jQuery jCarousel Script

jQuery jCarousel Script
jQuery has made adding images to websites an easy task. There are many jQuery scripts released under the MIT and/or GPL licenses. Most of these are plug-and-play (plug in) scripts that don't require any programming knowledge to use on your website or install on your client's site. You might want to consider adding jQuery scripts to your design services.

One such jQuery script by Jan Sorgalla is jCarousel. This plug in can have many applications for both graphics and text. The main function of the script is to scroll content horizontally or vertically. The content can be static or loaded dynamically via Ajax, JavaScript, PHP or Flickr. Of course, this second option requires familiarity with these languages. jCarousel also works with Thickbox 3 so that a large sized image opens into Thickbox when the thumbnail image is clicked in the carousel.

Most of the code for the script is referenced in the Head section of the webpage. You will need the jQuery library and the jCarousel source code and stylesheet files. What is nice about this plug in is that it can be "skinned" by CSS to have many looks. The content to be scrolled by the script is placed in the body of the webpage in a basic UL list.

You have several options for configuring the script including adding custom animation and easing. It can function with auto-scrolling or navigation buttons. Another nice feature is that the width of the carousel resizes automatically to fit the browser window. It can be configured to show more or less images depending on the browser size or configured to have a set number of images with flexible spacing between the images as needed. You can have more than one carousel on a page and give each of them a different skin.

The integration with the Flickr photo stream and Flickr API is a nice feature not seen in most scripts. It has been tested to work in several browsers including the notorious Internet Explorer 6.

You might be asking yourself why you would use this instead of a simple gif animation that you can create in Photoshop. The main reason is the ease of updating the carousel once it is installed. It's easier to switch content in the UL list than to create a new gif each time you need to feature a different set of images.

https://sorgalla.com/projects/jcarousel/





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This content was written by Diane Cipollo. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Diane Cipollo for details.