LavaLamp for jQuery lovers! August 23rd, 2007
Hover above and feel for yourself, the nifty effect of Lava Lamp. What you just experienced is nothing but the LavaLamp menu packaged as a plugin for the amazing jQuery javascript library. I personally believe that the effect rivals that of flash – Don’t you? Especially considering the fact that it is extremely light weight.
Just so you know, it weighs just 700 bytes(minified)!
Often I have noticed, that the credits are usually granted towards the end. Just for a change, i am going to give my credits at the beginning. This effect was originally written by Guillermo Rauch for the mootools javascript library. All I did was to port it for the benefit of jQuery lovers. Thanks Guillermo for inspiring the javascript world with such a nice effect. A special thanks to Stephan Beal who named it “LavaLamp”, and to Glen Lipka for generously helping with the image sprites. Many fellow jQuery lovers also helped shape this plugin with valuable feedback in the mailing list. Thanks a ton, all you guys.
As User Interface developers, we know that one of the first widgets our visitors use is a “Menu”. Capturing their attention right there is something that we always strive for, and I guess LavaLamp is a step in that direction. Before you get bored with all this useless talk, let me get you started on integrating LavaLamp into your jQuery powered site.
I hope you agree that a typical HTML widget consists of 3 distinct components.
- A semantically correct HTML markup
- A CSS to skin the markup
- An unobstrusive javascript that gives it a purpose
Now lets follow the above steps and implement the LavaLamp menu for your site. Remember, In the process of porting from mootools to jQuery, i have simplified both the javascript and CSS for your convenience. So, be informed that you will need to follow the instructions on this page to get the jQuery version running. Follow the instructions on Guillermo Rauch’s page for the mootools version.
Step 1: The HTML
Since most UI developers believe that an unordered list(ul) represents the correct semantic structure for a Menu/Navbar, we will start by writing just that.
<ul class="lavaLamp">
<li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Plant a tree</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Travel</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Ride an elephant</a></li>
</ul>
In the markup above, “ul” represents the menu, and each “li” represents a menu-item. At this point it is crucial to understand that we will be adding another artificial “li” to represent the background of the currently highlighted menu-item. Since the background itself is cosmetic and doesn’t represent a menu-item, we will be adding it from javascript. Just to make sure we are in sync, “you need not add this li”, the LavaLamp plugin will take care of it. Once added, the “li” representing the background will look like this.
<li class="back"><div class="left"></div></li>
Step 2: The CSS
You can skin this markup in many different ways to achieve your own personalized menu. The following style sheet is just one possibility. A few more possibilities are demonstrated in the “Bonus” section towards the end of this blog entry.
/* Styles for the entire LavaLamp menu */
.lavaLamp {
position: relative;
height: 29px; width: 421px;
background: url("../image/bg.gif") no-repeat top;
padding: 15px; margin: 10px 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Force the list to flow horizontally */
.lavaLamp li {
float: left;
list-style: none;
}
/* Represents the background of the highlighted menu-item. */
.lavaLamp li.back {
background: url("../image/lava.gif") no-repeat right -30px;
width: 9px; height: 30px;
z-index: 8;
position: absolute;
}
.lavaLamp li.back .left {
background: url("../image/lava.gif") no-repeat top left;
height: 30px;
margin-right: 9px;
}
/* Styles for each menu-item. */
.lavaLamp li a {
position: relative; overflow: hidden;
text-decoration: none;
text-transform: uppercase;
font: bold 14px arial;
color: #fff; outline: none;
text-align: center;
height: 30px; top: 7px;
z-index: 10; letter-spacing: 0;
float: left; display: block;
margin: auto 10px;
}
Trust me, this is a simple style sheet. Follow along to understand what is done in each of its sections.
First, we style the “ul” with the bright orange background image and some basic properties like height, width, padding, margin etc. We use relative positioning because, that way we can absolutely position the background “li” relative to the “ul”. This helps by enabling us to move this background “li” freely within the context of the parent “ul”.
Next, we make the “li”s flow horizontally instead of vertically. By default, it flows vertically. There are a couple of techniques to do this. In this case, we are using the “float:left” to achieve this effect.
Next, we style the artifical “li” that represents the background of the currently highlighted menu-item. This uses the sliding doors technique. Also, notice the absolute positioning used as mentioned above.
Finally, we style the anchor that represents the actual clickable portion of each menu-item. These styles are mostly cosmetic and self-explanatory.
Some of the above rules may not be obvious if you are not very confident in how “positioning” works in CSS. For those, i highly encourage you to quickly read this article on CSS positioning. It is short, sweet and very informative.
Step 3: The Javascript
This is the easy part. Most of the javascript work is taken care by the Lava Lamp plugin itself. As a developer, you just have to include the mandatory and/or optional javascript files and fire a call to initialize the menu.
