Ajax Tabs Content Script (v 2.2) ...

 Description: This is a versatile Ajax Tabs Content script that lets you display content pulled from external files inside a DIV and organized via CSS tabs. A fully unobtrusive, CSS and HTML based script, it supports practical features such as persistence of the active tab (ie: when page is reloaded), an "IFRAME" mode, a "slideshow" mode, ability to expand/contract arbitrary DIVs on the page at the same time, nested tabs, and much more. We got our inspiration for this script from Yahoo is homepage, which employs such a concept to show news in an organized fashion.

Here is a quick outline of the script features:

    * Fetch and display an external page (from the same domain) inside a container when a tab is clicked on via Ajax.
    * (v 2.0) Apart from Ajax, an external page can also be fetched and displayed via the IFRAME element instead. This is useful for external pages that either contain JavaScript/ CSS code that doesn run properly when fetched via Ajax, or the page is from an outside domain.
    * Add a "default" content inside the container to either be shown while no tabs are selected, or to be associated with a specific tab. The default content is added inline on the page and not fetched via Ajax, to avoid unnecessary fetching of external pages.
    * Supports session only persistence, so the last tab user clicked on is remembered if he/she returns to the page within the same browser session.
    * (v 2.0) Supports auto mode, in which script automatically cycles through and selects each tab periodically until a tab is explicitly selected.
    * (v 2.0) Ability to also expand/contract arbitrary DIVs on the page as the tabbed content is expanded/ contracted.
    * (v 2.0) Ability to dynamically select a tab either based on its position within its peers, or its ID attribute.
    * (v 2.1) Ability to dynamically cycle forward/back between tabs. Create a "Next" and "Back" link for users to move between tabs, for example.
    * (v 2.2) A link from another page linking to the target page can select a tab on the later when loaded, via the URL parameter string ((ie: http://mysite.com/tabcontent.htm?tabinterfaceid=0).
    * (v 2.0) Ability to directly load a different external page into the content container, either via Ajax or IFRAME.
    * (v 2.0) Ability to set where the CSS class "selected" get assigned when a tab is clicked on- either on the tab link itself (its "a" element), or its parent instead (ie: "li" element). This makes the script adaptable to both CSS Tabs that are styled at the "A" level itself, or its parent container instead.
    * (v 2.0) Supports nested Ajax Tabs! In other words, you can have an external page fetched via Ajax contain in itself Ajax Tabs that show their own contents when clicked on as well. This is made possible using the "onajaxpageload" custom event handler (see documentation).
    * Supports multiple Ajax Tabs Contents on the same page.
    * Fully unobtrusive, search engine friendly design. For search engines or browsers with JavaScript disabled, the external contents will just load as actual pages (instead of via Ajax).

As you can see, this Ajax Tabs Content script was designed to be much more than look pretty, but usable.

Reminder: Due to security limitations, the external pages loaded via each tab using Ajax must reside on the same domain as the script itself. This limitation doesn apply if you use the "IFRAME" option to fetch and show the external page instead.

Demos:

Demo #1- Basic implementation

- First tab shows default, inline content directly added inside container DIV
- 2nd and 3rd tabs show external pages fetched via Ajax
- 4th tab shows an external page fetched via IFRAME

Dynamically select last Tab | Reload page and select 2nd tab using URL parameter

Demo #2- Expanding of arbitrary DIVs on the page enabled

- All tabs fetched via Ajax
- 2nd and 4th tabs also show/hide arbitrary DIVs when clicked on

Load "external2.htm" into content container via Ajax

Demo #3- All contents fetched via "IFRAME"

Load "Google Homepage" into content container via IFRAMEDirections

To add this script to your page, just download "ajaxtabscontent.zip", and refer to "demo.htm" inside for the full source code to the 3 demos you see above:

    * ajaxtabscontent.zip (consists of the below files):
          o demo.htm
          o ajaxtabs.css
          o ajaxtabs.js
          o loading.gif
          o shade.gif, shadeactive.gif, indentbg.gif, indentbg2.gif
          o Demo files: external1.htm, external2.htm, external3.htm, external4.htm, and external5.htm

Setting up the script on your page- basic usage

Lets see in detail now how to set up this script on your page. After having added the .js and .css file references to the HEAD section of your page, as seen in demo.htm, proceed with the following:

Step 1: Define the HTML for the Tabs themselves. This can be a fancy CSS menu, or even just a DIV tag with a bunch of links inside. Lets use the former:

<ul id="countrytabs" class="shadetabs">
<li><a href="#" class="selected" rel="#default">Tab 1</a></li>
<li><a href="external2.htm" rel="countrycontainer">Tab 2</a></li>
<li><a href="external3.htm" rel="countrycontainer">Tab 3</a></li>
<li><a href="external4.htm" rel="#iframe">Tab 4</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dynamicdrive.com">Dynamic Drive</a></li>
</ul>

The parts in red are significant, regardless of how you define your tabs:

   1. id="countrytabs": Give the main container of your tab links a unique ID (ie: "countrytabs"). All links ("A" elements) within this container will be scanned by the script for special meaning.
   2. rel="#default|containerid|#iframe": For each tab link that should reveal content when clicked on, add a "rel" attribute inside its link tag with one of three possible values: "#default", id_of_container_div, or "#iframe". This in combination with the link is href attribute determines what external file to fetch, and how to display it. Most commonly you will be using containerid, which corresponds to the ID of the container DIV on the page in which to load the Ajax fetched content (see Step 2 below). "#default" and "#iframe" on the other hand are both special keywords. "#default" causes the tab to show no external content but instead what is embedded directly inside the container DIV, while #iframe causes the tab to show its content inside an IFRAME tag instead of via Ajax.
   3. rev="divid1, divid2, etc": For each tab link, you can also insert a rev attribute to simultaneously toggle the visibility of arbitrary DIVs on the page. See example #1 in the documentation page for more info.
   4. class="selected": If you wish a certain tab to be selected by default when the page loads, give the tab in question a class="selected" assignment. By default it should be added inside the link itself ("A"). However, the script can also be told to look for such as class in the link is parent container instead (in this case, "LI"). This is useful depending on how the CSS for your tabs are structured. See the documentation page for more info.
   5. A tab can also just act as a regular link, with the absence of the "rel" attribute (ie: the "Dynamic Drive" tab at the very end).

There is an additional attribute you can use, the "rev" attribute, to also expand/contract arbitrary DIVs outside the Tab interface. See the documentation below for details.

 Original Source:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/ajaxtabscontent/