Plugin

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jQuery.extend({
  parseQuerystring: function(){
    var nvpair = {};
    var qs = window.location.search.replace('?', '');
    var pairs = qs.split('&');
    $.each(pairs, function(i, v){
      var pair = v.split('=');
      nvpair[pair[0]] = pair[1];
    });
    return nvpair;
  }
});

Usage

Assuming the URL is http://mydomain.com/page.html?foo=bar&somevalue=myvalue, you can either access an index directly jQuery.parseQuerystring().foo, or by setting a variable, like this:

var qs = jQuery.parseQuerystring();
//qs['foo'] == "bar"
//qs.somevalue == "myvalue"

The goal of extending the jQuery object with this utility (meaning that it does not require a selected set of elements, and in this case does not even require an argument) was flexibility, however it can easily be converted to a function in the global namespace. If you would rather download the files, they are zipped up and ready (ParseQuerystring jQuery Plugin).

Are there additional operations you’d like to see added to this, or relating to the URL and querystring? Let me know in the comments.

Update: Code posted to GitHub as a Gist snippet

I saw this post on the CSS Tricks Snippet Feed which addresses a commonly desired form behavior: to provide default text in an INPUT element that disappears when the user enters that field. The example provided works, but I have a couple issues with it:

1. Uses inline JavaScript, and must be reapplied to each element affected
2. Repeats the contents of the value attribute
3. The default text is not replaced if the user exits the field without entering new data

So I created a possible solution, using jQuery:

HTML

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<input type="text" value="Place default text here" />

JavaScript

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jQuery( function(){
  $( 'input[type="text"]' ).each( function(){
    $(this).attr( 'title', $(this).val() )
      .focus( function(){
        if ( $(this).val() == $(this).attr('title') ) {
          $(this).val( '' );
        }
      } ).blur( function(){
        if ( $(this).val() == '' || $(this).val() == ' ' ) {
          $(this).val( $(this).attr('title') );
        }
      } );
  } );
} );

This script first iterates over each of the text input to assign a semantic text attribute, helpful not only in storing the default value, but also providing a tool-tip for reference as the user interacts with the page. It then assigns behaviors for both the onfocus and onblur events, eliminating the need to respecify data for comparison. The script is cleanly separated from the markup and, using jQuery, additional specifications may be made so as to only affect children of a particular FIELDSET or only those that possess a certain class.

I hope you find this snippet useful, and feel free to comment if you have additional information to share.

UPDATED!

We, as designers and developers, cannot help but go back to review our sites and code to make updates and revisions as our skills, philosophies and tastes change. In this spirit, I would like to offer an alternative to the above JavaScript snippet. The one above, in my opinion, is lacking in the following ways:

1. Applies the behavior to all input[type="text"] elements indiscriminantly.
2. Overwrites any existing title attribute content
3. Does not account for existing text field values resulting from pre-population or validation.

So with that in mind, here’s the new solution:

HTML

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<input type="text" title="Place default assistive text here (e.g. First Name)" />
<input type="text" title="Default assistive text (e.g. E-Mail Address)" value="invalid@ddr.ess" />

jQuery Plugin

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$.fn.toggleField = function(){
  return this.each(function(){
    var $this = $(this);
    if($this.val() === '' && $this.attr('title') !== ''){
      $this.val($this.attr('title'));
    }
    $this.bind('focus blur', function(){
      var $this = $(this);
      if($this.val() === $this.attr('title')){
        $this.val('');
      }else if($this.val() === '' || $this.val() === ' '){
        $this.val($this.attr('title'));
      }
    });
  });
};

JavaScript

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jQuery(document).ready(function(){
  $('input[type="text"]').toggleField();
});

By converting the behavior into a plugin, it becomes chainable and more flexible. Perhaps in a future version it would be useful accommodate additional field types or textarea elements. I have also packaged the plugin for download (ToggleField jQuery Plugin). I look forward to seeing your questions or suggestions in the comments below!

Project Moved to Git

After further review and consideration, I decided to make some more changes to the plug-in to take advantage of some of the new features promoted in HTML5. Specifically the placeholder attribute, since this is essentially the behavior that we are trying to mimic. Here is an example:

<label for="email">Email:</label>
<input type="email" id="email" name="email" title="Enter a valid email address" placeholder="account@domain.tld"/>

The previous zip file will remain available above, but the toggleField.jquery.js project updates will progress on GitHub instead. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and support!

One interesting link is to an article about methods for presenting information and creating systems to enhance user experience:

Delivering informative structure is the primary task an interactive user interface should be able to cope with. The more intuitive layout structure is designed, the better users can understand the content.

Read the full article on Noupe.

Considering almost all the recent updates to the framework relate to improving speed, why not take fullest advantage of them in making your application as responsive as possible?

To this goal, Nick Stakenburg released a script that gently alerts the user that their browser could use an upgrade. Pushup detects the version of the client and briefly flashes a notice with a link to download an update. The entire package is fairly lightweight (only 11kb, zipped) and includes the images, sylesheets and JavaScript files to run. Implementation and customization information is provided on the download site, in addition to ports of the function for dojo and jQuery.

This doesn’t really help users whose IT departments prohibit them from updating, but if it helps those who are unaware that there is a better web experience to be had then it is worthy of praise and support.

UPDATE

VICTORY!!! Even Microsoft is denouncing IE6. Track the downfall of this archaic software at IE6 Countdown.

First, jQuery makes finding the item(s) that you want to replace as easy as using CSS. Then, the jQuery sIFR Plugin does all the work of figuring out the text, files, sizes, colors, and any other configurations needed for the conversion. The jQuery sIFR plugin is fully configurable and can choose how little or how much you want to customize the display of the sIFRed text. Finally, the jQuery Flash Plugin does a most excellent job of embedding the sIFR flash into your web page. After all is said and done, you should have beautiful sIFR replaced text with consistent behavior across all major browsers.

All the resources are available for download from the developer’s site, as well a simple API and usage examples for easy customization.

UPDATE

While sIFR may have its uses it also has a number of serious drawbacks. Check out some of the emerging web typography technologies, including Cufón, @font-face and Typekit.

Aside from its lightweight and extensible nature, jQuery’s ability to easily assign behaviors and attributes to custom-created arrays of elements without much hassle is one of its most appealing features. Using a similar scheme for other libraries, frameworks or even in stand-alone cases would not only simplify programming (goodbye document.getElementsByTagName “for” loops!) but would improve the language as a whole by making scripts more readable and accessible.

Instead of:

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sfHover = function() {
  var sfEls = document.getElementById("nav").getElementsByTagName("LI");
  for (var i=0; i<sfels .length; i++)="" {="">
    sfEls[i].onmouseover=function() {
      this.className+=" sfhover";
    }
    sfEls[i].onmouseout=function() {
      this.className=this.className.replace(new RegExp(" sfhover\\b"), "");
    }
  }
}
if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload", sfHover);
</sfels>

You only need:

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jQuery('#nav li').hover(function(){
 	$(this).addClass('sfhover'); //mouseover
 }, function(){
 	$(this).removeClass('sfhover'); //mouseout
 });

or, simpler yet:

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jQuery('#nav li').bind("mouseover mouseout", function(){ $(this).toggleClass('sfhover'); });

Such is the beauty of using css-style selectors to build an array of affected elements. Of course, you must make sure the code is wrapped in $(document).ready(function(){…});, but there is no need to modify the window.onload event in this example. Otherwise, refer to the code provided in the above examples to get your markup and formatting styles in place.