jQuery Plugin Development

Outline

• Not every plugin should be done in jQuery
• Standard Javascript is suitable for many cross-browser plugins
  • Show code to create a single interface to console across all browsers
• Advantages of using jQuery is cross-browser consistency
  • DOM manipulation
  • Ajax
  • Events
• Standard interface for plugin development

Chainability

• return this should always be the last statement
• Manipulate DOM post plugin initialization

Options

• Ensure all options have defaults
• Demo power of extend

Use callbacks

• Don't force user to pass in options
• Demo power of isFunction

Add more to callbacks

• Pass additional information to a callback

Improve plugin using setInterval

• Runs continuously
• Maintains low memory footprint

Info post plugin loading

• Load other plugin dependent on this plugin
• Since every plugin should return self, we need another way to get info
• Fire a custom event
• Especially useful for plugins which load themselves via a remote location and write themselves into the DOM (i.e. Facebook)