7 jQuery Plugins You Might Not Know

Written by Kevin Liew on 24 Aug 2011
41,416 Views • Javascript

Introduction

jQuery is a really good addition to web development. Not only it's easy to use but also has a big developer community. I given up on Javascript once, but jQuery simply change the whole game - animation, interactive component and web elements can be made quickly and easily. And, most of the time, we don't even have to made it ourself, there are thousands of variety and useful plugins out there, from simple web elements such as slider, accordion, modal window to complex animation, face recognition, and perhaps phone number lookup in the future. This week, I did a round up on some pretty new and interesting jQuery plugins. Hope you will find something useful here.

  • Spin.js Spin.js uses the CSS3 to render the UI, falling back to VML Internet Explorer. If supported by the browser, @keyframe rules are used to animate the spinner.
    • No images, no external CSS
    • No dependencies
    • Highly configurable
    • Resolution independent
    • Work in all major browsers, including IE6
    • Smaller than an animated GIF (3K minified,, 1.7 gzipped)
    • MIT License
  • Mobiscroll A wheel scroller user control optimized for touchscreens to easily enter date and/or time. The control can easily be customized to support any custom values and can even be used as an intuitive alternative to the native select control (dropdown list). It is designed to be used on touch devices as an alternative to the jQuery UI date picker.
    • Tested on iOS4, Android 2.2, Android 2.3, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE9
    • Themable
  • Credit Card Validator Smart Validate is a jQuery credit card validation plugin, that makes credit card format validation a simple task. It ensures that user has entered valid credit card number before making actual transaction. Smart Validate supports the following credit cards.
    • American Express
    • Master Card
    • Visa Card
    • Diners Club
    • Discover
  • Grumble.js grumble.js provides special tooltips without the usual limitations of north/east/south/west positioning. A grumble can be rotated around a given element at any angle, all 360 degrees. Any distance can be specified. Any CSS style can be applied. There's auto-magic size adjustment for use with localised text. FX queues for animating multiple grumbles. And it works in IE6+, and modern browsers.
  • QRCode jquery.qrcode.js is jquery plugin for a pure browser qrcode generation. It allow you to easily add qrcode to your webpages. It is standalone, less than 4k after minify+gzip, no image download. It doesnt rely on external services which go on and off, or add latency while loading. It is based on a library which build qrcode in various language. jquery.qrcode.js wraps it to make it easy to include in your own code.
  • DropKick Creating custom dropdowns is usually a tedious process that requires a ton of extra setup time. Oftentimes lacking conveniences that native dropdowns have such as keyboard navigation. DropKick removes the tedium and lets you focus on making s@#t look good.
    • Degrade gracefully back to SELECT list on unsupported browser
    • Works on IE7-9, firefox, safari and chrome
  • Peity Mini Chart Peity (sounds like deity) is a simple jQuery plugin that converts an element's content into a simple <canvas> mini pie, line or bar chart.
    • Pie Chart, Lie Charts, Bar Charts
    • Support event
    • Custom Chart Types
    • Browser that supports <canvas> only: Chrome, Firefox, IE9, Opera, Safari.
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2 comments
saqib 13 years ago
Hey, Thanks for sharing such a useful list of plugins. Really enjoyed the post.
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Jeremy 13 years ago
Yeah double thanks for the list, I can already see four right off the bat I can use today !!!!
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