June 2012

In this post you will learn all about jQuery UI’s Interaction Plugins. You can find all the available plugins on the official website here http://jqueryui.com/. For now, there is only 5 Plugins available in Interaction section that is Draggable, Droppable, Resizable, Selectable and Sortable. Interaction Plugins handles complex behaviors like drag and drop, resizing, selection and sorting.

Graphical representation of jQuery UI subordinates:

In the above image, I have highlighted the jQuery UI Interaction Plugins in rectangular region and in this post we will cover all of them.

You need to setup a demo project to learn Interaction Plugins, please read this post as this post will guide you how to setup the demo project for jQuery UI.

Draggable

It enables draggable functionality on any DOM element. Move the draggable object by clicking on it with the mouse and dragging it anywhere within the viewport.

Let’s create a demonstration page:

In above code, I have a <div> by id ‘draggableDIV’ and it has a button. Remember we can’t drag button control directly because it holds click event by default; we need to do some extra work for this. But if you place button inside <div> tag then you can drag it easily. And the same, I have a label control by id ‘draggableLabel’.

In above jQuery methods, $(“draggableDIV”).draggable() will enable the drag feature in <div> tag. And the same $(“draggableLabel”).draggable() will enable the drag feature in Label control.

If you look at the output screen in browser given below, think we have not applied any <div> background color instead of width, height and padding but still you can see the color. Why? This is because; remember in last post here, we were selected theme option to download jQuery UI Library. So, in <div> tag you can see class attribute that is ‘ui-widget-content’ and this style rule is defined in file ‘jquery-ui-1.8.21.custom.css’.

Open the code in browser to see draggable in action.

Read more about draggable options, events and methods here.

Droppable

It enables any DOM element to be droppable, a target for draggable elements.

Let’s create a demonstration page:

Frist of all let’s look at the applied styles and then we’ll talk on jQuery methods:

#draggable { width: 100px; height: 100px; padding: 0.5em; float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0; }

#droppable { width: 150px; height: 150px; padding: 0.5em; float: left; margin: 10px; }

Just applying the styles width, height, padding, float and margin to both <div>’s.

$(function () {

$("#draggable").draggable();

$("#droppable").droppable({

drop: function (event, ui) {

$(this)

.addClass("ui-state-highlight")

.find("p")

.html("Dropped!");

}

});

The very first line of the method is simple; it will add draggable feature to <div> which has id = ‘draggable’. The second method is bit fancy, adding the droppable feature to <div> which has id = ‘droppable’.

All callbacks receive two arguments: The original browser event and a prepared ui object, view below for a documentation of this object (if you name your second argument 'ui'):

ui.draggable - current draggable element, a jQuery object.

ui.helper - current draggable helper, a jQuery object

ui.position - current position of the draggable helper { top: , left: }

ui.offset - current absolute position of the draggable helper { top: , left: }

See the page in action.

Let’s assume if you want multiple draggable elements on the page, then you can use following coding.

<title>Multiple Draggable</title>

#draggable-1 {

background-color:#CCC;

width: 100px;

height: 100px;

padding: 0.5em;

float: left;

margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;

}

#draggable-2 {

background-color:#E34E47;

width: 100px;

height: 100px;

padding: 0.5em;

float: left;

margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;

}

#droppable {

background-color:#0F0;

width: 150px;

height: 150px;

padding: 0.5em;

float: left;

margin: 10px;

}

</style>

$(function () {

$("#draggable-1").draggable();

$("#draggable-2").draggable();

$("#droppable").droppable({

drop: function (event, ui) {

var currentId = $(ui.draggable).attr('id');

if (currentId == "draggable-1") {

$(this)

window.location = "http://www.itorian.com/search/label/jQuery"

alert("You are going to learn jQuery.")

} else {

$(this)

window.location = "http://www.itorian.com/search/label/ASP.NET"

alert("You are going to learn ASP.NET.")

}

});

</script>

</head>

<body>

<p>Let's go to learn jQuery.</p>

</div>

<p>Let's go to learn ASP.NET.</p>

</div>

<p>Please come, i'll teach you.</p>

</div>

</form>

</body>

</html>

See the page in action.

Read more about droppable options, events and methods here.

Resizable

It enables any DOM element to be resizable. With the cursor grab the right or bottom border and drag to the desired width or height.

Let’s create a demonstration page:

<title>One Draggable</title>

#resizable { width: 150px; height: 150px; padding: 0.5em; }

#resizable h3 { text-align: center; margin: 0; }

</style>

$(function () {

$("#resizable").resizable();

});

</script>

</head>

<body>

<h3 class="ui-widget-header">Resizable</h3>

</div>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Nothing new here, let’s look it in bowser.

Selectable

It enables a DOM element (or group of elements) to be selectable. Draw a box with your cursor to select items. Hold down the Ctrl key to make multiple non-adjacent selections.

Let’s create a demonstration page:

<title>One Draggable</title>

#feedback { font-size: 1.4em; }

#selectable .ui-selecting { background: #FECA40; }

#selectable .ui-selected { background: #F39814; color: white; }

#selectable { list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 60%; }

#selectable li { margin: 3px; padding: 0.4em; font-size: 1.4em; height: 18px; }

</style>

$(function () {

$("#selectable").selectable();

});

</script>

</head>

<body>

</ol>

</form>

</body>

</html>

The jQuery UI Selectable plugin allows for elements to be selected by dragging a box (sometimes called a lasso) with the mouse over the elements. Also, elements can be selected by click or drag while holding the Ctrl/Meta key, allowing for multiple (non-contiguous) selections. Let’s look it in bowser.

Sortable

It enables a group of DOM elements to be sortable. Click on and drag an element to a new spot within the list, and the other items will adjust to fit. By default, sortable items share draggable properties.

Let’s create a demonstration page:

<title>One Draggable</title>

#sortable { list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 60%; }

#sortable li { margin: 0 3px 3px 3px; padding: 0.4em; padding-left: 1.5em; font-size: 1.4em; height: 18px; }

#sortable li span { position: absolute; margin-left: -1.3em; }

</style>

$(function () {

$("#sortable").sortable();

$("#sortable").disableSelection();

});

</script>

</head>

<body>

</ul>

</form>

</body>

</html>

The jQuery UI Sortable plugin makes selected elements sortable by dragging with the mouse. All callbacks receive two arguments: The original browser event and a prepared ui object, view below for a documentation of this object (if you name your second argument 'ui'):-

ui.helper - the current helper element (most often a clone of the item)

ui.position - current position of the helper

ui.offset - current absolute position of the helper

ui.item - the current dragged element

ui.placeholder - the placeholder (if you defined one)

ui.sender - the sortable where the item comes from (only exists if you move from one connected list to another)

Let’s look it in bowser.

I hope you like it. Thanks.

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jQuery UI: Interaction Plugins