4 jQuery plugins you should know about
Friday 5th June 2009 at 8:43 pm

Gone are the days when you needed to use flash to add animations and rich interactive features to your web pages.

With the evolution of Javascript libraries such as JQuery and MooTools it's become easier than ever to enhance web pages with animations and improve usability with Ajax interaction.

My weapon of choice is JQuery, so here are some JQuery plugins I couldn't be without!

Cycle Lite Plugin

Ever wanted a simple way to add fading image slideshows to your web pages? Look no further than Cycle Lite. Incredibly simple to implement and with plenty of configurable options, it doesn't get much simpler than this.

If you're looking for more than just simple fading, check out Cycle Lite's bigger brother the Cycle plugin.

The best part about the Cycle and Cycle Lite plugins is that you're not restricted to using images, you can use any element you want!

Ajax Form Plugin

Ajax is revolutionizing the way we interact with the web. Easily convert boring old forms to shiny new Ajax ones with the Form Plugin. Implementation couldn't be easier and it has lots of documentation too!

Colour Animations

This feels like a missing piece of the JQuery library. It gives you the ability to animate CSS colour properties using the standard .animate() method.

JQuery Color Animations

scrollTo

Ever seen those websites where the whole page scrolls to reveal new content? The scrollTo plugin simplifies it for you making it easier to create such a website.

You can also use the plugin to create slideshows and to automatically scroll the client's browser.