Macy.js

Macy.js is a lightweight dependency-free JavaScript library designed to sort items vertically into columns by finding an optimum layout with a minimum height.

Installing

Install with npm:

npm install macy

Install with Bower:

bower install macy

Include via jsDelivr CDN:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/macy@2"></script>

Usage

var macyInstance = Macy({
  // See below for all available options.
});

Options

container

Default: None

Use this option to specify your target container element to apply Macy too. All direct children of an element with this selector will become sortable items and a height applied to the target container.

columns

Default: 4

Define the default amount of columns to work with. Use the breakAt option to specify breakpoints for this value.

trueOrder

Default: false

Setting this to false will prioritise equalising the height of each column over the order of the items themselves.

margin

Default: 0 Adjust the margin between columns with a pixel value. Don’t forget you can still apply padding to the elements with standard CSS.

Added in v2.1 you can now have an object for margin. This is optional you can set the margin property to just a number and macy will use it for both. But if you would like to add a different xMargin or yMargin then you can do so like this

Added in v2.4 you can now set the x property to be a percentage based value, in addition to this, the x property can use other unit types.

Note: Due to the way the container height is calculated, using anything other than integer in the Y property will cause an error.

margin: {
  x: 10,
  y: 16  
}

When declaring the default margin as an object it requires both and x and y values unlike the breakAt object.

waitForImages

Default: false If set to true, Macy will wait for all images on the page to load before running. Set to false by default, it will run every time an image loads.

useOwnImageLoader

Default: false

Set this to true if you would prefer to use a different image loaded library.

mobileFirst

Default: false

Setting this value to true will alter how the breakAt options will work. Macy will now work in a mobile first way so the default columns will be the default then if for example you have 400: 2 in your breakAt object, if the document is greater or equal to 400px the column count will be 2.

breakAt

Default: None This object allows you to specify how the total number of columns will change based on the width of the viewport. Setting an option to 780: 3 for example will adjust the column count to 3 when the viewport is <= 780px. If the viewport resizes after the page has loaded, Macy will rerun to ensure optimum sorting

If the column is set to one then Macy will remove all styling to leave you to style it perfectly on mobile.

Added in v2.1 breakAt now supports changing margin within these breakpoints.

For example

{
  breakAt: {
    760: {
      margin: {
        x: 20,
        y: 10,
      },
      columns: 4
    }
  }
}

If you do not need the modify the margin you can leave it as 760: 4 and macy will set the columns to 4. You can also just define a change in just one marginal direction for example:

{
  breakAt: {
    760: {
      margin: {
        x: 20,
      },
      columns: 4
    }
  }
}

This would change the xMargin to 20px when screens are smaller than 760, but the instance will use a previously declared y value.

cancelLegacy

Default: false - If enabled this will cause the script to not run on browsers that don't support native Promises and when there isn't a polyfill present.

useContainerForBreakpoints

Default: false - When enabled the breakpoint options are based on the container elements width instead of the document width.

Methods

Macy

Parameters: {Object} args - required

This is the initializing function. The function takes an object of properties listed above. The only required property is container which would be the selector for the element that contains all the elements you want to be layed out:

var macy = Macy({
    container: '#macy-container',
    trueOrder: false,
    waitForImages: false,
    margin: 24,
    columns: 6,
    breakAt: {
        1200: 5,
        940: 3,
        520: 2,
        400: 1
    }
});

From this point on whenever 'Macy' is specified it is referencing the variable you assign macy to when making the initial call.

recalculate

*Parameters: {Boolean} refresh - can be null & {Boolean} loaded -can be null *

When called this recalculates the entire layout, this becomes useful if you just used ajax to pull in more content:

macyInstance.recalculate();

runOnImageLoad

Parameters: {Function} - Function to run on image load & {Boolean} If true it will run everytime an image loads

runOnImageLoad is a method used to do something each time and image loads or after all images have been loaded. This helps when using Ajax to make sure the layout is worked out correctly when images are loading. Using this in conjunction with the recalculate function makes your layouts look great no matter how long it takes to load in your images:

macyInstance.runOnImageLoad(function () {
  macyInstance.recalculate(true);
}, true);

If you only require it to run once all the images have loaded you can achieve this by ommiting the second parameter as this defaults to false:

macyInstance.runOnImageLoad(function () {
  console.log('I only get called when all images are loaded');
  macyInstance.recalculate(true, true);
});

If you only require the during function to run then only pass it one function:

macyInstance.runOnImageLoad(function () {
  console.log('Every time an image loads I get fired');
  macyInstance.recalculate(true);
}, true);

The callback function receives an event as its first and only property, if you are running the callback on every image load then the function has access to the image that has just loaded.

macyInstance.runOnImageLoad(function (event) {
  if (event.data.img) {
    // note: this parameter can be undefined if it is the final completion event that is emitted.
    console.log(event.data.img);
  }
}, true);

remove

Parameters: None

Remove does exactly what it says on the tin, it removes all styling and event listeners that Macy added to the DOM:

macyInstance.remove();

reInit

Parameters: None

Reinitialises the current macy instance;

macyInstance.reInit();

on

Parameters: {String} - Event key, {Function} the function to run when the event occurs

This would console log when all images are loaded.

macyInstance.on(macyInstance.constants.EVENT_IMAGE_COMPLETE, function (ctx) {
  console.log('all images have loaded');
});

emit

Parameters: {String} - Event key

Emit an event, although macy does not utilise most of these events, these are more to trigger your own functions.

Constants

Macy now has some constants available to be used with in the events system. This is to make sure the functions are targetting the correct event as the naming may be subject to change They are all accessible under macyInstance.constants

Currently available constants

Notes

• Browser support for all major browsers excluding IE11
• IE11 requires a Promise polyfill for image loading to work
• To support IE10 a dataset polyfill will have to be added