Ants

v1.0 - Early preview version

jQuery marching ants outlines

Download

jQuery v1.7.1 or higher required.

Current version: https://github.com/vanderlee/ants/archive/master.zip

Source code on Github: https://github.com/vanderlee/ants

Images

This plug-in relies on the presence of two animated GIF images. Examples are included to match the default settings. If you want different sizes, colors or patterns, you can use this free Marching Ants generator at http://ants.toyls.com or create them manually.

Future plans

Option "delay" (integer).
Option "zIndex" (integer).
Handle GIF's with options.
Automatically detect GIF width/height.
Research excessive negative offset event triggering.
Unittests

Documentation

`.ants(options)`

Attaches ants to the children of this element.

Options

`appendTo: "element"`

Append the marching ants DOM elements to the specified selector. Use 'element' to append to the element used as a container.

Cannot be set using option method.

`attachOn: 'hover'`

Change when to attach the ants to a DOM element. Either hover to or focus.

`classname: ''`

Add the specified classname(s) to the DOM elements making up the marching ants. Use this classname to specify different animated GIF pictures in CSS.

`offset: 0`

By default, the marching ants are an outline. Set the offset positive to move the marching ants outwards away from the edges. Set the offset negative to move the marching ants inwards.

`reverse: false`

Reverse the direction of the marching ants.

`select: null`

Specify which children of the container element may receive the marching ants. If null, all direct descendants will be eligible.

`thickness: 4`

Set the thickness of the marching ants. This should be half (or less) of the width/height of the animated GIF pictures used.

Methods

`attached`

Get the currently attached element as a jQuery object. If not currently attached, return undefined.

`option (optionName)`

Get the value of the specified option.

`option (optionName, optionValue)`

Set the value of the specified option and update the

`optionObject`

Set the values of multiple options at once.

Events

`attach: null`

Triggers when the ants attach to a new element. Function callback with signature function(element). this is also set to the attached element.

`detach: null`

Triggers when the ants detach from the previously attached element. Function callback with signature function(element). this is also set to the detached element.