Simple lightbox feedback form? Included screenshot - javascript

There are so many lightboxes to choose from, I'm looking for a very lightweight one to use in an embedded javascript widget that would be a single domain name. I saw the perfect one on chainreactioncycles.com, it popped up out of nowhere so I took a screenshot:
I tried looking for info on it on the page source, but couldn't find anything that would let me trace where it came from... Would anybody know of one like this? Or exactly that one?
If not exactly like above, anything similar would be great too, keeping the following in mind:
Very small javascript download (animation not needed)
Self contained, not dependent on any libraries other than jquery (since I'm already using that anyway).
Works in major browsers
Close button (like GetSatisfaction or UserVoice)
Dims background
Avoids javascript namespace conflicts (or can easily be made to avoid them)
CSS styling of lightbox does not interfere with site styling
Have you used an existing lightbox scripts for this same purpose with similar requirements? Did you roll your own? Insights welcome!

What you are looking for is called a modal box.
Here is a list of them
... and here is a striking replica of what you are looking for

Check out Zoombox.. It sounds like what you're looking for... Simple to use... Allows custom content.. jQuery Module... From past experience it covers what you have outlined as requirements etc
http://www.grafikart.fr/zoombox will tell you all you need to know.

Related

How can I find jquery/javascript/modernizer code responsible for a effect

I'm learning web design, and there is no better method than redoing others work. So I'm reading other pages code, but it's so hard to find the jQuery, Javascript or modernizer or ... code responsible for the effect.
I'm using firebug, also used firequery, but the problem is they give me the event but not the code and a big tree of DOM, I don't know where even I look into it.
I really don't care which event is triggered, but I do care how the code is written. If I find the code so I can understand the event is on click or on focus...
Or let's say a website has a some javascript file, linked to a website. when I load the webpage i get a webpage consist of DOM and external/internal script. When I see a cool effect and want to read the code, I run firebug, inspect element to find the element. After that I don't know what to do? I can't search for selector or event in the script because maybe the developer of the site used different selector that I'm searching. Sometimes I find the code, but it's so jammed, not in human readable form, I don't know how to change the code to something indent and neat
The problem becomes more dramatic when the website using other java framework than jQuery.
I've searched a lot, used many tools, but couldn't find anything useful, please with your advice light my way to learn web developing
edit:--
I found a way but I'm sure there should be a better way outside
first in chrome I inspect the element to find the corresponding element, then i right click and check all the break point on it(if it doesn't work i do the same for parent element)
after that i play with that element to trigger the function and it break
usually the function that called the method is down in the callstack
also for reading
also for reading the script i use pretty print of chrome, i used some online prettyfier but most of them has limitation in number of character, for a long script none of the google first page resault is good enough. so the only good option here is for now is chrome, anyone have any other method?
It is difficult to learn how to do things just from inspecting it, as many effects may be implemented entirely in JavaScript, which may be deep, hidden away in a source file.
You mention that the code is not in human readable form, beautifying it may help:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/6318092/1061602
Most 'visual' effects should be able to be viewable from the CSS, e.g. JQuery Mobile's buttons, it is possible to see how the different classes are combined, ui-shadow, ui-btn, ui-disabled etc
Otherwise, searching for selectors is pretty much all you can do. Personally, if I am learning, looking at too much code at one time can be overwhelming. Also a lot of the UI effects may be difficult to trace.
My advice is, perhaps a better way around it would be to try and describe one single effect that you require, and then search on Google or Stack Overflow for guidance on how to create that effect.
The usual documentation sources will be useful:
http://www.w3schools.com/css3/default.asp
http://api.jquery.com/
Happy learning!

Creating a "box-webpage" upon click

I'm trying to accomplish something that might be relatively simple, but I don't know what I would call it (if there is a specific name for it), hence my searches have proved useless.
What I'm trying to accomplish is simple: I have a page built off off the Masonry jquery plugin (similar to http://designshack.net/tutorialexamples/masonry/demos/masonry.html). All I want to do is that when I click on a specific picture, it creates a "box" that fills up part of the screen and can contain another webpage (to describe the picture) while fading out most of the background. Then when I click outside of the box, it returns to all of my pictures.
I've seen this before, as I'm sure everybody else has, but for the life of me I cannot remember an example to look at or how best to do this. I don't have too much experience with javascript or jquery (which is why I'm asking this), but any help to point me in the right direction, whether it is using javascript or html/css, would be great.
If anybody does get the gist of what I'm describing and can explain it better, then you're more than welcome to edit..
What you need are modal windows.
I know the twitter bootstrap has built a pretty good framework for this:
http://getbootstrap.com/javascript/#modals
If you aren't using the bootstrap directly you might be able to pick out what you need.

How do I post a jsfiddle example of some trouble I'm seeing in Rails?

