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There are literally thousands of jQuery plugins. How do you find ones that are useful, work well and are actively updated?
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There are literally thousands of
jQuery plugins to choose from.
0:00
Some are good, some are bad,
and some are just plain awful.
0:04
Often the hardest part of jQuery plugins
is finding a good plugin that does what
0:07
you want it to and is still maintained
by the person who created it.
0:12
In this video, I'll show you a few
places you can look for plugins and
0:15
some of the things you should take into
consideration when selecting a plugin.
0:19
Let's go.
0:23
Of course, the easiest place to start
finding anything on the web is Google, and
0:24
you certainly can find a lot of matches
when you search for jQuery plugins.
0:28
This isn't necessarily
the worst way to go, but
0:33
there are better places
to find jQuery plugins.
0:36
The jQuery Plugin Repository sponsored by
the jQuery project used to be the go to
0:39
place for finding plugins.
0:44
But they're shutting it down, in fact,
0:46
in might already be gone by the time
you're watching this video.
0:48
However, there are other plugin
directories that you can use.
0:52
For example,
SitePoint's popular jQuery plugins list
0:55
provides categories of jQuery
plugins that you can look through.
0:58
You'll still need to look at the plugin
and determine if it's a good one,
1:02
that's something I'll talk
about in just a minute.
1:05
Unheap is another great site
to discover new plugins.
1:09
They have over 1,000 plugins listed and
provide quick links to demos and
1:12
downloads for each.
1:16
But how do you know if
a plugin's any good?
1:18
Well, there are a few things you
should be on the lookout for.
1:20
First, you wanna find a plugin
that does something you need.
1:23
That might seem obvious, but it's easy to
get sucked into adding a bunch of jQuery
1:28
plugins to a site just
because they look cool.
1:32
The more plugins you add, the more files
your visitors will have to download, and
1:35
the slower your site will feel.
1:39
While it's important to create
sites that are fun, engaging, and
1:41
interactive, don't go overboard.
1:44
Let's check out this plugin.
1:48
This is the full screen,
vertical scroll plugin, FSVS for short.
1:50
It creates a nice scroll effect for
sections of a page.
1:56
This looks cool.
2:00
I might want to add something
like this to my site.
2:01
The next thing to look for
is clear documentation.
2:05
While most plugins are easy to use,
2:07
you'll usually still need clear guidance
on how to structure your HTML and
2:10
any configuration options
offered by the plugin.
2:14
This one seems pretty easy, the
documentation is right here on this page.
2:17
It shows how to call the plugin,
how to structure your HTML so
2:20
it works with the plugin and
lists the options available for
2:24
configuring how the plugins work, nice.
2:28
Next you want to see how old the plugin
is, and if it's still being developed.
2:33
For example,
if you find a great plugin but
2:37
it was created five years ago and hasn't
been updated for the past four years,
2:39
you can probably assume that the plugin
author has abandoned the project.
2:43
That means the plugin might not
work in current web browsers, and
2:48
any bugs you discover won't be fixed
unless you decide to fix them.
2:51
Usually you'll find something on the site,
or in the documentation that lets you know
2:56
when the plugin was created, and
if it's still being worked on.
2:59
Many, but
not all plugins are hosted on GitHub.
3:03
GitHub is a site for sharing and
collaborating on open source software.
3:06
GitHub provides lots of
statistics about a project.
3:11
For example, this plugin is hosted
on GitHub, let's take a look.
3:14
This project looks like it's active, you
can also see that there are several people
3:19
who have contributed to the project.
3:23
That's good.
3:25
More than one person is helping
to create and improve the plugin.
3:26
There are a couple of other things that
are good to look for in a plugin too.
3:30
These aren't absolutely required, but
3:34
in the changing world of web design,
they are helpful.
3:35
Look for plugins that are responsive.
3:38
That means they work with responsively
designed pages, that is, pages that
3:41
adapt to different screen resolutions
from small phones to televisions.
3:46
If you're not familiar with
responsive web design,
3:50
we have a few videos about
it here at Treehouse.
3:52
Look in the teacher's notes for links and
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more information about
responsive web design.
3:57
It's also good if a plugin
is mobile friendly.
4:00
That is, it's designed to work with
mobile devices, phones and tablets.
4:03
That usually means the plugin
will work with touch gestures,
4:08
like a finger swipe or a pinch.
4:11
Let's see,
4:13
this plugin isn't affected by the width of
a page because it's just first scrolling
4:14
down, that means it will probably
work fine with responsive designs.
4:18
However, it looks like they're having
problems getting it to work with mobile
4:22
devices.
4:26
That might be a problem.
4:27
If I'm building a site that I expect or
hope will get a lot of traffic from mobile
4:28
users, then I should skip this plugin, at
least until it's made to work on mobile.
4:32
Now be careful picking plugins.
4:37
If you find one that will be a big part of
your website, you need to make sure it's
4:39
being actively developed, fits your needs,
and will work for all your site's users.
4:42
In the next video, we'll look at
the plugin that we'll be using in this
4:47
section of the course, and you'll learn
how plugin files are usually organized.
4:50
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