Thisway NPM | npm.io

Simple: is simple to use and has no external dependency at all
Highly customizable: has a powerful API and can be used however you want
Highlight anything: highlight any (literally any) element on page
Feature introductions: create powerful feature introductions for your web applications
Focus shifters: add focus shifters for users
User friendly: Everything is controllable by keyboard
Consistent behavior: usable across all browsers (including in-famous IE)
MIT Licensed: free for personal and commercial use

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So, yet another tour library?

No, it is not. Tours are just one of the many use-cases. ThisWay.js can be used wherever you need some sort of overlay for the page; some common usecases could be: e.g. dimming the background when user is interacting with some component i.e. the way Facebook does when you try to create a post, using it as a focus shifter to bring user's attention to some component on page, or using it to simulate those "Turn off the Lights" widgets that you might have seen on video players online, etc.

ThisWay.js is written in Vanilla JS, has zero dependencies and is highly customizable. It has several options allowing you to manipulate how it behaves and also provides you the hooks to manipulate the elements as they are highlighted, about to be highlighted, or deselected.

Installation

You can install it using yarn or npm, whatever you prefer.

yarn add thisway.js
npm install thisway.js

Or include it using CDN. If you want a specific version, put it as thisway.js@0.5 in the name

<script src="https://unpkg.com/thisway.js/dist/thisway.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/thisway.js/dist/thisway.min.css">

Or grab the code from dist directory and include it directly.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/dist/thisway.min.css">
<script src="/dist/thisway.min.js"></script>

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Usage and Demo

If you are using some sort of module bundler, import the library and the CSS file

import ThisWay from 'thisway.js';
import 'thisway.js/dist/thisway.min.css';

otherwise use the script and link tags to import the JavaScript and CSS files.

Highlighting Single Element

You can highlight a single element by simply passing the selector.

const thisway = new ThisWay();
thisway.highlight('#create-post');

A real world usage example for this is: using it to dim the background and highlight the required element e.g. the way Facebook does it when creating a post.

Highlight and Popover

You can show additional details beside the highlighted element using the popover.

const thisway = new ThisWay();
thisway.highlight({
  element: '#some-element',
  popover: {
    title: 'Title for the Popover',
    description: 'Description for it',
  }
});

Also, title and description can have HTML as well.

Positioning the Popover

By default, thisway automatically finds the suitable position for the popover and displays it. You can override it using position property.

const thisway = new ThisWay();
thisway.highlight({
  element: '#some-element',
  popover: {
    title: 'Title for the Popover',
    description: 'Description for it',
    // position can be left, left-center, left-bottom, top,
    // top-center, top-right, right, right-center, right-bottom,
    // bottom, bottom-center, bottom-right, mid-center
    position: 'left',
  }
});

You can also add offset to the popover position by using the offset property

const thisway = new ThisWay();
thisway.highlight({
  element: '#some-element',
  popover: {
    title: 'Title for the Popover',
    description: 'Description for it',
    position: 'bottom',
    // Will show it 20 pixels away from the actual position of popover
    // You may also provide the negative values
    offset: 20,
  }
});

Creating Feature Introductions

Feature introductions are helpful when onboarding new users and giving them an idea about different parts of the application; you can create them seamlessly with ThisWay. Define the steps and call the start when you want to start presenting. User will be able to control the steps using the keyboard or using the buttons on popovers.

const thisway = new ThisWay();

// Define the steps for introduction
thisway.setSteps([
  {
    element: '#first-element-introduction',
    popover: {
      className: 'first-step-popover-class',
      title: 'Title on Popover',
      description: 'Body of the popover',
      position: 'left'
    }
  },
  {
    element: '#second-element-introduction',
    popover: {
      title: 'Title on Popover',
      description: 'Body of the popover',
      position: 'top'
    }
  },
  {
    element: '#third-element-introduction',
    popover: {
      title: 'Title on Popover',
      description: 'Body of the popover',
      position: 'right'
    }
  },
]);

// Start the introduction
thisway.start();

You can also hide the buttons and control the introductions programmatically by using the API methods listed below.

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Asynchronous Actions

For any asynchronous actions between the transition steps, you may delay the execution till the action completes. All you have to do is stop the transition using thisway.preventMove() in your onNextClick or onPreviousClick callbacks and initiate it manually using thisway.moveNext(). Here is a sample implementation where it will stop at the second step for four seconds and then move on to the next step.

const thisway = new ThisWay();

// Define the steps for introduction
thisway.setSteps([
  {
    element: '#first-element-introduction',
    popover: {
      title: 'Title on Popover',
      description: 'Body of the popover',
      position: 'left'
    }
  },
  {
    element: '#second-element-introduction',
    popover: {
      title: 'Title on Popover',
      description: 'Body of the popover',
      position: 'top'
    },
    onNextClick: () => {
      // Prevent moving to the next step
      thisway.preventMove();
      
      // Perform some action or create the element to move to
      // And then move to that element
      setTimeout(() => {
        thisway.moveNext();
      }, 4000);
    }
  },
  {
    element: '#third-element-introduction',
    popover: {
      title: 'Title on Popover',
      description: 'Body of the popover',
      position: 'right'
    }
  },
]);

// Start the introduction
thisway.start();

You can also hide the buttons and control the introductions programmatically by using the API methods listed below.

