jQuery dropdown menu are mostly use to navigate websites. They are simply lists of horizontal alternatives, each containing a vertical menu that “drops down” when the mouse hovers over the primary option. Dropdown menus are also the preferred and optimal method of displaying many items in a menu. If you want to see an example in action, visit nearly any E-commerce website, and you’ll immediately see a dropdown menu. Another advantage of a dropdown menu is that it can accommodate several layers of submenus.
Typically, a Dropdown menu is construct using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Due to the flexible design requirements of today’s day, the old technique and technology for producing dropdowns may not be appropriate. jQuery dropdown menu may become more sophisticated, dynamic, interactive, and responsive with the addition of new client-side tools and technologies. The pairing of CSS3 and jQuery performs quite well in terms of meeting expectations. This post collects seven jQuery plugins that transform a simple dropdown menu into a beautiful, responsive, and animated dropdown menu. You may build several layers of submenus, a sticky menu that appears as you scroll, and customize the appearance with pre-installed themes.
Stellarnav
Stellarnav is a simple, beautiful, and light jQuery plugin that converts an unordered list to a dropdown menu. This plugin easily supports an unlimited number of submenus and is compatible with various screen sizes, including desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. For lengthy dropdown menus at the end of the navigation, you may add the class “drop-left” to the list item, which will cause the dropdown to drop leftward. This stops the menu from straying beyond the grid and acquiring a horizontal scrollbar.
PrMenu
PrMenu is a jQuery plugin for building dropdown menus that is both lightweight and responsive. This plugin equally divides the width of all top-level menu items. The plugin allows for customizing font size, height, text casing, link colours, and weight.
SmartMenus
SmartMenus is a sophisticated jQuery plugin for building cross-platform dropdown menus. The plugin was built to support as many browsers as possible on various platforms and devices – desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones, for example.
Unusual Menu
The unusual menu is a jQuery and CSS3 plugin that allows you to create animated dropdown menus easily. This plugin utilizes CSS3 animation to convert a standard unordered list into a beautiful and eye-catching dropdown menu plugin. The plugin creates a beautiful appearance by applying various CSS3 skew effects on even and odd objects. The animation is not entirely compose of CSS3; it also incorporates the jQuery animate feature to provide varying margins for even-odd items.
Dropdown Hover
Dropdown hover is a responsive multilayer dropdown navigation menu built using jQuery and Bootstrap that has captivating animations. It makes use of the bootstrap dropdown component and the animate.css animation library. However, jQuery is use to move it if it exceeds the viewport width. Although the dropdown menu is normally align to the left, you can align it to the right by adding additional CSS classes to the element.
SlimMenu
slimMenu is a lightweight jQuery plugin that allows you to create flexible and multi-level navigation menus quickly. With slimMenu, you won’t have to battle with media queries or other hefty plugins to build multi-level nested menus. It accomplishes both tasks for you and is just 5KB (2.5KB minified) in size! It has several overridable configuration options for customization, including animation speed, easing effect, initially visible, expand, and collapse icons.
Responsive Dropdown Menu In Vanilla JavaScript
A responsive dropdown menu is written in Vanilla JavaScript will transform to a hamburger toggle menu when the screen size is less than the breakpoint specified in the CSS media queries. CSS3 transformations and transitions are use to create smooth animation.
Image Combo Box
Image Combo Box is a simple plugin that enables you to specify an image and a description for each choice within your choose controls. It’s generally used to display a relevant image for each option, making it handy for displaying a visual representation for each selection.
jQuery Searchable DropDown Plugin
The Searchable DropDown plugin is one of the more traditional plugins available online. It aims to convert your simple select components into a single searchable listing. It was produced in 2012 (and not recently updated).
Multi-select Combo Box
This plugin is a little different from the ones we’ve discussed thus far. It is comparable to previous drag-and-drop systems but is fully compose of conventional select components. It operates on two or more select items simultaneously, resulting in a UI in which elements may be move across lists. To get this up and running, you’ll probably need to style it somewhat to conform to contemporary design standards (it’s a little unattractive as-is).
jQuery Selectbox
jQuery Selectbox is one of the most established select substitution plugins. However, unlike many other plugins that offer a plethora of functionality, this one focuses on reshaping your controls while leaving the functionality mostly the same.
Multiselect.js
Another jQuery-powered utility that enables you to quickly and construct multi-select lists. When demonstrated in their demos, it’s clear to realize how beneficial they are. You may construct a single select element and then transfer things across your lists with ease.
JQuery SumoSelect
SumoSelect is a select list replacement with all of the features you’d expect from a select list. This plugin supports single and multi-select components and searching and filtering and is supported by a comprehensive range of settings and events.
Conclusion
These little jQuery plugins simplify the process of creating dropdown menus. These plugins enable the transformation of static dropdown menus into dynamic and responsive menus. Additionally, they enable you to construct submenus on many levels. These plugins are styled using a CSS file that can be quickly modified with a few keystrokes to match the look of your website. Enjoy!