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14 Tab-Based Interface Techniques

By Smashing Editorial, April 18th, 2007 in Developer's Toolbox | 120 Comments | Forum

The popularity of tabs, well-known from tabbed document interfaces (TDI), is rapidly growing, challenging the creativity of both developers and designers. The development of efficient and user-friendly interfaces is quite hard to deal with, and tabs can guarantee a quick access to information without need to open and close dozens of windows at the same time. Tabs-based interfaces allow multiple documents to be contained within a single window and tabs can be used to navigate between them. And exactly this idea is being used more frequently recently.

However, it doesn’t have to be that complex. Using modern approaches, you can create and improve tab-based interfaces in few minutes. With CSS, JavaScript, DHTML and XMLHttpRequest (alltogether Ajax) almost everything is possible. Information isn’t loaded in new windows, but loaded instantly with Ajax-based techniques. You can also use Back-button without worrying about losing your data.

Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting techniques we’ve found in the Web, searching for tab-based interface techniques.

Freeware Tab Interaces

Control.Tabs
Based upon Prototype Javascript Framework.

Javascript Tabs vom Stilbüro

Based upon jQuery | Demo

Yahoo TabView

A part of UI Library | Demos

TabPanel provided by Google Web Toolkit.
Tabbed Panels, provided by Adobe Spry Framework.

AJAX Tabs Content Script
Classic from Dynamic Drive.

Tab Panes
in two versions by DHTMLGoodies, with Close-Buttons. Demo I | Demo II

JavaScript Tabifier

AJAX Tabs
Screenshot

Ajax Project - Tabbed Page Interface

DOMTab - Navigation tabs with CSS and DOMscripting is presented in two versions.

Tabtastic

Tabmenu
Works as MouseOver without mouse click.

Shareware Tab Interaces

dhtmlxTabbar
Sometimes less is really more. It doesn’t have to be so complex - from a shareware package.

ActiveWidgets 2.0
A component of a shareware package.

Zapatec Tabs
Many versions, not freeware.

Published in Developer's Toolbox, April 18th, 2007
Tags: ajax, dhtml, javascript, navigation, tabs

1.

Mike B (April 18th, 2007, 1:16 am)

Great list!

thanks.

BTW, its ‘interface’ not ‘inferface’ :)
2.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (April 18th, 2007, 1:59 am)

OMG… thx mike! ;-)
3.

Joey (April 18th, 2007, 3:24 am)

Again, another great list!
4.

Jose Maria (April 18th, 2007, 3:46 am)

LOL!
Both are wrong!

Its Freeware Tab Interfaces, not Interace
5.

Robert (April 18th, 2007, 3:49 am)

Awesome List. Pulled some good stuff from these, which I needed. I love this website. Can’t wait for the next design showcase post. :)
6.

fijis (April 18th, 2007, 4:33 am)

Are you guys looking over my shoulder? I was working on a cute little tab-based interface - nothing as cool as what you have here. This post should save me a few hours upfront and countless hours in maintenance.

Thanks!
7.

Echilon (April 18th, 2007, 4:54 am)

Did you wait for me to spend four hours yesterday before posting this? :P
8.

Echilon (April 18th, 2007, 4:55 am)

Did you wait for me to spend four hours coding yesterday before posting this? :P
9.

Canadian Soldier (April 18th, 2007, 4:57 am)

Thank’s for the great list , as always very nice research ;)
10.

Fernando (April 18th, 2007, 7:25 am)

Thanks for the list.

Please note there’s a typo “Interaces” (twice) :-)
11.

工控网 (April 18th, 2007, 9:28 am)

Great list!

thanks.

BTW, its ‘interface’ not ‘inferface’
12.

Gautam (April 18th, 2007, 11:53 am)

Great list, excellent information. This is my first post but i am a frequent visitor. Please plan a organized section for new designers and developers.
13.

北京 (April 18th, 2007, 2:13 pm)

谢谢你的文章！每天会因为看到您的文章而高兴！因为我又可以学到好东西了！
14.

Ozh (April 18th, 2007, 2:20 pm)

I made some research a couple of months ago in search for the perfect tabbed interface. All but Barelyfitz’ Tabber have the same flaw : their markup is semantic non-sense, ie there’s a UL list, then the tabs, which makes absolutely no sense when printed. On the contrary, Tabber starts from correct and sensible markup, and then generates a clean tabbed interface.
15.

Yogi (April 18th, 2007, 3:03 pm)

Thanks bro, this is just what I needed :)
16.

szek (April 18th, 2007, 3:41 pm)

great list, thanks, i was just starting the other day to look for some examples, as i have to use this method in a project.
great work!
17.

zobla (April 18th, 2007, 4:14 pm)

great list, i’ve almost tesed all that solutions, some are great ( JavaScript Tabifier ) but that magic is a little calmed down by some function that aren’t fully cross-browser ( JavaScript Tabifier and ajax loading failing with IE for exemple, or Ajax Tabs Content script ) so take care not choosing a solution, deploying and in fine discovering that it’s broken on some browser.
That’s why i recommande YUI, as it’s the almost unique one which is fully-CP certified.
18.

