This updated accordion script is powerful and lightweight at only 1.2kb. It now includes multi-level support, the option to allow multiple panels to expand concurrently, and a hide/show all toggle. I have reverted the markup to a div based structure to eliminate any validation issues with the definition tables in the previous version. Check back for more posts and scripts soon.

To initialize an accordion use the following code:

var accordion=new TINY.accordion.slider('accordion');
accordion.init('accordion','h3',0,0,'selected');

You must create a new accordion object before initialization. The parameter taken by accordion.slider is the variable name used for the object. The object.init function takes 5 parameters: the id of the accordion “ul”, the header element tag, whether the panels should be expandable independently (optional), the index of the initially expanded section (optional) and the class for the active header (optional).

This script has been tested in all major browsers and is available free of charge for both personal or commercial projects under the creative commons license. Community support is available here. Paid support is also available, contact me for details.

Update 6/16/2009

The script has been updated with a couple bug fixes, performance tweaks, and feature requests. I also shaved off 0.2KB.

You can now expand a particular section by its index, for example parentAccordion.pr(0,1), with the second parameter being the index of the section. If you don’t want any section to be expanded by default then use -1 for the initially expanded index in the initialization function, example accordion.init(“accordion”,”h3″,0,-1,”selected”). The script is also no longer tied to a strict doctype. If you are using this along with Flash, be sure to set the wmode property on the SWF object.

Click here for the demo.

Click here to download the source code.

A new version of this script is available here.

This lightweight (1.16 KB) animated JavaScript accordion is an update to the original accordion script posted on April 18th. It is now smaller, faster, supports multiple instances and includes an active header class toggle. The markup is also improved through the use of definition lists and the CSS has been simplified as well.

To initialize an accordion use the following code:

var mySlider=new accordion.slider('mySlider');
mySlider.init('slider',0,'open');

You must create a new accordion object before initialization. The parameter taken by accordion.slider is the variable name used for the object. The object.init function takes 3 parameters: the id of the “dl”, the index of the initially expanded section (optional) and the class for the active header (optional).

This script has been tested in all major browsers and is available free of charge for both personal or commercial projects under the creative commons license. Community support is available here. Paid support is also available, contact me for details.

Click here for the demo.

Click here to download the source code.

Update 11/24/2008 – Updated logic to allow hover state when no sections are initially expanded. Consolidated some code to drop the weight by 15%.

This versatile 1kb horizontal accordion script can be used for menus, images, presentation content and more. I had seen a similar looking feature on the mootools homepage and set out the replicate the functionality as a standalone script and as lightweight as possible. The script will automatically adjust to the number of elements in the accordion and the dimensions of the accordion.

The front-end markup for the script is a simple unordered list as in the example below…

<ul>
	<li><img src="images/1.gif" alt="" /></li>
	<li><img src="images/2.gif" alt="" /></li>
	<li><img src="images/3.gif" alt="" /></li>
	<li><img src="images/4.gif" alt="" /></li>
</ul>

To build the accordion call the function below onload…

slideMenu.build('sm',200,10,10,1)

The first parameter is the id of the unordered list you would like to bind the accordion to. The second is the width you would like the accordion selection to expand to. The third is the timeout variable to control how quickly the sliding function is called. The fourth is the speed of the accordion with 1 being the fastest. The last is optional and is the integer that corresponds to the section you would like to be expanded when the accordion is loaded.

This script has been tested in all major browsers and is available free of charge for both personal or commercial projects under the creative commons license. Community support is available here. Paid support is also available, contact me for details.

Click here to download the original script.

Click here to download the script that collapses onmouseout.

Update 5/26/2008 – Removed a line of unnecessary code and resolved an issue with IE6.
Update 5/26/2008 – Tweaked width parsing code, thanks to realazy for the suggestion.
Update 6/05/2008 – Added download for version that reverts back the the uniform collapsed positions.

This JavaScript accordion is only 1.5kb. If you have a small project that could use an accordion and don’t want to include an entire JavaScript framework to do the job then give this script a try.

You will need to call the following function in your body onload where the first parameter is the div id of the accordion parent and the second tells the script which section to expand onload.

slider.init('slider',1)

This script has been tested in all major browsers and is available free of charge for both personal or commercial projects under the creative commons license. Community support is available here. Paid support is also available, contact me for details.

Click here to download the source code.

Updated 5/27/2008 – Slightly minified the code cutting off 1kb and added the script into a global namespace.
Updated 6/19/2008 – Shaved of a few bytes and added change the “c” variable to identify which section to be expanded onload.