Typically a single-page website is focused on presenting a very focused goal or objective. These layouts work best for companies, freelancers, and Internet projects which need an online haven to share information. Sliding parallax menus are also common because it provides a natural interface transition between content areas.

Now you can obviously build a typical single page layout from scratch with some common knowledge of frontend techniques. But there are also many great jQuery plugins to assist with fixed nav menus, animations, parallax content, and other related features. I would like to present a number of these plugins to help developers build quick & efficient single-page web projects. All of these plugins are free and open source to use on any type of work.

Cool Kitten

This open source parallax solution has almost everything you need for a complete parallax website. The plugin allows for responsive layouts on smartphones and tablets, along with full-screen desktop monitors. It is described as more of a framework containing other HTML/CSS resources like Normalize.css.

Cool Kitten is a great choice for those just getting started with parallax design who also don’t want to build a lot of custom code. This plugin can be downloaded right from Github which includes a live demo sample. You can play around with this sample and easily customize your own parallax-style website design.

SMINT

I really love SMINT because it is one of the simpler jQuery plugins which also supports natural sliding effects. The name stands for “Sticky Menu Including Navigation Thingy” which is another quick way to describe a single-page website. The parallax scrolling is an added benefit and keeping the navigation menu fixed at the top is beneficial to the interface design. The SMINT plugin has fantastic documentation and it provides a lot more customization for developers.

Ascensor.js

Now this plugin is somewhat different from the other solutions. It is built for parallax sliding effects between div elements fixed on the same page. Ascensor can scroll vertically and horizontally using a small navigation system in the corner of the page. This is certainly more unique than other plugins – but if this style can fit your website then it is a wonderful choice. And there is more documentation found at the official Github repo.

Curtain.js

Although Curtain.js is no longer a currently maintained plugin, it still provides a nice starting point for building single-page layouts. Each panel is split horizontally and will unveil beneath the current panel as the user scrolls down the page. It almost seems like a curtain is rising to show the next panel, although this content is all located in the same HTML file.

The online demo for this plugin has been taken down. However the iconic furniture webpage is still up using Curtain.js at the time of writing this article. Otherwise you are free to download a quick copy from Github which also includes a local demo.

Skrollr

Here is another single-page parallax style plugin which provides a very simple foundation. You can animate new elements into the page with CSS3 transitions or jQuery easing functions. The live plugin demo is very impressive once you scroll through all of the panels. It will require a lot more development work to get this designed exactly as you’d like. Skrollr is perfect because it can fit into any web project and still provides easy-to-read documentation on the Github repo page.

Single Page Nav

I will highly recommend this plugin as a framework to build any single-page website. Single Page Nav allows you to create a fixed navigation panel which also highlights the currently active menu item. Check out the plugin’s live demo page to see what I mean. All the code documentation is straightforward and it’s built on top of jQuery easing functions.

Single Page Nav is probably one of the best plugins for those who are just getting started. Web developers who have not created many single-page layouts could use this plugin as an introduction to the design style. It is very simple to learn once you’ve practiced on a couple websites.

jQuery One Page Nav

This plugin is very similar to Single Page Nav although it was released beforehand. The script is a lot more “bare” in comparison which is great for developers who want something clean to start with. I really like jQuery One Page Nav because it also supports a fixed navigation with a highlighting class for the currently selected menu item. You can see how it works on this sample demo page and download a local copy from Github. If you are having trouble working with Single Page Nav then give this plugin a try instead!

jQuery.SnapScroll

Although this plugin doesn’t provide full parallax functionality, it is useful if you have a design focused on vertical content. SnapScroll will automatically snap the page onto various content sections as the user scrolls down. The live demo is a great way to understand how this works. You will need to design the full content sections yourself and style with CSS to fit the screen height. But SnapScroll can be most helpful in mobile webapps where the content may be enhanced with an auto-locking feature.

jQuery Waypoints

The Waypoints plugin has gotten some notoriety because it can be included as a resource along with other plugins. Waypoints can allow developers to run functions once a user scrolls into a section of the page. This could be vertical or horizontal scrolling with parallax features. But Waypoints is fantastic to use in single-page website layouts because of the many advanced features. Take a peek at the demo examples page to see a small sample of what is possible. Waypoints is not some all-in-one solution but it can provide benefit those seeking out single-page development resources.

jQuery Parallax

For those who need something a bit different, jQuery Parallax is used for creating vertical sliding panels with different content. This parallax effect is really useful when displaying certain types of data or images. The demo page utilizes various background textures to distinguish between content sections. I would recommend this to anyone who needs a similar design style for building a vertical sliding webpage. The developer Ian Lunn also put up a brief tutorial about how to create this effect yourself.

