Sexy Album Art with MooTools or jQuery

The way that album information displays is usually insanely boring. Music is supposed to be fun and moving, right? Luckily MooTools and jQuery allow us to communicate that creativity on the web.

The XHTML

<div id="album">
	<div id="album-front"></div>
	<div id="album-back"></div>
	<div id="album-desc">
		<h3>Every Picture Tells A Story</h3>
		<p>
			Every Picture Tells a Story is the third album by Rod Stewart, released in the middle of 1971. It became Stewart's most critically acclaimed album, and became the standard by which all of his subsequent albums were judged.<br />
			<a href="javascript:;" style="font-weight:bold;">Buy Now!</a> | <a href="javascript:;">More Rod Stewart Albums</a>
			<br /><img src="everypicture-stars.gif" alt="5 Stars!" style="margin-top:10px;" />
		</p>
	</div>
</div>

A few structure DIVs and the album information.

The CSS

#album			{ width:500px; position:relative; }
#album-front	{ width:400px; height:393px; background:url(everypicture-front.png) 0 0 no-repeat; cursor:pointer; position:absolute; top:0; left:0; z-index:1; }
#album-back		{ display:none; width:250px; height:194px; position:absolute; top:250px; left:250px; background:url(everypicture-back.png) 0 0 no-repeat; z-index:3; }
#album-desc		{ display:none; font-size:10px; font-family:tahoma; border:1px solid #7B7057; padding:10px; width:230px; position:absolute; top:20px; left:250px; z-index:3; -webkit-border-radius:8px; -moz-border-radius:8px; border-radius:8px; background:#fff; }

The CSS is used mostly for positioning and the imagery. I chose to incorporate the album images as background images -- you could use IMG tags if you want.

The MooTools JavaScript

(function($) {
	window.addEvent('domready',function() { 
		//settings
		var fades = $$('#album-back,#album-desc');
		//init
		fades.setStyles({
			opacity: 0,
			display: 'block'
		});
		//hover version
		$('album').addEvents({
			mouseenter: function() {
				fades.fade('in');
			},
			mouseleave: function() {
				fades.fade('out');
			}
		});
	});
})(document.id);

Simple fading in and fading out -- nothing more.

The jQuery JavaScript

$(document).ready(function() {
	//settings
	var fades = $('#album-back,#album-desc');
	//hover version
	$('#album').hover(function() {
		fades.fadeIn(250);
	}, function() {
		fades.fadeOut(250);
	});
});

I think this is a great way to add some dynamism to an otherwise boring display. Rod Stewart FTW!