jQuery UI Accordion

Overview

Make the selected elements Accordion widgets. Semantic requirements:

The markup of your accordion container needs pairs of headers and content panels:

<div id="accordion">
    <h3><a href="#">First header</a></h3>
    <div>First content</div>
    <h3><a href="#">Second header</a></h3>
    <div>Second content</div>
</div>

If you use a different element for the header, specify the header-option with an appropriate selector, eg. header: 'a.header'. The content element must be always next to its header.

If you have links inside the accordion content and use a-elements as headers, add a class to them and use that as the header, eg. header: 'a.header'.

Use activate(Number) to change the active content programmatically.

NOTE: If you want multiple sections open at once, don't use an accordion

An accordion doesn't allow more than one content panel to be open at the same time, and it takes a lot of effort to do that. If you are looking for a widget that allows more than one content panel to be open, don't use this. Usually it can be written with a few lines of jQuery instead, something like this:

jQuery(document).ready(function(){
	$('.accordion .head').click(function() {
		$(this).next().toggle();
		return false;
	}).next().hide();
});

Or animated:

jQuery(document).ready(function(){
	$('.accordion .head').click(function() {
		$(this).next().toggle('slow');
		return false;
	}).next().hide();
});

Dependencies

  • UI Core
  • UI Effects Core (Optional - only for non-default animations)

Example

A simple jQuery UI Accordion.

$("#accordion").accordion();

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <link href="https://ajax.ingoogleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/themes/base/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
  <script src="https://ajax.ingoogleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://ajax.ingoogleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
  
  <script>
  $(document).ready(function() {
    $("#accordion").accordion();
  });
  </script>
</head>
<body style="font-size:62.5%;">
  
<div id="accordion">
	<h3><a href="#">Section 1</a></h3>
	<div>
		<p>
		Mauris mauris ante, blandit et, ultrices a, suscipit eget, quam. Integer
		ut neque. Vivamus nisi metus, molestie vel, gravida in, condimentum sit
		amet, nunc. Nam a nibh. Donec suscipit eros. Nam mi. Proin viverra leo ut
		odio. Curabitur malesuada. Vestibulum a velit eu ante scelerisque vulputate.
		</p>
	</div>
	<h3><a href="#">Section 2</a></h3>
	<div>
		<p>
		Sed non urna. Donec et ante. Phasellus eu ligula. Vestibulum sit amet
		purus. Vivamus hendrerit, dolor at aliquet laoreet, mauris turpis porttitor
		velit, faucibus interdum tellus libero ac justo. Vivamus non quam. In
		suscipit faucibus urna.
		</p>
	</div>
	<h3><a href="#">Section 3</a></h3>
	<div>
		<p>
		Nam enim risus, molestie et, porta ac, aliquam ac, risus. Quisque lobortis.
		Phasellus pellentesque purus in massa. Aenean in pede. Phasellus ac libero
		ac tellus pellentesque semper. Sed ac felis. Sed commodo, magna quis
		lacinia ornare, quam ante aliquam nisi, eu iaculis leo purus venenatis dui.
		</p>
		<ul>
			<li>List item one</li>
			<li>List item two</li>
			<li>List item three</li>
		</ul>
	</div>
	<h3><a href="#">Section 4</a></h3>
	<div>
		<p>
		Cras dictum. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus
		et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in
		faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aenean lacinia
		mauris vel est.
		</p>
		<p>
		Suspendisse eu nisl. Nullam ut libero. Integer dignissim consequat lectus.
		Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per
		inceptos himenaeos.
		</p>
	</div>
</div>

</body>
</html>

Options

Events

Methods

Theming

The jQuery UI Accordion plugin uses the jQuery UI CSS Framework to style its look and feel, including colors and background textures. We recommend using the ThemeRoller tool to create and download custom themes that are easy to build and maintain.

If a deeper level of customization is needed, there are widget-specific classes referenced within the jquery.ui.accordion.css stylesheet that can be modified. These classes are highlighed in bold below.

Sample markup with jQuery UI CSS Framework classes

<div class="ui-accordion ui-widget ui-helper-reset">
  <h3 class="ui-accordion-header ui-helper-reset ui-state-active ui-corner-top">
    <span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s"/>
    <a href="#">Section 1</a>
  </h3>
  <div class="ui-accordion-content ui-helper-reset ui-widget-content ui-corner-bottom ui-accordion-content-active">
    Section 1 content
  </div>
  <h3 class="ui-accordion-header ui-helper-reset ui-state-default ui-corner-all">
    <span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-e"/>
    <a href="#">Section 2</a>
  </h3>
  <div class="ui-accordion-content ui-helper-reset ui-widget-content ui-corner-bottom">
    Section 2 content
  </div>
  <h3 class="ui-accordion-header ui-helper-reset ui-state-default ui-corner-all">
    <span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-e"/>
    <a href="#">Section 3</a>
  </h3>
  <div class="ui-accordion-content ui-helper-reset ui-widget-content ui-corner-bottom">
    Section 3 content
  </div>
</div>

Note: This is a sample of markup generated by the accordion plugin, not markup you should use to create a accordion. The only markup needed for that is
<div>
   <h3><a href="#">Section 1</a></h3>
   <div>
      Section 1 content
   </div>
   <h3><a href="#">Section 2</a></h3>
   <div>
      Section 2 content
   </div>
   <h3><a href="#">Section 3</a></h3>
   <div>
      Section 3 content
   </div>
</div>.