "keyo.gif", "rss.gif", "rsso.gif", "sel.gif", "selo.gif");
When the document is ready, we attach the hover function to the anchors on the list. When mouse is over an anchor, it will expand its width up to 140px, wide enough to reveal the span and the icon is replaced by the one having its name ending in “o.gif”. In the previous example the original image name was splitted at “.” but this could arise to some issues if the image was being taken from a parent directory like “../image.gif”. In that case the split was performed at the two points.
jQuery(document).ready(function(){
$("#iconbar li a").hover(
function(){
var iconName = $(this).children("img").attr("src");
var origen = iconName.split(".gif")[0];
$(this).children("img").attr({src: "" + origen + "o.gif"});
$(this).animate({ width: "140px" }, {queue:false, duration:"normal"} );
$(this).children("span").animate({opacity: "show"}, "fast");
},
function(){
var iconName = $(this).children("img").attr("src");
var origen = iconName.split("o.")[0];
$(this).children("img").attr({src: "" + origen + ".gif"});
$(this).animate({ width: "24px" }, {queue:false, duration:"normal"} );
$(this).children("span").animate({opacity: "hide"}, "fast");
});
});
You might have noticed that I added a cursor: pointer style to the anchor. Why is that? because in IE6 and 7 when the anchor is expanded, if the mouse is in the new area that wasn’t previously considered within the boundaries of the anchor, the cursor reverts to text cursor.
That’s all we need to finish our sliding menu. Here’s the source file
so you can check it out for yourself.
function(){
var iconName = $(this).children(“img”).attr(“src”);
var origen = iconName.split(“.gif”)[0];
$(this).children(“img”).attr({src: “” + origen + “o.gif”});
$(this).css(“cursor”, “pointer”);
$(this).animate({ width: “140px” }, {queue:false, duration:”normal”} );
$(this).children(“span”).animate({opacity: “show”}, “fast”);
},
function(){
var iconName = $(this).children(“img”).attr(“src”);
var origen = iconName.split(“o.”)[0];
$(this).children(“img”).attr({src: “” + origen + “.gif”});
$(this).animate({ width: “24px” }, {queue:false, duration:”normal”} );
$(this).children(“span”).animate({opacity: “hide”}, “fast”);
});
});
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[...] jQuery sliding menu revisited [...]
Looks great except the green text shows up before it’s fully loaded (slid out) which is a bit of a cosmetic issue for me.
Bookmarked for sure though
[...] http://www.ilovecolors.com.ar/jquery-sliding-menu/ [...]
Branden: the green text? perhaps you could post a screenshot, including the browser you’re using? thanks
That`s perfect , great work
Very nice. You can add overflow:hidden to
#iconbar li{ } if you want to avoid the text showing over the edge of the block while expanding.
JMCG thanks, I completely overlooked that issue. I’ve added it to the example, the code on the post and the downloaded file.
Thanks for the tutorial. I’ve bookmarked and tweeted it.
[...] ilovecolors] [...]
jQuery sliding menu revisited…
A new improved sliding menu based on our favourite JavaScript library, jQuery….
First of all, I LOVE the all the illustrations & textures on your site! I also love the sliding menu effect & this is a great tutorial. Is it possible to have more than 1 sliding menu on a single page? (I really hope so!)
I have a similar-looking JQuery menu currently working (based on a different tutorial I found a couple of days ago), but I don’t know how to code the combination hover function so that two menus will work. I’ve been struggling with this for hours! Any tips are much appreciated! Thank you.
It works fine not only with the standard page widget but also with the Flexi Pages Widget.
Nice work – Thank You!
Carolyn, thanks for your idea. I will write soon a new tutorial to apply this menu several times in a page.
Bjorn, are you talking about the Pages widget folding menu?
Thank you so much – I really appreciate your efforts!! Will look forward to learning more
[...] jQuery sliding menu revisited [...]
[...] jQuery sliding menu revisited [...]
