jQuery Star Rating Plugin

What is this?

The Star Rating Plugin is a plugin for the jQuery Javascript library that creates a non-obstrusive star rating control based on a set of radio input boxes.

What does it do?

• It turns a collection of radio boxes into a neat star-rating control.
• It creates the interface based on standard form elements, which means the basic functionality will still be available even if Javascript is disabled.
• NEW (12-Mar-08): In read only mode (using the 'readOnly' option or disabled property), the plugin is a neat way of displaying star-like values without any additional code

How do I use it?

Just add the star class to your radio boxes

<input name="star1" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star1" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star1" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star1" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star1" type="radio" class="star"/>

Use the checked property to specify the initial/default value of the control

<input name="star2" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star2" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star2" type="radio" class="star" checked="checked"/>
<input name="star2" type="radio" class="star"/>
<input name="star2" type="radio" class="star"/>

Use the disabled property to use a control for display purposes only

<input name="star3" type="radio" class="star" disabled="disabled"/>
<input name="star3" type="radio" class="star" disabled="disabled"/>
<input name="star3" type="radio" class="star" disabled="disabled" checked="checked"/>
<input name="star3" type="radio" class="star" disabled="disabled"/>
<input name="star3" type="radio" class="star" disabled="disabled"/>

Advanced Usage

Use metadata plugin to pass advanced settings to the plugin via the class property.

<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}" checked="checked"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv1" type="radio" class="star {split:4}"/>

Use custom selector

$(function(){ // wait for document to load
 $('input.wow').rating();
});

<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}" checked="checked"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>
<input name="adv2" type="radio" class="wow {split:4}"/>

Test Suite

$('.auto-submit-star').rating({
  callback: function(value, link){
    alert(value);
  }
});

$('.hover-star').rating({
  focus: function(value, link){
    var tip = $('#hover-test');
    tip[0].data = tip[0].data || tip.html();
    tip.html(link.title || 'value: '+value);
  },
  blur: function(value, link){
    var tip = $('#hover-test');
    $('#hover-test').html(tip[0].data || '');
  }
});

<input class="star {half:true}"

<input class="star {split:3}"

<input class="star {split:2}"

<input class="star {split:2}"

<input class="star {split:4}"

<input class="star {split:4}"

Database Integration

I'm sorry to say that for the time being, this is up to you create the server-side code to process the form submission, store it somewhere (like a database) and do stuff with it - such as displaying averages and stop users from voting more than once.

However, here are a few alternatives if you don't feel like getting down and dirty with some good old coding:
http://www.yvoschaap.com/index.php/weblog/css_star_rater_ajax_version/

and
part 1: http://www.komodomedia.com/blog/2005/08/creating-a-star-rater-using-css/
part 2: http://slim.climaxdesigns.com/tutorial.php?section=slim&id=2
part 3: http://slim.climaxdesigns.com/tutorial.php?section=slim&id=3
part 4: http://slim.climaxdesigns.com/tutorial.php?section=slim&id=9

Background Information

As far as I know, this is how it goes...

• It all started with Will Stuckey's jQuery Star Rating Super Interface!
• The original then became the inspiration for Ritesh Agrawal's Simple Star Rating System, which allows for a GMail like star/un-star toggle.
• This was followed by several spin-offs... (one of which is the Half-star rating plugin)
• Then someone at PHPLetter.com modified the plugin to overcome the issues - then plugin was now based on standard form elements, meaning the interface would still work with Javascript disabled making it beautifully downgradable.
• Then I came along and noticed a fundamental flaw with the latter: there could only be one star rating control per page. The rest of the story is what you will see below...
• NEW (12-Mar-08): Then Keith Wood added some very nice functionality to the plugin: option to disable the cancel button, option to make the plugin readOnly and ability to accept any value (other than whole numbers)
• NEW (20-Mar-08): Now supports half-star, third-star, quater-star, etc... Not additional code required. No additional images required.
• NEW (31-Mar-08): Two new events, hover/blur (arguments: [value, linkElement])

Download

Package:	v2.5 star-rating.zip
Files:	These are the individual required files (already included in the zip package above) jQuery.Rating.js (packed version) jQuery.Rating.css delete.gif star.gif
jQuery:	jquery-latest.js (see jQuery.com)
Related:	Metadata plugin - Used to retrieve inline configuration from class variable blockUI plugin - Used to show pretty error messages Form plugin - Used to submit forms via ajax

Support

Quick Support Links: Help me! | Report a bug | Suggest new feature

Support for this plugin is available through the jQuery Mailing List. This is a very active list to which many jQuery developers and users subscribe.
Access to the jQuery Mailing List is also available through Nabble Forums, the jQuery Google Group and the official project page.

Credit

• Diego A. - Author, London SEO Consultant
• Keith Wood - The brain behind v2.1
• Dean Edwards - Author of JS Packer used to compress the plugin
• Will Stuckey, Ritesh Agrawal and everyone else who worked in the previous versions of the plugin - I'm not so good with research...

Attribute this work

License Info

Star Rating Plugin by Fyneworks.com is licensed under the MIT License and the GPL License.

Copyright (c) 2008 Fyneworks.com Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.