The 20 Most Important jQuery Libraries In Existence
You won't have to talk to a web designer for very long before the subject of Javascript and jQuery libraries gets dropped into the conversation. Why does this happen? Well it's because every web designer out there knows how versatile these libraries are, and just how important it is to be completely familiar with their various functions and capabilities.
To help you whittle down on the amount of jQuery research you have to do online we've put together a list of the 20 libraries we think will have the biggest impact on your coding efforts.
Mapsed
If you want to make selecting locations on a map as easy as possible then Mapsed is ideal for this, especially if you're working with the Google API.
Image Lightbox
If you've been looking for a lightbox which has all the features an end-user needs, but is also compatible with mobile devices then 'Image Lightbox' is a great choice.
ImageFit
A very versatile image management jQuery plugin - it makes working with images of any size, or in any location, an absolute breeze.
Bootstrap Validator
A very useful, and easy-to-use plugin when you're creating a site which requires validation options.
Resize End Plugin
This plugin allows you to resize the browser window after a specific action or event has been completed.
FormChimp
If you're already working with MailChimp then this plugin is ideal for allowing visitors to sign up for your MailChimp distro list.
Password Peekaboo
Passwords are the bane of system admins everywhere, so allowing users to actually see their password temporarily saves a lot of time, effort and password resets.
Selectonic
Implementing this plugin means you can make an entire list of items selectable using either a keyboard or your mouse. Very useful for menu-heavy designs.
Elevate Zoom
A highly-customizable plugin which allows you to create interfaces with image-zoom effects, although you will need to use two images to get the most from this jQuery plugin.
Form Autofill
It does what it says on the tin in that this jQuery plugin allows you to automatically fill an empty form with data.
Vibration Wrappers
This neat little plugin allows you to make a mobile device vibrate in a specific vibration sequence for a set amount of time - it has lots of uses for smart web designers.
jQuery LightSlider
A great content slider with both slide and fade effects, which also just happens to be compatible with all the major browsers out there - no compatibility headaches!
jQuery GoUp!
Creating a positive UX for your visitors is important, so allowing them to get directly back to the top of any given page with one click is always going to be popular with visitors.
jQFader
Although professional web design should be more about form than function it's still nice to be able to fade website elements whenever you need to, and that's exactly what this plugin allows you to do
Vertical News Slider
Displaying fresh news items for your visitors has always been a nice feature to have on any website, and this plugin makes doing this very easy
ScrollMagic
This plugin allows you to control what happens when a user scrolls to a certain part of your website.
Headroom
This very cool plugin allows you to drop your navigation menu out of view when a user scrolls down to the bottom of a page, but the same navigation menu will appear once the user scrolls back towards the top of any page.
jQuery Collapser
This is a very lightweight plugin which allows you to expand and collapse text very easily - there's a really flexible API behind this plugin, plus it also works with paragraphs of text too.
lazyYT
This is a sneaky way to load YouTube videos, because once the video is being downloaded the DIV is replaced with a preview image of the video, but that doesn't actually play the video until you click on it, so it has time to buffer in the background.
RowGrid
A very simple jQuery plugin which can help you arrange items in a straight row on your website. It's used by a lot of people, so probably worth adding to your own collection of jQuery plugins?
There are thousands of other jQuery plugins/libraries out there for you to experiment with whenever you get the urge to do that, but we feel the above are the ones which will make the biggest impact on your coding efforts.
No list like this is ever perfect, so we know there'll be plenty of coders out there who think we're way off the mark with our collection, but that's okay from our point of view - just leave a comment below this post, and let us know what plugins you'd like to see added to this article, and why they belong here.
And as usual - if you are new to jQuery, here are some books on the subject for you:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hey all! I’m Alice, I’m a copywriter who is passionate about all things related to web design. Check out my G+ page