Learning from the Best jQuery Plugins

Learning from the Best jQuery Plugins by Marc Grabanski

Created jQuery UI Datepicker and watch it grow like a weed

Made me very interested in examining plugins projects

TONS of jQuery Plugins

Looked at 500+ plugins and selected 30+ best

Picked plugins based on what I use or what was recommended

My BEST plugins list jQuery Plugins Toolbox http://marcgrabanski.com/jquery-plugins-toolbox/

What lessons can learn by examining plugin projects?

http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-bbq-plugin/

Everything one click away

Focused on Community

“it started out as a little snippet of code that almost every web developer, at one point or another, has written..” Ben Alman

Read Ben’s Story http://benalman.com/news/2010/04/cooking-bbq-the- original-recipe/

http://colorpowered.com/colorbox/

Themes

very customizable, 36 options

“I would make a selection based on how well it's appearance ﬁt the project at hand.” Jack Moore

“..added it to the jQuery plugin repository and make a post about it on Reddit.com. Bloggers picked it up from there”

http://www.eyecon.ro/colorpicker/

Simple API, great functionality, looks good

http://stilbuero.de/jquery/cookie

“jQuery itself lacked such functionality. cookie handling is such a basic requirement” Klaus Hartl

http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/

“at this stage in its lifecycle it's less about adding features and more about adding demos.” Mike Alsup

tons of demos commitment to community

http://www.ﬁlamentgroup.com/lab/ date_range_picker_using_jquery_ui_16_and_jquery_ui_css_framework/

mixes date picker with english

http://lab.smashup.it/ﬂip/

“I built Flip after discovering that you can create triangles/polygons by changing border properties of an element” Luca Manno

“people started downloading it and ask me for new features/bug ﬁxing”

http://jquery.malsup.com/form/

“early 2008 the form plugin initially evolved as a collaborative effort [through the mailing list].” Mike Alsup

“The most notable feature addition I made was the ability to support ﬁle uploads.”

“I really don't make an effort to spread the word about the Form Plugin, it seems to thrive on its own.”

http://code.google.com/p/ﬂot/

answers our burning questions of browser support right away

diverse demos shows versatility

“the existing open source Javascript chart solutions were somewhat limited. We specifically missed some interactive features for a client” Ole

“It is complicated. Really, you need to weigh the usefulness of new features against the complexity they add.”

http://code.google.com/p/js-hotkeys/

http://digitalbush.com/projects/masked-input-plugin/

“I built this plugin just to scratch an itch. I needed a masked input for a project I was working on and I wasn't happy with the current offerings” Josh

“The only place I've ever really talked about it was on the jQuery mailing list”

“Several people have submitted patches and bug reports. When I see something that I feel like I might use, then I'll implement it or roll a patch in.”

http://sorgalla.com/jcarousel/

DEMOS!

http://deepliquid.com/content/Jcrop.html

DEMOS!

“I originally built Jcrop because I had searched for competing image cropping plugins for jQuery and the offerings were marginal.” Kelly Hallman

“I sent out a message to the jQuery mailing list and sent messages inviting several high-proﬁle web development blogs.”

http://www.appelsiini.net/projects/jeditable

http://stanlemon.net/projects/jgrowl.html

DEMOS!

“as a Mac user I was familiar with Growl and decided that would serve as a good basis for what we were trying to do.” Stan Lemon

http://www.trirand.com/blog/jqgrid/jqgrid.html

Deep API and supporting documentation

DEMOS!

“I started the idea when I needed an easy way to represent database information in my project.” Tony

“I really try to extract the essence from the user requests.”

http://code.google.com/p/jquery-json/

http://www.jstree.com/

deep documentation and demos

“I decided to create a tree view after spending countless hours in searching for a tree that met all the requirements for a web-based CMS I was creating” Ivan

http://layout.jquery-dev.net/

http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/home/

“I build it for my personal need. I needed an simple editor which was not a bloated WYSIWYG editor.” Jay Salvat

http://plugins.jquery.com/project/metadata

http://code.google.com/p/noswfupload/

http://dev.herr-schuessler.de/jquery/popeye/

“I was really tired of seeing the same lightbox modal windows” “I wanted a gallery that could exist inline with the content” Christoph Schüßler

“I posted a link on dzone and on on digg.”

“I added a dedicated site and an account at uservoice ... there are also many requests which I'm not going to follow, as they deviated too much from the original purpose of the plugin.”

http://razorjack.net/quicksand/

Partnered with a designer to “create stunning demo & documentation website”

“I loved this effect on Mac apps” “I don't like Flash” “[I wanted to] do something cool and share it with people.. give back” Jack

“submitted the plugin to the jQuery website plugin repository, and drop a message on the jQuery group.”

http://ﬂesler.blogspot.com/2007/10/jqueryscrollto.html

“After reading Karl's article I realized that was a pretty useful thing that I needed myself” Ariel Flesler

“I didn't do much really, I posted on jquery-en about it, and kept doing that for major releases.”

“I tried ﬁltering through the requests and rejecting those features that seemed out of scope.”

http://www.fyneworks.com/jquery/star-rating/

http://tablesorter.com/docs/

http://haineault.com/media/jquery/ui-timepickr/page/

“Principally for fun and exploration purpose.” “[there is a] universally accepted form and behavior [of calendars] while there is no such thing for a time picker.” Maxime Haineault

“I posted a link on reddit and woke up the next morning to see that my submission had taken off quite well, enough to crash my VPS and down my site overnight.”

“.. when other programmers send me patches, I always commit them as soon as I can.”

“The most enriching part was probably learning how to deal with many ‘willing’ contributors. I learned that often hell is paved with good intentions, but I also learned how to manage hell.”

http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-tooltip/

http://jqueryui.com/

ThemeRoller

http://pixelmatrixdesign.com/uniform/

http://www.uploadify.com/

http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-validation/

“The validation plugin is the only one I've wrote from scratch, the others, like Tooltip, Accordion and Autocomplete, started with some code from someone else, usually where someone abandoned his plugin.” Jörn

http://jquery.thewikies.com/swfobject/

plugin theme SONG

In Summary

Authors Build Plugins to.. • Make Something Better • Fun / Exploration • Client Needs it

It is tough to decide on features and manage users’ feedback and patches.

The Best Plugins Have • Great demos • Documentation • Browser Support / Testing • Fun!

Questions? Marc Grabanski: http://marcgrabanski.com User interface and web application development. Examples: http://mjgin.com/work.html Twitter: http://twitter.com/1Marc Email: m@marcgrabanski.com

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Learning from the Best jQuery Plugins

by Marc Grabanski on Apr 24, 2010

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Learning from the Best jQuery Plugins — Presentation Transcript