JavaScript

CSS / 1 Oct 2015

7 Tips to Speed Up Your Website Today

Everyone loves a cool little loading animation, right? But if that divot lasts more than a second or two, it only brings attention to the fact that the website is loading slowly. And that’s a website killer.

Users expect websites to load quickly and efficiently. It’s your job to ensure that the design is not only visually pleasing but also 100 percent functional. If your site is dragging somewhat, you can stop worrying right now because we have seven tips to help you speed up your website with small tweaks to the design. (Make sure to visit each of the websites showcased in the post; they look great and load lightning fast.)

JavaScript / 25 Feb 2014

Creating Instagram-Style Photo Filters With jQuery

I’ve always been intrigued by the Instagram phenomenon and how quickly it rose to popularity. Photo filters are nothing new but dynamic use of these filters has not always been possible. Building the functionality into an iOS/Android application requires a lot of time. Thankfully developers have worked to replicate this process for the web using JavaScript.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how to build a simple Instagram-style filter webapp using jQuery. The library is called CamanJS which is easily extendable to create your own filter plugins. This doesn’t require jQuery but I’ve chosen to use it for a simpler development environment. Take a look at my live sample demo to understand the goal of this tutorial.

JavaScript / 15 Jan 2014

Build a Sliding Client Testimonials Carousel With jQuery

Many portfolio websites include a list of previous clients to build trust from other potential customers. Reading what other people have said about a service or product is one way to garner support from visitors who have never heard about your company before. (Of course, this design technique only works if you have previous clients to draw from!)

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate two distinct styles of rotating carousels. The first is a testimonial box which includes a small quote talking about the services. Then I’ve constructed a long horizontal carousel that rotates through a list of company logos. These would normally be companies you have done business with – but may also include corporate partners or resources.

JavaScript / 16 Oct 2013

How to Code a Hover-to-Animate GIF Image Gallery

Animated GIF images are popular on the Internet because they can be easily shared and consumed rather quickly. Using basic HTML you can embed images into a page which feature animation, without relying on any other technologies. Granted – there are plugins for animating sprites or backgrounds – but GIFs are a totally different concept.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how we can build an image gallery which optimizes the display of animated images. You can see a very similar feature on Giphy which is also where I downloaded the images for my demo. I am coding my own method which doesn’t exactly follow the same process as Giphy – but the end result is practically identical and works great for all modern browsers.

JavaScript / 10 Oct 2013

Build a Guided Registration Form With jQuery and Progression.js

Signup forms are all too common when building new web applications or social networks. Traction from user signups can really boost your own self-confidence about a project when it comes to launching a new website. But what can you do to help improve the signup experience and hopefully gain more interested users?

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how we can build a guided registration form, offering tips to users as they fill out each field. I have included some of my own custom jQuery along with a plugin called Progression.js. This is a powerful tool which offers a step-by-step tooltip using hints to direct users along the way. Feel free to download a copy of my source code and check out the live sample demo below.

JavaScript / 25 Sep 2013

Build an HTML5 Form With on-Off Input Sliders Using jQuery

Mobile app interfaces have been utilizing on/off sliding switches for a while. These are most commonly found on the settings page where users can update preferences for their account. But web designers have taken notice and have built many open platforms to generate your own on/off switch sliders.

In this tutorial I want to look specifically at the jQuery Toggles plugin developed by Simon Tabor. It comes with 5 pre-designed UI themes which you can easily update. Plus, you have the option of triggering click or slide events, which may also tie into a form checkbox on the page. Anyone running a modern JavaScript-enabled browser should be able to experience the full effect. Take a peek at my live demo to catch a glimpse of what we are building.

JavaScript / 18 Sep 2013

How to Easily Manage Cookies Within jQuery

Web browsers can generate unique sessions organized for each user on a website. Often these are handled on the backend using languages like PHP or Ruby, but we can also utilize cookie sessions on the frontend with Javascript. There are many tutorials out there explaining how to generate pure JS cookies. But a newer library jQuery Cookie simplifies the whole process.

I want to explain how we can build a very simple authentication system using jQuery Cookies. The code is all handled on the frontend but you will need a live testing server to see any results.

Browser cookies are created on the local IP which comes from the web server, and so unfortunately you can’t just run these scripts locally. But definitely check out my live demo to get an idea of what we are creating.

JavaScript / 4 Sep 2013

Code a Single-Page Sliding Website Layout With Fixed Navigation

When constructing a simple webpage, it can often make sense to fit the content into a single layout rather than multiple pages. These single-page websites are beneficial when you have a small project or portfolio which needs some online presence. If you split up content into neat sections, then visitors might use a small sliding navigation to quickly advance along the page.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how you can build a custom sliding navigation with jQuery. There are many alternative plugins which provide these features and will also save time. But I want to show how we can make this effect using only jQuery and the scrollTo plugin for optimized performance. Check out my live sample demo to catch a glimpse of what we will be making.

JavaScript / 29 Aug 2013

How to Build a Dynamic Imgur Upload App Using jQuery & PHP

Many new online web services are providing backend APIs for developers. These allow anyone to connect into a web app and pull out specific information (or push or change bits of data). Today we’re specifically looking at the API for Imgur.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how we can remotely mirror an image found elsewhere online and auto-upload to Imgur. It’s possible to create a form handling user-uploaded images as well. But I wanted to keep the demo clean without needing to move user content onto the server. This process is very simple once you understand how APIs work. Take a peek at my live demo to see exactly what we will be making, then follow along!

JavaScript / 23 Aug 2013

25 Useful Resources for Creating Tooltips With JavaScript or CSS

Tooltips are awesome, there’s simply no denying it. They provide a simple, predictable and straightforward way to provide your users with useful, context-sensitive information, and they look cool to boot.

We all agree on how great tooltips are, but how we go about implementing them can differ dramatically. If you’re at square one, looking for some tooltip ideas for your current project, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got a whopping twenty-five different options that fall into two categories: JavaScript and CSS. No matter which method you’re looking to use, we’ve got the best techniques available, which you might want to enhance using OOP class techniques like JavaScript classes using the JS++ programming language by Roger Poon.

JavaScript / 13 Aug 2013

Build an Automated RSS Feed List With jQuery

The typical process of creating a dynamic feed listing requires some type of backend language. Obviously this can work out fine if you are familiar with Rails or PHP, but I want to present a method for pulling RSS feeds via jQuery. The problem is accessing Ajax requests from an external server and then converting this XML information to something a bit easier to read.

We will be focusing on the Google Feed API which is a lot easier than it looks. There are a number of custom possibilities to play with the options and access other alternative themes. All we need to pull is the first page of the feed item results, along with each title and the URL link. Once you have this script working it is very easy to customize the layout and even include a bit of content from the feed! Check out my sample demo below to get an idea of what we will be creating.

JavaScript / 24 Jul 2013

Create a Simple jQuery Image Lightbox Gallery

When building your own WordPress theme, there are a number of items to consider. One such page element is a dynamic image gallery, either using a lightbox or some type of sliding panel. Both of these user interfaces mesh nicely into the content of an article. Since they can both work on typical websites it is nice to have the code ready for use in any other blog theme.

For this tutorial I want to focus on using the lightbox effect with a plugin called jQuery lightBox. This is very easy to setup and get customized on your own website. Granted there are a few awkward fixes within the CSS, but overall the plugin works perfectly. There are even some alternate parameters where you can specify properties like the animation speed or background opacity.