Introduction
Alright, this time, we are going to make a drop down menu. The main objective is to make it as simple as possible, with some little jQuery effect and easy to customize/ apply different style on it.
To style it into your own design, you just have to modify the a tag CSS style. You can put background images, hover effect and also change the submenu popup animation.
Before we start, I have had made quite a few of tutorials about menu, the following is the list, I guess you might be interested with some of these :)
- Create a Good Looking Floating Menu with jQuery Easing
- Clean and Attractive jQuery Vertical Menu Tutorial
- jQuery Flipping Menu Tutorial using backgroundPosition Plugin
- jQuery Horizontal Tooltips Menu Tutorials
- Simple Lava Lamp Menu Tutorial with jQuery
- Create an Attractive jQuery Menu with Fadein and Fadeout Effect
- Navigation List menu + jQuery Animate Effect Tutorial
As usual, we will start with HTML, CSS and finally Javascript.
1. HTML
This would be the most common way to structure a list menu. It would make sense even if the CSS is disabled.
<ul id="nav"> <li><a href="#">Parent 01</a></li> <li><a href="#" class="selected">Parent 02</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Item 01</a></li> <li><a href="#" class="selected">Item 02</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item 03</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear"></div> </li> <li><a href="#">Parent 03</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Item 04</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item 05</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item 06</a></li> <li><a href="#">Item 07</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear"></div> </li> <li><a href="#">Parent 04</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear"></div>
2. CSS
CSS is quite simple, we have to style two UL List - parent menu and submenu. We put float left for the parent menu so that all the list item would display inline. For the submenu, it's hidden by default, and will only display on mouse over event.
body {font-family:arial; font-size:11px;} .clear {clear:both} /* remove the list style */ #nav { margin:0; padding:0; list-style:none; } /* make the LI display inline */ /* it's position relative so that position absolute */ /* can be used in submenu */ #nav li { float:left; display:block; width:100px; background:#ccc; position:relative; z-index:500; margin:0 1px; } /* this is the parent menu */ #nav li a { display:block; padding:8px 5px 0 5px; font-weight:700; height:23px; text-decoration:none; color:#fff; text-align:center; color:#333; } #nav li a:hover { color:#fff; } /* you can make a different style for default selected value */ #nav a.selected { color:#f00; } /* submenu, it's hidden by default */ #nav ul { position:absolute; left:0; display:none; margin:0 0 0 -1px; padding:0; list-style:none; } #nav ul li { width:100px; float:left; border-top:1px solid #fff; } /* display block will make the link fill the whole area of LI */ #nav ul a { display:block; height:15px; padding: 8px 5px; color:#666; } #nav ul a:hover { text-decoration:underline; } /* fix ie6 small issue */ /* we should always avoid using hack like this */ /* should put it into separate file : ) */ *html #nav ul { margin:0 0 0 -2px; }
3. Javascript
This could be one of the most simplest jQuery scripts. We are using hover mouse event and just the most basic jQuery animation slideUp and slideDown. :) I love jQuery
$(document).ready(function () { $('#nav li').hover( function () { //show its submenu $('ul', this).stop().slideDown(100); }, function () { //hide its submenu $('ul', this).stop().slideUp(100); } ); });
Conclusion
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to make use of built-in syntax highlighter.1. $(document).ready(function () {
2.
3. $('#nav li').hover(
4. function () {
5. //show its submenu
6. $('ul', this).show();
7.
8. },
9. function () {
10. //hide its submenu
11. $('ul', this).hide();
12. }
13. );
14.
15. });
Also someone said, "And if you use a class instead of an ID, you can replicate the menu many times in the page."
I want to use links to skip down the page. I'm using both : example [ <div class="content" id="1."><h2>1.</h2> ] Do I need to get rid of the class?
works on al browsers ecxept firefox it flickers and i can't find the problem...
//show its submenu
$('ul', this).stop(true, true).slideDown('fast');
},
function () {
//hide its submenu
$('ul', this).stop(true, true).slideUp('slow');
Simpler is Better :D ... good work
Dan
This is great but I want the parent menu item to stay 'selected' when you hover over one of its submenu items. At the moment when you rollover the submenu items the parent item has returned to its old colour. Any ideas?
i have been searching for a lonnnnggg time to figure out how to do this from scratch
$('ul.submenu').hover(
function () {
$(this).parent().addClass('active');
},
function () {
$(this).parent().removeClass('active');
}
);
of course, you will need to style the active class... I haven't tested it, hopefully it will work.
bit stuck as to how I add a class for all the submenu...? i know its in the css but is it a new class or part of the #nav ul class already there...? if you could put an example i would be truly grateful :)
css
ul.submenu {
}
.active{
color:#fc0 !important; /*
}
javascript
$(document).ready(function () {
$('#nav li').hover(
function () {
//show its submenu
$('ul', this).stop(true, true).slideDown(1);
},
function () {
//hide its submenu
$('ul', this).stop(true, true).slideUp(1);
}
);
$('ul.submenu').hover(
function () {
$(this).parent().find('a').first().addClass('active');
},
function () {
$(this).parent().find('a').first().removeClass('active');
}
);
});
html
<ul id="nav">
<li><a href="#">Item1</a>
<ul class="submenu">
<li><a href="#">Item1.1<a/></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
I hope this helps :)