My favorite jQuery Plugins

By Tim Carey | Posted on 2009-10-22

It's really amazing to see what one can create using jQuery. Developers just don't stop making incredibly interactive web applications every now and then. This post just demonstrates excellent examples of some of the best jQuery plugins out there.

JSON Suggest Box »
Turn a text box into an auto suggest box which search's and displays results specified in a JSON string either on construction or dynamically. The set of results can contain images and extra details about each item. If must atleast contain the text to actually search on. The chosen item can optionally be sent to a callback method and is sent as the full object it was specified as from the JSON string. You can include as many extra variables as you want as part of the result.

jQuery Sliders »
A similar effect used to showcase the products on the Apple web site. This 'product slider' is similar to a straight forward gallery, except that there is a slider to navigate the items, i.e. the bit the user controls to view the items. Simple stuff.

jQuery Manipulating Images »
Crop-Gives your visitors the power to crop any image on the fly using JavaScript only. Also there are 2 other plugins: LabelOver and Pluck.

jQuery Sliding Image Puzzle »
Creates sliding-image puzzles based on containers that have images.

jQuery iDock »
This is a wonderful plugin that allows you to create a menu on your web like the Mac OS X operating system dock effect one.

jQuery Featured Content Glider »
This script lets you painlessly showcase new or featured contents on your page, by turning ordinary pieces of HTML content into an interactive, "glide in" slideshow. For the ultimate in the ability to customize its look, the pagination links are also ordinary links that you define on the page, but with special CSS class names inserted when it should perform a certain task (ie: "toc" class if it's a pagination link). This means the pagination links can be styled and arranged any way you like. The script enlists the help of the jQuery library for its engine.

prettyPhoto | A jQuery Lightbox Variation »
prettyPhoto is a jQuery based lightbox clone. Not only does it support images, it also add support for videos, flash, YouTube, iFrames. It's a full blown media lightbox.

jQuery Form Validation »
Easy way to add form validation for email addresses and other data types. Of course, since jQuery is JavaScript-based (ie. client side), you should always validate forms on the server side as well.

jQuery Navigation Tabs »
Great for tabbed sections of your website. Part of the jQuery UI creates slick looking tabbed panels to your web pages.

jQuery Datepicker »
The datepicker is tied to a standard form input field. Focus on the input (click, or use the tab key) to open an interactive calendar in a small overlay. Choose a date, click elsewhere on the page (blur the input), or hit the Esc key to close. If a date is chosen, feedback is shown as the input's value.


I will definitely be adding more of my "favorites" to this section as I run across them, so be sure to bookmark this page and come back soon. Enjoy!

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Comments

Nice collection of JQUERY plugins, dude! I need to incorporate this more into my sites.

Posted by AnonymousReagan | 2009-12-13

I am a HUGE fan of jQuery! There is such a repository of plugins available to use with jQuery, making the lives of developers soooo much easier! Great article on jQuery and thanks for the "best of" links!

Posted by Tim R | 2009-10-22

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