Whenever I want to create a jQuery plugin, I always go to one of my old plugins and copy and paste the source code. That’s fine, but other developers may layout jQuery plugins slightly differently. I decided to try and create a jQuery Plugin “template” that does the hard work for you. But who should I follow? In the end I took my ideas from tutorials by Jeffrey Way, editor of nettuts.com who certainly knows a thing or do about jQuery. So I present the jQuery Plugin Template. There are probably enhancements to be made…if you see something you think should be different please say so!

(function($){
	$.fn.pluginName = function(options) {

		var
		  defaults = {
		  	//here you should set your default options.
			//example: backgroundcolor: red
		  },
		  settings = $.extend({}, defaults, options);

		  this.each(function() {
		  	var $this = $(this);
			//now use $this instead of $(this), makes jQuery do less work

		  });
		  // returns jQuery which allows for chaining
		 //eg $('div').yourPlugin().hide();
		  return this;
	}
})(jQuery);