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Hi there,
I have been trying for the past couple of hours to get this working for me. Originally, i changed the images to my own… and everything worked fine except the buttons wouldnt slide… so then i tried putting the images you used in.. still nothing. Then i downloaded the ZIP file, and didnt change anything except the links of the icons to my links… and still nothing. Then I tried keeping everything exactly the same, and it still didnt work! I checked to make sure my java was enabled… and it was… do you know what could be wrong??
Why preload images with JS when you can use image sprites? This reduces the use of HTTP Requests and speeds up loading.
[...] the articles about some interface elements tutorials using the jQuery library, like rotating tabs, sliding menus or rollovers and [...]
You can make a wonderful menu. Thank you for the lesson man.
Thanks very much, this is a great app and it’s perfect for my purposes, except one small thing. Would it be possible to make the slider slide from right too left instead(flip the action) and if so how ?
is there a way to have the effect sliding to the left, instead of right ?
how can I replace the icons ending in o.gif with other images? What should I change in the general.js script?
Sorry but I’m not an expert programmer.
Criss
nice widget… i will try in my web
Thanks for the code. Very useful! But, how can i nest a submenu inside the span?
I have 2 queries.
1) Is it really necessary to add the “image preload” code line to the beginnign of the javascript? I have noticed that the script works fine even if that line is deleted.
2) please tell me how to slide the text of the icon to the right
cheers
Criss, the preload line is neccesary so that no blank spots appears due to the browser loading an image. I could have created the effect using a sprite, but I wanted to show how to preload images using jQuery.
To slide it to the right you might have to use a different approach with absolute positioning, setting right fixed, and moving the block to the left. Finally, regarding the question you sent me by email, borrar.css is just a reset stylesheet.
Elio, thank you very much for your attention and explanations. I’m not an expert programmer but I’ll figure out how to slide to the opposite direction and will post it here for the community to know. Cheers.
That would be great Criss!
ok, with a little help from a friend I have been able to have the slide to the left.
Just modify “left” to “right” in the the line:
#iconbar {position:absolute; top:25%; right:45%; text-shadow:0 1px 0 #eee;}
Be aware that this only slides the entire block. The goal is also to have the icon description at the left side of the icon. Any help? I’ll keep testing.
ok, if you add #iconbar img {float:right;} to the CSS, the description will slide to the left. The only problem is that the padding is too wide. Can anyone help telling me how to reduce it=
It’s final! To reduce the right padding add text-align:right to #iconbar in CSS, and then fiddle with the widths in #iconbar span and $(this).animate({ width: “140px” }.
Cheers
hey! thanks for sharing this. I will put it together later to test it and publish it giving you the well deserved credit
thanks for sharing!
[...] А с помощью jQuery пришлось бы писать как-то так. [...]
nice post but it’ll be better using css3) as for me
Thanks for this great widget! I am trying to add it in a project of mine.. what I have noticed is that it seems to freeze for a little while the page loads.. is it because of the use of jQuery(document).ready(function()? Is there any way to prevent it from slowing down the whole page loading? Thanx!!!
Dimitris, do you mean that the rollovers are freezed while it’s loading, or the whole page is freezed? If it’s the first case, maybe you could hide them from the stylesheet and show them on document.ready. Otherwise you might want to move your tags to the bottom of the page. The script won’t freeze the page any more than any other tag that you add.
Thanks for the reply Elio! I’m not sure what happens… the page loads but the rollovers don’t work for a while.. it seems like the page waits for the menu to load and then suddenly it works perfectly! How can I hide them from the stylesheet? I tried
#iconbar a:hover{
display:none}
but didn’t work… am I doing something wrong?
OK, it seems to be a hosting server issue eventually! Locally (apache) the page loads perfectly, when I upload it on the server (windows server) the page has the issues I mentioned… I tried on a second server (apache, not local) and the page loads perfectly again! So I guess I have to either change hosting server. or stay with what I get…
Well that is indeed weird. By hiding the menu, I meant that you could add a layer on top of the entire area of the sliding menu and remove it only when the document is ready, like this:
jQuery(document).ready(function(){
jQuery(".hidinglayer").hide();
});
In this way, the layer will be hidden once the document is ready. You could add a “Loading…” text or something.
