Hi All,
Today we released the iHwy listmenu plugin, which allows you to convert
a basic 'list' of HTML elements (UL, OL or any set of child elements)
into a snazzy dropdown menu with letter-based navigation (ie: A | B | C
| etc).
The plugin is very easy to use. In most cases all you will have to do is
create the list of elements and then use one line of jQuery code to
convert the list into the navigation menu. When a user hovers over a
navigation letter in the menu a submenu appears containing all of the
items from the list that start with that letter.
The items in the submenu are arranged in nicely balanced columns. If the
list was an ordered (OL) list, numbering starts at 1 for each letter and
is maintained across the columns (top to bottom, left to right) for that
letter. There are options to control the number of columns and the
'gutter' space between them, among other things.
The HTML generated by the plugin is designed with CSS styling in mind
and a starter css file is included to help implement the plugin.
We tuned this plugin for speed and tested it in FF 3.x (Win/Mac), IE
6/7/8rc, Opera (latest), Safari (Mac 3.2.1, Win 4beta) and Google Chrome
(Win) using jQuery 1.3.2 and 1.2.6 (1.3.2 is faster, probably because of
sizzle).
This is great plugin for big product lists, address books, contact
lists, etc. It makes a hard to navigate plain old list into something
really compact and very easy to visually skim that's only visible when
you need it.
Full info:
http://www.ihwy.com/Labs/jquery-listmenu-plugin.aspx
Demos:
http://www.ihwy.com/Labs/demos/current/jquery-listmenu-plugin.aspx
This project grew out of the jquery listnav plugin that we released in
late 2008. We'll be releasing a new rev of that today, too.
Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy the plugin!
Thanks,
Jack
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ihwy_jack
