Isotip

The javascript tooltip plugin with no dependencies

Isotip is a small (3kb minified and gzipped) and minimal node module to be included in your browserify (or similar) package for use in the browser. Its only dependencies are ES5 and a browser. View the source on Github.

Positioning a tooltip is as simple as adding an attribute. You can position a tooltip to the top, right, bottom, or left of an element. By default, tooltips appear above an element.

Additionally, if a tooltip is so large that it would run off-screen, Isotip will re-position it to a better position. Scrolling with a tooltip open will also keep it in position, and re-adjust if scrolling would cause it to move off-screen.

API

Isotip (purposefully) has a simple api. It provides a simple helper function to automatically bind certain events and open tooltips when they fire.

Configuring a specific tooltip is done via data attributes on an element.

data-tooltip-content: This sets the main body content of the tooltip into a <p> tag by default with a class of tooltip-content. Content is interpreted as plain text by default. To insert html, set the data-tooltip-html attribute to true.
data-tooltip-title: This sets the title of the tooltip into a <p> tag by default with a class of tooltip-title.
data-tooltip-html: Setting this to true will force Isotip to try and interpret the content as HTML. If it fails, it will interpret the content as plain text.
data-tooltip-placement: This sets the position of the tooltip. Options are top, right, bottom, and left. By default, top is used for all tooltips.
data-tooltip-container: This sets the element that the tooltip will be prepended to. By default, this is the <body> element.
data-tooltip-scrollContainer: This sets the element that will have a scroll event bound to it. If your tooltip is inside a scrolling element (overflow:scroll), you need to add this!.

Alternatively, programattic creation and destruction of tooltips is available.

init( config )

The init method provides automatic event binding for tooltips. It sets up delegated event listeners for .tooltip-click, .tooltip-hover, and .tooltip-focus for click, mouseover, and focus events respectively. You can pass in an optional config object to overwrite any of the default options.

var options = {
    html: false, // set to true to always interpret content as HTML
    placement: 'top', // default placement of tooltips
    container: 'body', // default containing element for the tooltip
    scrollContainer: '.scroll-container', // default container for scroll watching
    template: '<div class="tooltip" data-tooltip-target="tooltip"></div>', // default template for the tooltip shell
    removalDelay: 200, // default number of ms before the tooltip is removed
    tooltipOffset: 10, // default number of px the tooltip is offset from the trigger element
    windowPadding: { // window bounds for tooltip repositioning
        top: 10,
        right: 10,
        bottom: 10,
        left: 10
    }
};

isotip.init( config );

open( trigger, config )

The open method will create the tooltip, insert it into the DOM, and position it in relation to it's trigger. The trigger can be an element or a CSS selector. The object to be passed in will serve as a replacement for the data attributes on the trigger.

var config = {
    html: false, // set to true to interpret content as HTML
    placement: 'top', // where to place the tooltip in relation to the trigger
    content: 'Tooltip content', // the content to go into the tooltip,
    title: 'Tooltip title' // the text to go in the title, if any
};

isotip.open( '.tooltip', config );

close( tooltip )

The close method will remove a tooltip from the DOM. The tooltip to remove should be passed in and can be an element or a CSS selector.

isotip.close( '.tooltip' );

positionTooltip( tooltip, trigger, placement )

The positionTooltip method will re-evaluate the position of a tooltip in relation to it's trigger element. Only the tooltip and trigger need to be passed in, and placement will default to what's been configured by init(). Tooltip and trigger can be either an element or a CSS selector.

isotip.positionTooltip( '.tooltip', '.tooltip-click', 'left' );

Isotip is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.