Driver.js

Powerful, highly customizable vanilla JavaScript engine to drive the user's focus across the page
_{No external dependencies, supports all major browsers and highly customizable}

• 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

For Usage and Examples, have a look at demo

So, yet another tour library?

No, it is not. Tours are just one of the many use-cases. Driver.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.

Driver.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 driver.js
npm install driver.js

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

<scriptsrc="https://unpkg.com/driver.js/dist/driver.min.js"></script><linkrel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/driver.js/dist/driver.min.css">

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

<linkrel="stylesheet" href="/dist/driver.min.css"><scriptsrc="/dist/driver.min.js"></script>

Usage and Demo

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

importDriverfrom'driver.js';import'driver.js/dist/driver.min.css';

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

Demos and many more usage examples can be found in the docs page.

Highlighting Single Element – Demo

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

constdriver=newDriver();driver.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 – Demo

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

constdriver=newDriver();driver.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 – Demo

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

constdriver=newDriver();driver.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-centerposition: 'left',}});

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

constdriver=newDriver();driver.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 valuesoffset: 20,}});

Creating Feature Introductions – Demo

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 Driver. 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.

constdriver=newDriver();// Define the steps for introductiondriver.defineSteps([{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 introductiondriver.start();

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

Asynchronous Actions – Demo

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 driver.preventMove() in your onNext or onPrevious callbacks and initiate it manually using driver.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.

constdriver=newDriver();// Define the steps for introductiondriver.defineSteps([{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'},onNext: ()=>{// Prevent moving to the next stepdriver.preventMove();// Perform some action or create the element to move to// And then move to that elementsetTimeout(()=>{driver.moveNext();},4000);}},{element: '#third-element-introduction',popover: {title: 'Title on Popover',description: 'Body of the popover',position: 'right'}},]);// Start the introductiondriver.start();

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

API

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

Driver Definition

Here are the options that Driver understands:

constdriver=newDriver({className: 'scoped-class',// className to wrap driver.js popoveranimate: true,// Whether to animate or notopacity: 0.75,// Background opacity (0 means only popovers and without overlay)padding: 10,// Distance of element from around the edgesallowClose: true,// Whether the click on overlay should close or notoverlayClickNext: false,// Whether the click on overlay should move nextdoneBtnText: 'Done',// Text on the final buttoncloseBtnText: 'Close',// Text on the close button for this stepstageBackground: '#ffffff',// Background color for the staged behind highlighted elementnextBtnText: 'Next',// Next button text for this stepprevBtnText: 'Previous',// Previous button text for this stepshowButtons: false,// Do not show control buttons in footerkeyboardControl: 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 anyxCloseButton: false,// Put the close button as an X on the top right corner of popovershowCounter: false,// Enables the steps countercounterTemplate: '{current} of {total}',// Template of steps counteronHighlightStarted: (Element)=>{},// Called when element is about to be highlightedonHighlighted: (Element)=>{},// Called when element is fully highlightedonDeselected: (Element)=>{},// Called when element has been deselectedonReset: (Element)=>{},// Called when overlay is about to be clearedonNext: (Element)=>{},// Called when moving to next step on any steponPrevious: (Element)=>{},// Called when moving to previous step on any step});

Note that all the button options that you provide in the driver 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 defineSteps or the object that you pass to highlight method:

conststepDefinition={element: '#some-item',// Query selector string or Node to be highlightedstageBackground: '#ffffff',// This will override the one set in driverpopover: {// There will be no popover if empty or not givenclassName: 'popover-class',// className to wrap this specific step popover in addition to the general className in Driver optionstitle: 'Title',// Title on the popoverdescription: 'Description',// Body of the popovershowButtons: false,// Do not show control buttons in footerdoneBtnText: 'Done',// Text on the last buttoncloseBtnText: 'Close',// Text on the close buttonnextBtnText: 'Next',// Next button textprevBtnText: 'Previous',// Previous button text},onNext: ()=>{},// Called when moving to next step from current steponPrevious: ()=>{},// Called when moving to previous step from current step};

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

constdriver=newDriver(driverOptions);driver.highlight(stepDefinition);

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

constdriver=newDriver(driverOptions);driver.defineSteps([stepDefinition1,stepDefinition2,stepDefinition3,stepDefinition4,]);

API Methods

Below are the set of methods that are available:

constdriver=newDriver(driverOptions);// Checks if the driver is active or notif(driver.isActivated){console.log('Driver is active');}// In case of the steps guide, you can call below methodsdriver.defineSteps([stepDefinition1,stepDefinition2,stepDefinition3]);driver.start(stepNumber=0);// Starts driving through the defined stepsdriver.moveNext();// Moves to next step in the steps listdriver.movePrevious();// Moves to previous step in the steps listdriver.hasNextStep();// Checks if there is next step to move todriver.hasPreviousStep();// Checks if there is previous step to move to// Prevents the current move. Useful in `onNext` or `onPrevious` if you want to// perform some asynchronous task and manually move to next stepdriver.preventMove();// Highlights the element using query selector or the step definitiondriver.highlight(string|stepDefinition);// Reposition the popover and highlighted elementdriver.refresh();// Resets the overlay and clears the screendriver.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 driver while one was runningdriver.reset(clearImmediately=false);// Checks if there is any highlighted elementif(driver.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`constactiveElement=driver.getHighlightedElement();// Gets the last highlighted element, would be an instance of `/src/core/element.js`constlastActiveElement=driver.getLastHighlightedElement();activeElement.getCalculatedPosition();// Gets screen co-ordinates of the active elementactiveElement.hidePopover();// Hide the popoveractiveElement.showPopover();// Show the popoveractiveElement.getNode();// Gets the DOM Element behind this element

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

Contributions

Feel free to submit pull requests, create issues or spread the word.

Sponsored By

Thanks to BrowserStack for sponsoring the compatibility testing needs.

License

MIT © Kamran Ahmed