Single.js

Single.js is very similar to jQuery Parallax but it has some different options. You can build forward/back links which automatically move between content panels. Additionally the plugin supports auto-resizing images for responsive layouts and retina devices. There is no online demo but you can download a copy from Github and check out the demo inside. Single.js is another great choice for building a vertical website layout with scrolling content sections.

Final Thoughts

You can find single-page design inspiration all throughout Google. Modern web design has changed so rapidly even looking back 5 years ago. It is now so much easier to launch a basic single-page website in a day or a week and have it working within all major web browsers. I do hope these jQuery plugins can provide some benefit to freelancers and web developers. And don’t be afraid of trying out new plugins, either!

The post Open Source jQuery Plugins for Building Single-Page Website Layouts appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

W3C launched today a Web and Mobile Interest Group that is chartered to accelerate the development of Web technology so that it becomes a compelling platform for mobile applications and the obvious choice for cross platform development. The forum is intended to include organisations that commission such products and services, designers, developers, equipment manufacturers, tool and platform vendors, browser vendors, operators and other relevant participants in the value chain that creates and operates such products and services. Participants will focus on a wide range of sectors including retail, advertising, technology, network operators, content creation and content distribution.

The initial deliverables of the group include:

• Core Mobile Web Platform 2012 Deployment Status, which will summarize the various actions that the Interest Group is undertaking to ensure that the relevant stakeholders facilitate the deployment and adoption of the features that have been identified in the Core Mobile Web Platform 2012 report. The group will also publish new versions of the report
• Standards for Web Applications on Mobile: current state and roadmap, which will take a broader look at all the Web technologies under development that are particularly relevant to mobile devices, and tracks their status and adoption.
• A gap analysis that provides an overview of the differences between the Web as a platform on mobile and other popular platforms and ecosystems, both from a technical and commercial perspective.
• Additional reports on use cases and scenarios for context-relevant user experiences, multi-device and cross-device user experiences on the Web, and Usability and Efficiency Considerations for the Web on Mobile.

Read more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

In this episode of The Treehouse Show, Nick Pettit (@nickrp) and Jason Seifer (@jseifer) talk about the latest in web design, web development, html5, front end development, and more.

Here are the links for the week:

The classList API | HTML5 Doctor
http://html5doctor.com/the-classlist-api/

Animated Books with CSS 3D Transforms – Demo 1
http://tympanus.net/Development/AnimatedBooks/

Animated GIFs the Hard Way
http://www.sublimetext.com/~jps/animated_gifs_the_hard_way.html

Topcoat
http://topcoat.io/topcoat/

KineticJS HTML5 Canvas Framework
http://kineticjs.com/

Skeuocard by kenkeiter
http://kenkeiter.com/skeuocard/

Cross Site Request Forgery in JS Web Apps
http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/jswebapps-csrf

Animate.css
http://daneden.me/animate/

The post Classlist Element, CSS Frameworks, and Animation – Treehouse Show Ep 53 appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

“36 Islamic detainees killed in Egypt.”

“Morsi supporters launch ‘Day of Rage’ in Egypt.”

“Despite Egypt’s turmoil, Qatar sends gas shipment.”

Headlines like these give barely enough information to understand the crisis in the Middle East. The people dying are more than statistics that briefly appear on a screen. Here are some really interesting pictures, videos and articles published this summer that take a unique approach to reporting the news in Egypt:

Armed Forces Releases Footage of June 30 Protests From Helicopter - You though Occupy Wall Street was well-attended? The streets of Cairo are flooded with a sea of people.

Aerial Footage Shows Cairo Burning - From August 14th, you can see flames quietly engulfing the city after the curfew was imposes

Rabaa’s Second Massacre – Here’s an album of intense photos also from August 14th, after the sit-in at Rabaa was dispersed. The photographer, Mosa’ab El Shamy “was detained and beaten by some vigilant checkpoint outside Rabaa. They stole his camera, but he was smart enough to hide his SD card in his sock.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Day of Anger” – The journalists at Vice get up close and personal when two Morsi sit-ins are cleared on August 16th. This video is a little graphic.

The Truth Behind the Current Violence in Egypt 14/8 – This video shows destruction done by Morsi supporters, such as killing police officers and destroying Coptic churches.

Taliban Issues Statement Non-Ironically Condemning Violence in Egypt – Enough said.

Mapping the Main Pro-Morsi Sit-In – This is a neat visual to understand the geography of the protests.

10 Things to Do During the Curfew – Just in case you’re interested.

Muslims Protecting a Church in Egypt – This picture has appeared on many social media websites. A little hope for a dreary situation.