However, it’s a very weird behaviour and it would be better to solve the core issue.
[...] Create a Sliding Menu Using jQuery [...]
If it is indeed a hosting server problem I don’t think there is much I can do! Thanks for the interest anyway mate!
How about submenues?
In the same way than the menu expands to the right when the mouse is over, you could expand your submenu towards the bottom of each parent menu item.
I luv it… thanks elio
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¡Hola!
La verdad es que me encanta este efecto, y me gustaría poder incluirlo en mi blog (blogger) para sustituir el diseño de las tabs de la plantilla.
He tratado de hacerlo, pero no sé donde hay que incluir cada parte del código, en qué situación del código css de la plantilla.
¿Podrías hacernos un breve tutorial para novatos, sobre cómo poder poner este tipo de efectos en los tabs?
¡Gracias!
[...] jQuery sliding menu revisited [...]
Hello, and thanks for a great tutorial!
I am just about new to everything other than html, but I’ve managed to implement this script to my wordpress-driven blog, but I have one problem:
The whole animation thing works just perfect the first time I hover them. However – if I hover – the move the cursor outside the box so the animation “goes back to normal” and then hover again, my span-text goes offset, and displays under the icon instead. Take a look here: http://departementet.org/v1/2010/11/04/vi-tar-ansvaret/ if you don’t understand my poor english. (It’s the FB, Twitter and RSS icons just before the comments)
Again, thank you for this great script!
Harald, for some strange reason, the first time your item is hovered, the span is set to display:inline, which is correct (you can check it on the example here), but then, the span is set to display:block, thus causing the span dropping to the next line. The code is identical so it should work. Maybe some other style that you have might be in conflict? jQuery versions?
Maybe you could do the following in the script: replace the first occurrence of “fast”, within the first function for the hover() event with:
{ duration: "fast", complete: function(){ jQuery(this).attr( {"style": "display:inline" } ) }
This will create a new function to be executed when the animation to display the label is finished. That function will force the span display to inline.
Don’t work on my site. (Unless I am missunderstanding something, that is). I replaced this:
function(){var iconName = jQuery(this).children("img").attr("src");
var origen = iconName.split(".png")[0];
jQuery(this).children("img").attr({src: "" + origen + "h.png"});
jQuery(this).css("cursor", "pointer");
jQuery(this).animate({ width: "145px" }, {queue:false, duration:"fast"} );
jQuery(this).children("span").animate({opacity: "show"}, "fast");
},
with this:
function(){var iconName = jQuery(this).children("img").attr("src");
var origen = iconName.split(".png")[0];
jQuery(this).children("img").attr({src: "" + origen + "h.png"});
jQuery(this).css("cursor", "pointer");
jQuery(this).animate({ width: "145px" }, {queue:false, duration:"fast" complete: function(){ jQuery(this).attr( {"style": "display:inline" } ) }} );
jQuery(this).children("span").animate({opacity: "show"}, "fast");
},
- is that what you ment?
All that results in is that there is no animation at all.
And also, I am not using any other jQuery on the site. And the version I am using is v.1.4.3
Harald, replace the first occurrence. In the code you pasted above, check line 11, that says
"show"}, "fast");
Replace the fast that appears there with the code I gave you in my previous comment. Leave the rest as it was before
Sorry, still nothing. I am new to jQuery and all, so I tried “everything” hehe – I tried replacing:
fast
“fast”
, “fast”
, “fast”)
“fast”)
…and nothing worked
no prob buddy, try this
jQuery.preloadImages = function()
{
for(var i = 0; i<arguments.length; i++)
jQuery("").attr("src", arguments[i]);
}
jQuery.preloadImages("key.gif", "keyo.gif", "rss.gif", "rsso.gif", "sel.gif", "selo.gif");
jQuery(document).ready(function(){
$("#iconbar li a").hover(
function(){
var iconName = $(this).children("img").attr("src");
var origen = iconName.split(".gif")[0];
$(this).children("img").attr({src: "" + origen + "o.gif"});
$(this).css("cursor", "pointer");
$(this).animate({ width: "140px" }, {queue:false, duration:"normal"} );
$(this).children("span").animate({opacity: "show"}, { duration: "fast", complete: function(){ jQuery(this).attr( {"style": "display:inline" } ) });
},
function(){
var iconName = $(this).children("img").attr("src");
var origen = iconName.split("o.")[0];
$(this).children("img").attr({src: "" + origen + ".gif"});
$(this).animate({ width: "24px" }, {queue:false, duration:"normal"} );
$(this).children("span").animate({opacity: "hide"}, "fast");
});
});
it should work
Nope
I REALLY appreciate your help, but it just don’t seem to work for me, hehe. I copied your script right from the reply here now, only changing the imagenames (and .gif to .png) but it still won’t work. No animation what so ever
But don’t worry – please don’t waste anymore time on support, hehe, I’ll figure out something else
how can i make it vertical? i tried a lot but while hovring over any LI, all the LIs expand…
Thanks the author, this information to me has very much helped)
main i love your design
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This is a lovely tutorial. Im using it for my website flash and would want the first span to be expanded by default. Any one know hw ?