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API

ThisWay comes with several options that you can manipulate to make ThisWay behave as you like

ThisWay Definition

Here are the options that ThisWay understands:

const thisway = new ThisWay({
  className: 'scoped-class',        // className to wrap thisway.js popover
  animate: true,                    // Whether to animate or not
  overlayOpacity: 0.75,                    // Background overlayOpacity (0 means only popovers and without overlay)
  padding: 10,                      // Distance of element from around the edges
  clickOutsideClose: true,                 // Whether the click on overlay should close or not
  clickOutsideMoveNext: false,          // Whether the click on overlay should move next
  doneBtnText: 'Done',              // Text on the final button
  closeBtnText: 'Close',            // Text on the close button for this step
  nextBtnText: 'Next',              // Next button text for this step
  prevBtnText: 'Previous',          // Previous button text for this step
  showCtrlBtns: false,               // Do not show control buttons in footer
  keyboardControl: true,            // Allow controlling through keyboard (escape to close, arrow keys to move)
  scrollIntoViewOptions: {},        // We use `scrollIntoView()` when possible, pass here the options for it if you want any
  onHighlightStarted: (Element) => {}, // Called when element is about to be highlighted
  onHighlighted: (Element) => {},      // Called when element is fully highlighted
  onDeselected: (Element) => {},       // Called when element has been deselected
  onClear: (Element) => {},            // Called when overlay is about to be cleared
  onNextClick: (Element) => {},                    // Called when moving to next step on any step
  onPreviousClick: (Element) => {},                // Called when moving to previous step on any step
});

Note that all the button options that you provide in the thisway definition can be overridden for a specific step by giving them in the step definition

Step Definition

Here are the set of options that you can pass while defining steps setSteps or the object that you pass to highlight method:

const stepDefinition = {
  element: '#some-item',        // Query selector string or Node to be highlighted
  popover: {                    // There will be no popover if empty or not given
    className: 'popover-class', // className to wrap this specific step popover in addition to the general className in ThisWay options
    title: 'Title',             // Title on the popover
    description: 'Description', // Body of the popover
    showCtrlBtns: false,         // Do not show control buttons in footer
    doneBtnText: 'Done',        // Text on the last button
    closeBtnText: 'Close',      // Text on the close button
    nextBtnText: 'Next',        // Next button text
    prevBtnText: 'Previous',    // Previous button text
  },
  onNextClick: () => {},             // Called when moving to next step from current step
  onPreviousClick: () => {},         // Called when moving to previous step from current step
};

For example, here is how it would look when highlighting a single element:

const thisway = new ThisWay(thiswayOptions);
thisway.highlight(stepDefinition);

And this is how it would look when creating a step by step guide:

const thisway = new ThisWay(thiswayOptions);
thisway.setSteps([
    stepDefinition1,
    stepDefinition2,
    stepDefinition3,
    stepDefinition4,
]);

API Methods

Below are the set of methods that are available:

const thisway = new ThisWay(thiswayOptions);

// Checks if the thisway is active or not
if (thisway.isActivated) {
    console.log('ThisWay is active');
}

// In case of the steps guide, you can call below methods
thisway.setSteps([ stepDefinition1, stepDefinition2, stepDefinition3 ]);
thisway.start(stepNumber = 0);  // Starts driving through the defined steps
thisway.moveNext();             // Moves to next step in the steps list
thisway.movePrevious();         // Moves to previous step in the steps list
thisway.hasNextStep();          // Checks if there is next step to move to
thisway.hasPreviousStep();      // Checks if there is previous step to move to

// Prevents the current move. Useful in `onNextClick` or `onPreviousClick` if you want to
// perform some asynchronous task and manually move to next step
thisway.preventMove();

// Highlights the element using query selector or the step definition
thisway.highlight(string|stepDefinition);

// Reposition the popover and highlighted element
thisway.refresh();

// Resets the overlay and clears the screen
thisway.reset();

// Additionally you can pass a boolean parameter
// to clear immediately and not do the animations etc
// Could be useful when you, let's say, want to run
// a different instance of thisway while one was running
thisway.reset(clearImmediately = false);

// Checks if there is any highlighted element
if(thisway.hasHighlightedElement()) {
    console.log('There is an element highlighted');
}

// Gets the currently highlighted element on screen
// It would be an instance of `/src/core/element.js`
const activeElement = thisway.getHighlightedElement();

activeElement.getPositionOnScreen(); // Gets screen co-ordinates of the active element
activeElement.hidePopover();           // Hide the popover
activeElement.showPopover();           // Show the popover

activeElement.getNode();  // Gets the DOM Element behind this element

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Note – Do not forget to add e.stopPropagation() to the click binding that triggers thisway.

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