This may be a very basic question, but is it possible to post a jsfiddle that captures a Rails environment, the js, css, and HTML that is generating a nagging problem? I posted another SO question here: Unable to float a twitter bootstrap navbar item right with either class=pull-right or float:right
... and it was suggested I post something to jsfiddle. Honestly, I'm just completely in the dark as to how I might gather the css, js, and HTML in a way that can be copy-pasted into jsfiddle. Is there some slick way to pull the 4 necessary components together?
I am mostly interested in being being able to share and debug code that pertains to display and layout.
Many thanks in advance.
Sites like jsfiddle and jsbin are useful as testbeds for various issues involving HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. A good workflow for using them might be as follows:
Before going to one of those sites, use a browser debugger (Firebug, the Chrome debugger, or even the debugger in modern versions of IE if you must) to figure out the mechanics of the issue. Are you seeing unexpected JavaScript behavior? Weird layout? Whatever the problem, see if you can narrow the focus as much as possible.
Now, go to one of the workbench sites (make an account for yourself too; it helps to be able to find old experiments) and start trying to reproduce the problem. Start as simply as possible and work up. It can be hard and frustrating, but in my experience even the process of trying to figure out an isolating test case can itself lead to enlightenment :-)
If you do manage to isolate a behavior that you don't understand or can't explain or whatever, you can then save the test case (jsfiddle has "Save" and "Update" buttons; jsbin seems to magically save things automatically) and then post the URL here (or anyplace else). If you do post here, it's a good idea to copy the relevant code from your test case directly into your question.
I use both of those sites (and there may be more of them out there). The jsbin site gives you a little more control over your page, and provides a way to see your page outside of an <iframe>. That's kind-of important if you're testing for mobile applications. Otherwise they're both great resources.
Oh, and both sites let you import various popular libraries via simple configuration tools. That's really handy for tracking bugs that you think may have been introduced by a library version change (rare, but really freaky when it happens).

Javascript widget implementation

I have a question about Javascript widgets. The widget I am working on simply embeds content on a page instead of using iframes. So far it looks good. But there are cases where some users layouts are messing up the widget. For example, the widget might require a width of 300px to appear. But the parent div is set to 250px and hence the right part of the widget is cut off.
I was wondering what sort of precautions should be taken to prevent this? I was talking to the product manager who mentioned he wanted me to check the parent div elements and get the size and then show an alternate message if their size is not accurate. But again, since this is Javascript and the widget is supported in many diff browsers(including IE6), I am wondering how fail-safe this method would be? What if I need to iterate the DOM all the way up before getting a valid size? I am also worried about performance here. This extra checks would slow down the delivery of my widget content to "good users" since I am adding a layer of complexity to all users. I don't want to penalize good users just because of the few errant ones.
I am not using any sort of JS library here, so any solution should not suggest the use of one. Also, the reason for not using a library was simply not to add extra weight to the page load to deliver a widget. I understand that "jquery" for example is small, but in my case, even 24k compressed seems like an overkill for a widget delivery that contains no core code for the widget.
Has anyone dealt with such issues before? What are your solutions to these?
There are reliable ways of determining the size of an element using JavaScript. You're quite right that you may need to iterate up the tree in some cases, but the answer you get will ultimately be quite valid.
Although you don't want to directly include any library code in this project, you may consider looking at how the major libraries implement their "what's the width of this element" functions to drive your own implementation.
Beware of quirks mode too.
I'd check to see of the page has Jquery, if not load it into the page using no-conflict mode. Then use jQuery to examine the page.
See: How to embed Javascript widget that depends on jQuery into an unknown environment

One file site design using Visibility on DIV classes/IDs

I'm building a one-page(one file) site and want to get insight as to whether or not I'm taking the most practical and intelligent approach. The site is a simple site for a graphic designer. It has 4 "pages" which are "about me", "contact", "work", and "photos." What I want to do is have 4 divs(absolutely placed in the same spot) with only one visible at a time. When you click any of the links it turns the visibility of the others off and the clicked link on. There are a few ways I could do this though:
Should I use Visibility to show/hide the layers?
Should I use Z-Index to show/hide the layers?
Is jQuery the best way to handle this?
Is using classes such as .visible .hidden the best way to cycle which divs are shown/hidden?
Any other tips to doing this for maximum efficiency?
I know some will tell me to just use separate pages but the site is simple with thumbnails and most of the size is in the header and jQuery script honestly. The thumbnails are fairly small and I don't see a point to making the site with more than one page if I don't have to.
Thanks for any insight.
As Pekka indicated, there may be arguments against doing this as a single-file site. But I'll assume you have a compelling use case. Answering the question:
I would approach this like so:
Use four divs.
No need to absolutely position them, just put them one after another.
Give each div a distinct ID with a semantic name (e.g., "about", "contact", etc.).
Don't hide any of them initially, just let them show one after another. Now the page can be used by people without Javascript, and it works just fine for search engines.
On page load, use Javascript to hide all but the one you want to show.
Determine which one you want to show by looking at the anchor in the location, e.g., "#about" means you want to show the about div, "#contact" means you want to show the contact page.
When you are changing from one to another, change the anchor to match. Now the site is bookmarkable/linkable.
Consider using a history plug-in to manage the anchors, so you can get forward and back support without absolutely tearing your hair out with all the browser inconsistencies. :-)
Not an answer to your questions, but there are compelling reasons speaking against this kind of approach.
Most importantly, it won't work with JavaScript turned off. It will be completely unusable for somebody who has no JavaScript. This makes it an absolute no-no for me.
It makes it impossible to link to specific pages
It's a SEO nightmare - maybe not that important in a 4-page site but still worth mentioning
Maintenance becomes more difficult, as there are four or more complex page structures melted into one
If you are using jQuery, just call .show() and .hide() as needed to toggle the sections.
However as noted by #Pekka, it is likely better to leave these as separate pages.
I think that using Jquery would be the best way to achieve this effect. Pekka mentioned that it won't work for users who have javascript turned off, but really-how many people have javascript disabled these days? Pretty much every single website you will visit relies on javascript.
In my opinion, the best way to get tabs using jquery is to use a plugin developed by Nettuts editor, Jeffrey Way. His personal site on which the plugin is located is under construction right now but I downloaded it a while ago. Here's a link to a zip file with the necessary files inside.
Please note that I have simplified his version greatly. This means I have removed a lot of styling but this shouldn't be a problem, since you probably will want your own unique styles.
JW-Tabs
Hope this helps.

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