blobity

The cursor is the heart of any interaction with the web. Why not take it to the next level?

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Installation

There are several options how to install Blobity to your site.

The first is to include Blobity with scripts tag from the downloaded version available in this repository. This version will create a global Blobity object which you can use to create your instance.

<script src="./dist/blobity.min.js"></script>

The second is to include the same script from CDN. The CDN version of Blobity also includes something called autostart, which will initialize Blobity with the default options.
Loading and auto-initializing Blobity in the <head> tag can lead to error of document.body is null, as body does not exist at the time.

<script src="https://cdn.blobity.dev/by.js?licenseKey=..."></script>

You can prevent that by adding noAutoStart parameter to the src URL.

<script src="https://cdn.blobity.dev/by.js?noAutoStart&licenseKey=..."></script>

The third and most flexible option is to install with package managers like npm or yarn.

npm install blobity --save
# or 
yarn add blobity

Once the package is installed as a node module (eg. inside of node_modules folder), you can access it from blobity path.

import Blobity from 'blobity';

There is an advantage to the latest format, because the library is not bundled, doesn’t contain boiler plate code of the bundler, doesn’t pollute the global scope and is much smaller and can be effectively tree-shaked as well.
The package also contains additional utils for React for example.

License

Check the LICENSE.md file in the root of this repository tree for closer details.

Open source license

Blobity is distributed under GPLv3 for any project compatible with GPLv3. In other words, as long as your application is open source under GPLv3, you may use Blobity under open source license.

Commercial license

To use Blobity as part of commercial projects including website, themes and application, Commercial license is a way to go. License can be purchased at blobity.dev.

Usage

To start Blobity, the instance needs to be created from its class. The class is either defined globally from a standalone versions, or can be imported from a package as a default export.

const options = { color: 'rgb(180, 180, 180)' };
new Blobity(options);

// or if imported from package
import Blobity from 'blobity';

const options = { color: 'rgb(180, 180, 180)' };
new Blobity(options);

⚠️ Blobity creates canvas element in body. For this, <body> must be present on the page at the time of initialization., so initializing Blobity in <head> can lead to error! A good practice is to load and initialize Blobity as late as possible (like before </body>), as it’s usually not critical for the page to be displayed and work properly.

Options

As you may have noticed in a previous example, Blobity accepts options as an argument when the instance is being created.
Options are passed as an object.

const blobity = new Blobity({ option: "value" });

Blobity also allows to change options on the go with updateOptions method.
This will only overwrite the defined subset of options and won’t affect any options that are not passed in the method parameter object.

const blobity = new Blobity({ option: "value" });
blobity.updateOptions({ option: "newValue" });

Following is a table of all available options, together with the description and default value.

Option Description Default value
color Color option let’s you define what color has the blob. It accepts values as a string, and in a format of rgb (eg. rgb(0, 0, 0) or hex values (eg. #000000). The alpha (eg. opacity) is defined in a separate option. 'rgb(180, 180, 180)'
opacity The opacity of the canvas used by Blobity to draw all of its content. It’s helpful mainly when zIndex options is set to higher values and Blobity canvas is on top of the page content. 1
licenseKey The license key you have received when purchasing your Blobity license. In case you are a GitHub sponsor (who are free to use this software without limits for as long as the monthly sponsorship is active), use your GitHub username as a license key. Not defining this option will result in a console warning. null
size The size of the blob when it’s not focused on any focusable element. The size is defined in pixels. 40
focusableElements A selector of focusable elements which Blobity will consider clickable and will draw the highlight around. '[data-blobity], a:not([data-no-blobity]), button:not([data-no-blobity]), [data-blobity-tooltip]'
focusableElementsOffsetX An extra space on the X axis in pixels that Blobity should highlight around the focusable elements. 0
focusableElementsOffsetY An extra space on the Y axis in pixels that Blobity should highlight around the focusable elements. 0
zIndex A z-index CSS property value that will be assigned to the canvas used by Blobity to draw any of its elements. It can be used to put the canvas above some elements on the page, while leaving it under others on the Z axis. Note that it might require good knowledge of how z-index works for any more advanced setups. -1
invert A boolean option to make the Blobity blob make invert anything there is on the page. In order for it to work, the canvas needs to be put above all other elements on the page, so the value of the z-index option is force-set to the value of 2147483647. Color options is also force-set to the value of 'rgb(255, 255, 255)'. false
dotColor If defined, Blobity sets the cursor to an SVG circle with a color you have defined. The format of the color follows the same rules as the color option does. Note that any definition of cursor CSS property in your own CSS can be overwriting Blobity. This is on purpose, so we don’t break any explicitly defined behaviour. null
magnetic A boolean option to control whether the focusable elements should have a magnetic behaviour once hovered over. Keep in mind that Blobity is using transform to move elements around, which won’t work with display: inline or similar, so you might have to tweak your styles a little. true
mode An option for spring presets, to adjust how quick/slow or bouncy the blob behaves. The options can be currently set to three presets, normal, slow or bouncy. 'normal'
radius The radius in pixel of the Blobity blob square when it’s hovered over a focusable element. It can be used to make the blob completely round, or follow the elements own box radius in some way. 4
font Font used when drawing a Blobity tooltip text. In case you’re using some custom font, loading it on the page in any CSS standard way is enough for it to be usable for canvas too. 'sans-serif'
fontWeight Font weight used when drawing a Blobity tooltip text. 400
fontSize Font size used when drawing a Blobity tooltip text. 40
fontColor Font color used when drawing a Blobity tooltip text. '#000000'
tooltipPadding The value in pixel of how much space should be a padding around tooltip text. 12

