Overview

The clueTip plugin allows you to easily show a fancy tooltip when the user's mouse hovers over (or, optionally, clicks on) any element you designate in your script. If the element includes a title attribute, its text becomes the heading of the clueTip.

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Quick Start Guide

  <!-- use ajax/ahah to pull content from fragment.html: -->
  <p><a class="tips" href="fragment.html" rel="fragment.html">show me the cluetip!</a></p> 
 
  <!-- use title attribute for clueTip contents, but don't include anything in the clueTip's heading -->
  <p><a id="houdini" href="houdini.html" title="|Houdini was an escape artist.|He was also adept at prestidigitation.">Houdini</a></p>

<script src="jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="jquery.hoverIntent.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <!-- optional -->
<script src="jquery.cluetip.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
  $('a.tips').cluetip();
  
  $('#houdini').cluetip({
    splitTitle: '|', // use the invoking element's title attribute to populate the clueTip...
                     // ...and split the contents into separate divs where there is a "|"
    showTitle: false // hide the clueTip's heading
  });
});
</script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="jquery.cluetip.css" type="text/css" />

You can change the default style and behavior in many ways. See API / Options for details.

clueTip Plugin Details

#cluetip-waitimage {
      width: 43px;
      height: 11px;
      position: absolute;
      background-image: url(wait.gif);
    }

clueTip Plugin API / Options

$.cluetip.setup(options)

Global defaults for clueTips. Will apply to all calls to the clueTip plugin.

{
          insertionType:    'appendTo', // how the clueTip is inserted into the DOM
                                        // possible values: 'appendTo', 'prependTo', 'insertBefore', 'insertAfter'
          insertionElement: 'body'      // where in the DOM the clueTip is to be inserted 
        }

cluetip(options)

Displays a highly customizable tooltip via ajax (default) or local content or the title attribute of the invoking element

$.fn.cluetip.defaults = {  // default options; override as needed
    width:            275,      // The width of the clueTip
    height:           'auto',   // The height of the clueTip. more info below [1]
    cluezIndex:       97,       // Sets the z-index style property of the clueTip
    positionBy:       'auto',   // Sets the type of positioning. more info below [2]
    topOffset:        15,       // Number of px to offset clueTip from top of invoking element. more info below [3]
    leftOffset:       15,       // Number of px to offset clueTip from left of invoking element. more info below [4]
    local:            false,    // Whether to use content from the same page for the clueTip's body
                                // (treats the attribute used for accessing the tip as a jQuery selector,
                                // but only selects the first element if the selector matches more than one). more info below [5]
    hideLocal:        true,     // If local option is set to true, this determines whether local content
                                //  to be shown in clueTip should be hidden at its original location
    attribute:        'rel',    // the attribute to be used for fetching the clueTip's body content
    titleAttribute:   'title',  // the attribute to be used for fetching the clueTip's title
    splitTitle:       '',       // A character used to split the title attribute into the clueTip title and divs
                                // within the clueTip body. more info below [6]
    showTitle:        true,     // show title bar of the clueTip, even if title attribute not set
    cluetipClass:     'default',// class added to outermost clueTip div in the form of 'cluetip-' + clueTipClass. more info below [7]
    hoverClass:       '',       // class applied to the invoking element onmouseover and removed onmouseout
    waitImage:        true,     // whether to show a "loading" img, which is set in jquery.cluetip.css
    arrows:           false,    // if true, displays arrow on appropriate side of clueTip. more info below [8]
    dropShadow:       true,     // set to false if you don't want the drop-shadow effect on the clueTip
    dropShadowSteps:  6,        // adjusts the size of the drop shadow
    sticky:           false,    // keep visible until manually closed
    mouseOutClose:    false,    // close when clueTip is moused out
    activation:       'hover',  // set to 'click' to force user to click to show clueTip
    clickThrough:     false,    // if true, and activation is not 'click', then clicking on a clueTipped link will take user to 
                                // the link's href, even if href and tipAttribute are equal
    tracking:         false,    // if true, clueTip will track mouse movement (experimental)
    delayedClose:     0,        // close clueTip on a timed delay (experimental)
    closePosition:    'top',    // location of close text for sticky cluetips; can be 'top' or 'bottom' or 'title'
    closeText:        'Close',  // text (or HTML) to to be clicked to close sticky clueTips
    truncate:         0,        // number of characters to truncate clueTip's contents. if 0, no truncation occurs

    // effect and speed for opening clueTips
    fx: {             
                      open:       'show', // can be 'show' or 'slideDown' or 'fadeIn'
                      openSpeed:  ''
    },
                  
    // settings for when hoverIntent plugin is used
    hoverIntent: {    
                      sensitivity:  3,
                      interval:     50,
                      timeout:      0
    }, 
    
    // function to run just before clueTip is shown.            
    onActivate:       function(e) {return true;},

    // function to run just after clueTip is shown.
    onShow:           function(ct, c){},
    
    // whether to cache results of ajax request to avoid unnecessary hits to server
    ajaxCache:        true,     
    
    // process data retrieved via xhr before it's displayed
    ajaxProcess:      function(data) {
                        data = $(data).not('style, meta, link, script, title');
                        return data;
    },
    
    // can pass in standard $.ajax() parameters, not including error, complete, success, and url
    ajaxSettings: {   
                      dataType: 'html'
    }
  };