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/jquery.lavalamp.js"></script>
<!-- Optional -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/jquery.easing.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() { $(".lavaLamp").lavaLamp({ fx: "backout", speed: 700 })});
</script>
Include a reference to the jQuery library and the LavaLamp plugin. Optionally, include the easing plugin as well. It has many cool effects, that are not contained in the core. For instance, the “backout” effect used in this demo is part of the easing plugin. You can download jQuery here, Easing plugin here, and the LavaLamp plugin here.
Next, in the document.ready event, fire a call to initialize the menu. You have the option to supply an easing “fx” , the “speed” with which the animation happens and a callback to be executed when a menu-item is clicked. They are optional, the default “fx” being “linear” and the default “speed” being “500″ ms.
That’s it. At this point you should have a working version of LavaLamp menu for your site.
Bonus
Just with some minor changes in the style sheet, you can get a totally different look n feel for the menu. And yes, the HTML markup and the Javascript remain the same.
Here is one more variation, again with just some minor changes to the style sheet. I know, they don’t look pretty, but all i am saying is that you are limited only by your imagination.
Finally, for your convenience, i have zipped up all the necessary files into a cohesive package. Download it, and open the demo.html to see all the 3 variations in one page.
Feel free to leave a comment with your feedback, suggestions, requests etc.
Update
Based on popular request, LavaLamp Menu has been updated to support jquery 1.2.x versions. Download the zip file for version 0.2.0 of LavaLamp and open the demo.html to check it out for yourself. Since Firefox 3 has some issues with $(document).ready() function, try using $(window).load() instead if you face any problems. Hopefully a future version of Firefox or jQuery will fix the problem.
That was a really good tutorial! I followed the instructions and it worked very smoothly
Great Job!
You do realize that the links don’t work right? That renders this menu useless! How do you fix it?
To make the link works
you must go on the head of your index.html in the function of the script and set the return to true.
turn this
click: function(event, menuItem) {
return false;
}
into this
click: function(event, menuItem) {
return true;
}
best regards!
Hi…again thanks such a great tutorial!
If anyone knows how to make the lava lamp bg image disappear when the mouse is off the menu I’d be grateful if you let me know.
Thanks!!
This will be helpful for sites with “header” using to make working:
Home
Home
About
About
and so on… like 2 previous
In case it is not working try to change $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] to $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']
This will be helpful for sites with “header” using to make
working:Main
Main
Catalogue
Catalogue
and so on… like 2 previous
In case it is not working try to change $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] to $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']
/Please delete previous wrong post/
Pfff dunno how to paste here visible code…
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thanks for share..
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very informative post, thanks for sharing it with us
Verry Nice,
Is it possible to use it with images? 1 image for left, 1 image for right and 1 image for the middle of the menuoption?
I certainly enjoyed the way you explore your experience and knowledge of the subject! Keep up on it. Thanks for sharing the info
to create different results.
hy i have some problem lavalamp remoe my links see it on
http://desportonaescola.biuro.dogmat.eu/
when mouse over – button active there is no <A , only <div left
why ?
Thank You so much for the real.
I have some problem lavalamp remoe my links see it on …
I have some problem lavalamp remoe my links see it on …
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Hi Ganesh. Lovely work – thanks for sharing it! By default the background image has some transparency. Certainly the image that I have substituted is rendered semi-transparent. I can’t see where this is set? I’m adapting for my needs and need the background image to be full opacity. Thanks.
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Not sure why my background on the remote lava lamp won’t switch colors but I really like your script. It must be me.
Hello, I’ve tried everything I can think of getting lavalamp to work with wordpress 3.0.4 and no progress. Wondering if anyone found a way to make the active link remain highlighter. After clicking a link the “bubble” goes back to the original position. I have tried EVERYTHING including editing the nav_menu_template.php of wordpress nothing. Stressing out.
@Randy, I used this on a wordpress and to get round the fact that the menu wont highlight the active page (in other words the bubble doesnt sit over the link to the page you are on (the active page) it sits on the first li)
I just added an empty li as the first li, so that the bubble disappears totally until the menu is hovered over, not the best fix, but it does prevent the bubble from sitting on the “home” link when you’re not actually on the home page.
@Randy (#1772) and @Jamie (#1773)
There is an easy fix for wordpress installs, you just have to change two words in the lavalamp file.
http://hekimian-williams.com/?p=146
Nice topic.
I feel like you could probably teach a class on how to make a great blog. This is fantastic! I have to say, what really got me was your design.
Thank You so much for the real.
didn’t know about it, it looks simple and effective thanks
wasted a little time wondering why the links weren’t clickable, but i believe in the end it was worth it.
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Hello there,
Thanks for the plugin, it’s great! I really like it!
I have a queston: if I didn’t set any of the -s to .current, the first item of the list automatically set to .current. But I do not need this feature. Can I switch it off? So nothing would be set to current unless I add the class.
Thank you (guys)!
sssss
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