hi
i have the same problem please help us:
how can i make it vertical? i tried a lot but while hovring over any LI, all the LIs expand…
I have the same issue as Harald Halvorsen where the text is dropping down. I have narrowed it down to the jquery.min.js i am using. I am linking colorbox with your neato slide menu. Colorbox uses the .min.js and if I try to use the .min with the slide menu I get the text dropping down. If I try to use the jquery.js with colorbox it does not work…. Any suggestions??
I forgot to mention in my post above that this problem only happens in Firefox. Works perfectly in IE.
Hi Mike, after your comment, I thought it was an issue with the jQuery version, but I’ve just tested the demo with the jQuery 1.4.4 version bundled with WordPress 3.1 and it works. I did had to replace $( ocurrences by jQuery(because WordPress uses the latter to avoid conflicts with other js libraries, but other than that, it just worked. Regarding Firefox, I’ve tested the demo in FF 3.6 and new FF4.
Thanks Elio.
I appreciate you looking into this. I spent hours last night. Like I mentioned I am linking colorbox to your slide menu. The color box pulls up a modal window with an iframe. The Colorbox comes with the .min.js. If I comment out the jquery.min.js (for colorbox) then slide menu works perfect but the colorbox does not work. If I comment out Jquery.js the The slide menu does not work and colorbox works fine. If I have both in then slide menu works the first time you look at it but then if you mouse off and mouse back to it then the text drops below the icon…. but the colorbox works fine. Again this “unique” occurance only happens in Firefox. IE works fine (or ignores what every issue FF is not overlooking.. what ever the case may be
)
Thanks again for your attention to this matter
Very nice effect and the code is pretty clean. I like this!
Please change the link for lazydreamer site its lazydreamer.co.cc
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Hi,
I have a problem with the script in that it does not place back the origional images after hover. It seems that it has some thing to do with the domain.
When the site loads the image urls are http://www.mydomain.co.za/images/keyo.png
Once hovered it changes to http://www.mydomain.c.png”
Can you assist in fixing this issues?
Dave, that is because the images are selectively placed by detecting and/or trimming the “o.” string. That’s why I used names like keyo.gif for the hover state and key.gif for the normal state. Try renaming your hover images to keyh.gif and replacing the occurrences of “o.” with “h.” in the script.
Thanks,
I gave the “h. a try and the result is the same. The image in the generated code still remains http://www.mydomain.co.za/c.png
It seems as though the script is trimming the “.co.za/key” after hover.
Any ideas?
Dave
Apologies, a ctrl R on the site and it works like a charm now. You are a genius.!
like i said in the previous comment, you’ll have to edit the script too to reflect the change in your image naming.
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Muito Obrigado pelo codigo!
Ajudou muito!
\o/
Hey, when you hover on and off and on and off repeatedly you get a funny effect. You need to you stop(true, true) or something like that on your text within the buttons to stop the animation backlogging and repeating over and over.
[...] the articles about some interface elements tutorials using the jQuery library, like rotating tabs, sliding menus or rollovers and [...]