1. height: Setting a specific height also sets <div id="cluetip-outer"> to "overflow:auto"
2. positionBy: Available options are 'auto', 'mouse', 'bottomTop', 'fixed'. Change to 'mouse' if you want to override positioning by element and position the clueTip based on where the mouse is instead. Change to 'bottomTop' if you want positioning to begin below the mouse when there is room or above if not -- rather than right or left of the elemnent and flush with element's top Change to 'fixed' if you want the clueTip to appear in exactly the same location relative to the linked element no matter where it appears on the page. Use 'fixed' at your own risk.
3. topOffset:For positionBy "auto", "mouse", and "bottomTop", the number will be added to the clueTip's "top" value if the clueTip appears below the invoking element and subtracted from it if the clueTip appears above. For positionBy "fixed", the number will always be added to the "top" value, offsetting the clueTip from the top of the invoking element.
4. leftOffset: For positionBy "auto", "mouse", and "bottomTop", the number will be added to clueTip's "left" value if the clueTip appears to the right of the invoking element and subtracted if the clueTip appears to the left. For positionBy "fixed", the number will always be added to the "left" value of the clueTip, offsetting it from the right side of the invoking element.
5. local: for example, using the default tip attribute, "rel", you could have a link — <a href="somewhere.htm" rel=".someClass"> — that would show the contents of the first element in the DOM that has a class of "someClass."
6. splitTitle: if used, the clueTip will be populated only by the title attribute
7. cluetipClass: this is also used for a "directional" class on the same div, depending on where the clueTip is in relation to the invoking element. The class appears in the form of 'cluetip-' + direction + cluetipClass. this allows you to create your own clueTip theme in a separate CSS file or use one of the three pre-packaged themes: default, jtip, or rounded.
8. arrows: UPDATE: this option displays a div containing an arrow background image. Arrow images are set using the background-image property in the CSS. The direction of the arrow changes depending on which side of the invoking element the clueTip appears. The arrows option sets the background-position of the cluetip div so that the arrow will accurately point to the invoking element, regardless of where it appears in relation to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is clueTip licensed?

The clueTip plugin is licensed the same way as the jQuery core file: under a dual MIT and GPL license. Users of the plugin can choose whichever license suits them. The top of the jquery.cluetip.js file has this notice:

Dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses:
* http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
* http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

What versions of jQuery is the clueTip Plugin compatible with?

The clueTip Plugin is compatible with jQuery v1.2.6 and later. jQuery v1.3.1 or later is recommended.

Does the clueTip Plugin have any dependencies on other plugins?

Only for old version of jQuery. For jQuery versions below 1.2.3, the clueTip plugin depends on the Dimensions plugin for accurate positioning. Otherwise, it is self-contained.

Optional plugins that can be used in conjunction with the clueTip plugin include hoverIntent and bgIframe.

How do I get clueTip to work with dynamic content.

There are a number of options available for working with dynamic content. By default, the ajaxCache function is set to true. This reduces the number of http requests are made to the server. However, it doesn't account for possible changes to the ajaxed data. If the contents of a particular clueTip will be updated on the server between invocations, you may want to set ajaxCache: false.

New as of clueTip 1.0.3: How do I programmatically close (hide) a clueTip?

If you want to trigger a clueTip to close, based on some other interaction, you can use the following code: $(document).trigger('hideCluetip');

New as of clueTip 1.0.4: Why don't the styles that I've applied to my local content carry over once they're inside a clueTip?

When using an element on the same page to populate the clueTip's content, the plugin clones that element. Because of potential problems caused by duplicate IDs within a page, the plugin also, by default, adds a suffix to the ID of the cloned element. If you have tied styles to the original ID, they won't be carried over. You can either give the localIdSuffix an empty string ( '' ) for its value or add the id to your stylesheet rule.

How do I add a delay before showing or closing the clueTip?

While the clueTip plugin itself doesn't have a mechanism for delaying responses, it can take advantage of the optional hoverIntent plugin. To delay the showing of a clueTip, use the interval property of the hoverIntent option; to delay its hiding, use the timeout property. Both properties are in measured in milliseconds. For example, the following sets both the show and the hide delays to 750 milliseconds (3/4 second):

$('a').cluetip({
  hoverIntent: {
    sensitivity:  1,
    interval:     750,
    timeout:      750    
  }
});

See hoverIntent plugin's documentation for details.

Why are the clueTips hidden behind my Flash elements?

This is a common problem when trying to layer a DOM element over a Flash object. To avoid it, you need to set <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> inside the <object></object> tags and/or wmode="transparent" as an attribute of the <embed /> tag. For example, your HTML might look like this:

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"    
  codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab"
  width="500" height="300">
  <param name="movie" value="test.swf" />
  <param name="quality" value="high" />
  <param name="wmode" value="transparent" />

  <embed src="test.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent"
    pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="300" />
</object>

clueTip Plugin Credits

• The clueTip Plugin was inspired by Cody Lindley's jTip script.
• Many feature ideas were provided by Shelane Enos.
• Glen Lipka and Jörn Zaefferer provided expert advice.
• Dan G. Switzer and Hector Santos helped a lot and contributed code for a couple features.
• Torben Schreiter helped squash some bugs and offered code for pre-loading images from ajaxed files
• Jonathan Chaffer helped a lot, but eschewed the co-author designation out of sheer modesty.

Download

The latest "stable" release of the clueTip Plugin is available at: http://plugins.jquery.com/project/cluetip/.

The plugin is also available on Github, where it is updated more frequently with incremental improvements and bug fixes: clueTip on Github

Support

Support for the clueTip Plugin is available through the jQuery Mailing List. This is a very active list to which many jQuery developers and users subscribe.

Bug Reports & Feature Requests

If you would like the clueTip to do something that it doesn't already do, you may request a feature.