Create Twitter-Style Buttons with the Dojo Toolkit

By  on  

I love that JavaScript toolkits make enhancing web pages incredibly easy. Today I'll cover an effect that I've already coded with MooTools: creating a Twitter-style animated "Sign In" button. Check out this five minute tutorial so you can take your static buttons to the next level!

The HTML

<!-- left version -->
<div class="button_wrap">
    <a class="button_aLeft" id="button_aLeft"><span>Use your Twitter ID</span></a>
    <a class="button_bLeft slidebttn" id="button_bLeft">Sign <span>in</span></a>
</div>
<!-- right version -->
<div class="button_wrap">

    <a class="button_aRight" id="button_aRight"><span>Use your Twitter ID</span></a>
    <a class="button_bRight slidebttn" id="button_bRight">Sign <span>in</span></a>
</div>

The "button" consists of one DIV with two sets SPANs wrapped by A elements.

The CSS

.button_wrap{ position:relative; width:225px; height:36px; overflow:hidden; font-weight:bold; font-size:11px; margin:10px; }
.button_aLeft{ width:70px; height:36px; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; background-color:#093d6f; color:#fff; top:0px; right:0px; position:absolute; line-height:36px; text-align:left; }
.button_aLeft span{ z-index:200; padding-left:20px; color:#fff; }
.button_aRight{ width:70px; height:36px; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; background-color:#093d6f; color:#fff; top:0px; left:0px; position:absolute; line-height:36px; text-align:right; }
.button_aRight span{ z-index:200; padding-right:20px; color:#fff; }

.button_bLeft{ width:64px; height:30px; background-color:#fff; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; color:#000; position:absolute; top:3px; right:3px; text-transform:uppercase; line-height:30px; text-align:center; cursor:pointer; }
.button_bLeft span{ color:#008ddd; }
.button_bRight{ width:64px; height:30px; background-color:#fff; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; color:#000; position:absolute; top:3px; left:3px; text-transform:uppercase; line-height:30px; text-align:center; cursor:pointer; }
.button_bRight span{ color:#008ddd; }

.button_c{ background-color:#008ddd; color:#fff; text-transform:uppercase; }
.button_c span{ color:#093d6f; }

The CSS code is a mess -- lot of CSS goes into styling the button. As always, style however you'd like. Be careful with this set though -- I recommend sticking to just changing colors.

The Dojo JavaScript

dojo.addOnLoad(function() {
	dojo.forEach(dojo.query('.button_wrap'),function(wrap) {
		var a = dojo.query('a',wrap)[0];
		var span = dojo.query('span',a)[0];
		var button = dojo.query('a',wrap)[1];
		
		dojo.anim(span,{ opacity:0 },1);
		
		dojo.connect(button,'onmouseenter',function() {
			dojo.addClass(button,'button_c');
			dojo.anim(a,{ width:200 });
			dojo.anim(span,{ opacity: 1 });
		});
		dojo.connect(button,'onmouseleave',function() {
			dojo.removeClass(button,'button_c');
			dojo.anim(a,{ width:70 });
			dojo.anim(span,{ opacity: 0 });
		});
	});
});

The first step is to collect each "button" DIV and sift through the its child elements to get links and SPAN elements. When the user's mouse enters the "Sign In" link, the first link within the wrapping DIV grows in width and shows the supporting text.

It's little enhancements like these that take a website from a 6 to an 8, transforming the website from static to dynamic. Can you think of any other small enhancements like this? Share!

Recent Features

  • By
    Create a CSS Flipping Animation

    CSS animations are a lot of fun; the beauty of them is that through many simple properties, you can create anything from an elegant fade in to a WTF-Pixar-would-be-proud effect. One CSS effect somewhere in between is the CSS flip effect, whereby there's...

  • By
    Create a CSS Cube

    CSS cubes really showcase what CSS has become over the years, evolving from simple color and dimension directives to a language capable of creating deep, creative visuals.  Add animation and you've got something really neat.  Unfortunately each CSS cube tutorial I've read is a bit...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    CSS Vertical Centering

    Front-end developing is beautiful, and it's getting prettier by the day. Nowadays we got so many concepts, methodologies, good practices and whatnot to make our work stand out from the rest. Javascript (along with its countless third party libraries) and CSS have grown so big, helping...

  • By
    MooTools ASCII Art

    I didn't realize that I truly was a nerd until I could admit to myself that ASCII art was better than the pieces Picasso, Monet, or Van Gogh could create.  ASCII art is unmatched in its beauty, simplicity, and ... OK, well, I'm being ridiculous;  ASCII...

Discussion

  1. Great Job! Didnt I see these on the Adobe website though?

  2. Good! Maybe you could make a Dojo tutorial (and a Moo one as well)!

  3. @ctult: There are MooTools and jQuery tutorials that mirror this functionality. Check the “Related Posts” section above.

  4. @David Walsh: Oh. Yeah. Erm…I..uh knew that.

  5. Cool effect. I was looking for a different type of a twitter login. This definitely goes into the list.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!