jQuery Boilerplate

A jump-start for jQuery plugins development

So, you've tried your hand at writing jQuery plugins and you're comfortable putting together something that probably works. Awesome! Thing is, you think there might be better ways you could be writing them - you've seen them done a number of different ways in the wild, but aren't really sure what the differences between these patterns are or how to get started with them.

This project won't seek to provide a perfect solution to every possible pattern, but will attempt to cover a simple template for beginners and above. By using a basic defaults object, simple constructor for assigning the element to work with and extending options with defaults and a lightweight wrapper around the constructor to avoid issues with multiple instantiations.

Usage

Include jQuery:

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

Include plugin's code:

<script src="dist/jquery.boilerplate.min.js"></script>

Call the plugin:

$("#element").defaultPluginName({
	propertyName: "a custom value"
});

Structure

The basic structure of the project is given in the following way:

├── demo/
│   └── index.html
├── dist/
│   ├── jquery.boilerplate.js
│   └── jquery.boilerplate.min.js
├── src/
│   ├── jquery.boilerplate.coffee
│   └── jquery.boilerplate.js
├── .editorconfig
├── .gitignore
├── .jshintrc
├── .travis.yml
├── boilerplate.jquery.json
├── Gruntfile.js
└── package.json

Check editorconfig.org if you haven't heard about this project yet.

.gitignore

List of files that we don't want Git to track.

Check this Git Ignoring Files Guide for more details.

.jshintrc

List of rules used by JSHint to detect errors and potential problems in JavaScript.

Check jshint.com if you haven't heard about this project yet.

.travis.yml

Definitions for continous integration using Travis.

Check travis-ci.org if you haven't heard about this project yet.

boilerplate.jquery.json

Package manifest file used to publish plugins in jQuery Plugin Registry.

Check this Package Manifest Guide for more details.

Gruntfile.js

Contains all automated tasks using Grunt.

Check gruntjs.com if you haven't heard about this project yet.

package.json

Specify all dependencies loaded via Node.JS.

Check NPM for more details.

Guides

How did we get here?

Have you got in this repo and still not sure about using this boilerplate?

Well, extending jQuery with plugins and methods is very powerful and can save you and your peers a lot of development time by abstracting your most clever functions into plugins.

This awesome guide, adapted from jQuery Plugins/Authoring, will outline the basics, best practices, and common pitfalls to watch out for as you begin writing your plugin.