Boris (April 18th, 2007, 4:41 pm)

You missed some, like MooTabs and Digitarald’s Tabs for mootools ;-) If you want to know more they are in my Link [gueschla.com].

There was the net4visions.com prototype tabs script too, the original site is down, but you can grab a copy Link [www.komeco.com.br].
19.

Ian Lloyd (April 18th, 2007, 5:23 pm)

Regarding ‘dhtmlxTabbar ‘

“Eeeek!”

and

“What?!!!”

and

“Step away from the interface and lay down your mouse, sir”
20.

Ivan Minic (April 18th, 2007, 6:16 pm)

Brilliant as usual :)
21.

vickeybird (April 18th, 2007, 6:48 pm)

Excellent list. Very informative, to the point and fun!
22.

Kai (April 18th, 2007, 10:05 pm)

nice examples. i think we will see much more of theses techniques in the near future. thanks
23.

Terinea Tech Tips (April 18th, 2007, 10:52 pm)

Just make sure that you test with all internet browsers!
24.

Brad Harris (April 18th, 2007, 11:24 pm)

Ext has a really nice, robust tab interface: Link [extjs.com]
25.

Paul (April 18th, 2007, 11:32 pm)

This is right on time post :)
26.

Marty (April 19th, 2007, 3:25 am)

Are there any here that can handle 2 rows of tabs? As in, when the number of tabs (or the lengths of their labels) causes the tab row to be wider than the container?

I’ve all but given up on tabs, because I can never get anyone to agree on labels short enough to fit. Fluid layouts complicate this even further…
27.

Jake Teton-Landis (April 19th, 2007, 6:46 am)

It looks like you forgot Adobe’s Link [labs.adobe.com]. They are neatly integrated into Dreamweaver CS3, but anyone can use them. They are great, incredibly styleable, and very lightweight (if you take out all the comments they leave in for you).
28.

L (April 20th, 2007, 3:47 pm)

thanks! really useful
29.

James (April 21st, 2007, 10:29 pm)

Another Typo — It should be Interfaces (note the F) you have “Freeware Tab Interaces” and “Shareware Tab Interaces”

PS. Great articles!
30.

Eglence (April 26th, 2007, 6:58 pm)

Himm Very excellent list. I used some tabs ;)

Thanks for share
31.

Agus Suhartono (May 2nd, 2007, 2:27 pm)

Hi, you forgot WebFX Tab Pane (http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/tabpane/tabpane.html). This widget used by Joomla and Mambo CMS.
32.

Vaughn (June 20th, 2007, 8:31 am)

I’ve tried WebFX and cannot get more than 2 tabs to work. I’ve tried to use Adobe Spry Framework and it doesn’t work right of the bat and no support from Adobe. Just other users sayng “I don’t know what to tell you. It works for me.”

I just got a fix from the Adobe forum and am sticking with the Spry stuff altogether.
33.

williams (July 17th, 2007, 1:56 pm)

I am here for the frst time. i got surprised after seeing such detailed informations which are io think not available any where else.
Overall is a good work done!
34.

Isaiah (September 17th, 2007, 2:40 pm)

The only problem with tabbed interfaces are still the search engines crawling…

Most of the scripts aren’t friendly to search engines.
35.

toon (September 21st, 2007, 5:06 pm)

How to add tab on the fly? I have used the dhtmlxTabbar on my page and it has button for adding new tab and to delete tab. But I don’t how to make it..

Thanks you

TOON
36.

tricker (December 3rd, 2007, 5:37 pm)

only u need to add … when user hit the button.. with the help of javascript.. just googled the problem…
37.

Adriaan Nel (January 26th, 2008, 9:02 am)

This list is good, but it would be way better if you could list the advantages / disadvantages of each…

Cheers
38.

Rahul Bose (January 28th, 2008, 3:20 am)

How can i make these tabs dynamic adding tabs into tabcontainer according to the fields retrived from database. also along with adding fields have to add dynamically data into it?? any suggestions

thanks
39.

Yogi (February 13th, 2008, 6:45 am)

I’ve also wrote a list of free Ajax tab samples on my blog, you can read it at Link [www.geektips.net]
40.

rap (September 22nd, 2008, 4:29 am)

thanx
41.

Ilker Turhan (October 3rd, 2008, 6:00 pm)

special thanks..

great post..
42.

sunita (April 12th, 2009, 2:28 pm)

very good tutorial find more
Link [mGinger.com] here
43.

Hasan (April 13th, 2009, 8:55 pm)

thanks… Link [www.korkarim.com]
44.

Teknopaylasim (April 22nd, 2009, 12:41 am)

Thanx Nice
45.

rajivk1 (April 26th, 2009, 9:43 am)

I want tabs to load external pages data, when clicked.

When a tab is clicked, It would display a waiting icon till the related data is downloaded from an external page linked with that tab.
46.

Tanvir Gaus (May 31st, 2009, 10:12 pm)

You have a spelling mistake in “Freeware Tab Interaces” it should be Interfaces.

Rajivk1 - if you want to load external data & want to show the loading icon - please use Ajax. In now days you can do it quite easily. :)