What is it?

Anchorific is a jQuery plugin that automatically generates anchored headings and nested navigations based on header tags.

Checkout the navigation under the hamburger menu. Active state of navigation should change based on where you are on the page. The navigation is generated by Anchorific.

See that sidebar on the left? Its navigation is generated with Anchorific and as you scroll, the links will automatically be highlighted. See the '#' symbol next to each header? Yup, that's generated with Anchorific too!

Installation

npm install --save anchorific

For a guide on how to using jQuery plugins with npm, check out this blog by NPM.

You can also use CDN:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/anchorific/0.1.2/min/anchorific.min.js"></script>

Getting Started

Basic Usage and Options

Use the selector where your headings are located under. And then just call the anchorific method.

$(".content").anchorific();

You can call the plugin function with any selector you want as long as it adhere to the HTML structure mentioned above. Options available are as followed:

$(".content").anchorific({
  navigation: ".anchorific", // position of navigation
  headers: "h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6", // headers that you wish to target
  speed: 200, // speed of sliding back to top
  anchorClass: "anchor", // class of anchor links
  anchorText: "#", // prepended or appended to anchor headings
  top: ".top", // back to top button or link class
  spy: true, // scroll spy
  position: "append", // position of anchor text
  spyOffset: 0, // specify heading offset for spy scrolling
  navElements: [], // if there are other elements that should act as navigation, add classes here
});

Generating navigations, Scroll spy, and 'Back to top' functionality can be disable by assigning false value to the options.

Adding 'Back to Top' Button

Just add an element with class top. You can use other class names but it should be specified in the plugin options.

<a href="#top" class="top">Scroll to top</a>

The speed of the scrolling effect can be adjusted by specifying it in the options above.

Note: remember to add display: none; to the .top styling. It should not be visible when the page first load.

HTML Structure

You should not skip a level when structuring header tags. H1 should be followed by H2, H2 should be followed by H3 and so on. Anchorific relies heavily on this particular structure when generating the anchor navigation.

<h1>The Lannisters</h1>
<h2>Tywin Lanister</h2>
<h2>Cersei Lannister</h2>
<h3>Joffrey Baratheon</h3>
<h3>Myrcella Baratheon</h3>
<h3>Tommen Baratheon</h3>
<h2>Jaime Lannister</h2>
<h2>Tyrion Lannister</h2>

Based on the HTML markup above, the plugin will generate nested navigations like this one:

<ul>
  <li data-tag="1">
    <a href="#the-lannisters">The Lannisters</a>
    <ul>
      <li data-tag="2"><a href="#tywin-lannister">Tywin Lannister</a></li>
      <li data-tag="2">
        <a href="#cersei-lannister">Cersei Lannister</a>
        <ul>
          <li data-tag="3">
            <a href="#joffrey-baratheon">Joffrey Baratheon</a>
          </li>
          <li data-tag="3">
            <a href="#myrcella-baratheon">Myrcella Baratheon</a>
          </li>
          <li data-tag="3"><a href="#tommen-baratheon">Tommen Baratheon</a></li>
        </ul>
      </li>
      <li data-tag="2"><a href="#jaime-lannister">Jaime Lannister</a></li>
      <li data-tag="2"><a href="#tyrion-lannister">Tyrion Lannister</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

...and it will generate anchored headings like this one:

<h1>Tywin Lannister</h1>
<!-- This would be turn to -->
<h1 id="tywin-lannister">
  Tywin Lannister <a href="#tywin-lannister" class="anchor">#</a>
</h1>

Existing ID

Any existing ID will be preserved by the plugin:

<h3 id="what-if-I-already-have-an-id">What about existing ID?</h3>
<!-- This would be turn to -->
<h3 id="what-if-I-already-have-an-id">
  What about existing ID?<a href="#what-if-I-already-have-an-id" class="anchor">#</a>
</h3>

Generate Navigation

Include a div or a nav section where you want the unordered list of anchor navigation to be appended at:

<nav class="anchorific"></nav>

By default, the plugin will append the unordered list under an element with class called anchorific. If you wish to use another class name, you need to specify it in the plugin's option.

CSS

The nested navigation can be styled easily. Below are the selectors you can use in order to style the generated navigation.

.anchorific {}
.anchorific ul {}
.anchorific ul li a {}
.anchorific li ul {}
/* active class is generated by the scrollspy */ .anchorific
li.active > a {}
.anchorific li.active > ul {}

You can use the CSS provided with the library and override the styling.