Some of the options can be also overwritten for specific elements, with data-blobity-[option] HTML attribute, the same way as the text for tooltip is defined. The following is an example of the usage.

<div data-blobity-tooltip="Tooltip text">I will have a tooltip with "Tooltip text" text.</div>
<div data-blobity-offset-x="10">I will have a X offset (option focusableElementsOffsetX) of 10 regardless of the global Blobity option.</div>
<div data-blobity-offset-y="10">I will have a Y offset (option focusableElementsOffsetY) of 10 regardless of the global Blobity option.</div>
<div data-blobity-magnetic="false">I will have magnetic behaviour (option magnetic) disabled regardless of the global Blobity option.</div>
<div data-blobity-radius="10">I will have a radius of the blob square (option radius) of 10 regardless of the global Blobity option.</div>
<div data-no-blobity>If the focusableElements options wasn't changed form default value, I will not be considered focusable element.</div>

Tooltips

Blobity can display a tooltip when hovered over a focusable element instead of highlighting it visually. THis can be achieved with data-blobity-tooltip HTML attribute, together with the text it should contain.
This is mostly meant for short texts.

<div data-blobity-tooltip="Tooltip text">I will have a tooltip with "Tooltip text" text.</div>

Public API methods

Blobity has a several additional public API methods that can be used to control it programmatically.

focusElement

focusElement method accepts a DOM element and force highlights a specific element on the page regardless of the mouse position.
It’s useful when an attention needs to be drawn to a specific place.

const blobity = new Blobity();
const element = document.getElementById('some-important-button');

blobity.focusElement(element);

showTooltip

showTooltip method accepts a string and force shows a tooltip with said test on the page regardless of the mouse position.
It’s useful when you want to communicate some quick instructions programmatically.

const blobity = new Blobity();
const tooltip = 'Hey there!';

blobity.showTooltip(tooltip);

reset

reset method disables the effects of the focusElement and showTooltip methods described previously.

const blobity = new Blobity();

blobity.reset();

bounce

bounce will make the blob (or tooltip, or whatever form the Blobity currently has), bounce a little once.

const blobity = new Blobity();

blobity.bounce();

React

Since Blobity is a global library for which the instances should be created once, there is a helper hook to make initialization of Blobity easier in React applications.
This hook can be imported from the package version of Blobity. It accepts the same options as Blobity does, and returns a React ref of the instance.

import useBlobity from 'blobity/lib/useBlobity';

const Component = () => {
    const blobity = useBlobity({
        licenseKey: '...'
    });

    return <div />;
};

Prefers Reduced Motion

Regardless of the system the computer is using, majority of them have a special switch to hint the creators of website, webapps, but also native applications that the user of the computer prefers to see less animations.
In css, this setting can be found under prefers-reduced-motion.
Blobity checks for this setting and reduces animations where it can, without affecting the actual design too much.

Contributions

Any contributions are welcome!

Remember, if merged, your code will be used as part of a commercial product.
By submitting a Pull Request, you are giving your consent for your code to be integrated into Blobity as part of a commercial product.

Special thanks

The name of this library, is inspired by Flickity, awesome carousel library that I’ve used extensively throughout my career, and always thought to be a piece of art, like anything @desandro produces.

Special thanks to @JoshWComeau for the tips and help on Blobity and getting the word out there!