A WordPress plugin that allows you to add a parallax scrolling effect anywhere on your site using a simple shortcode.
Parallax Scroll
Tech: WordPress Plugin
Downloads: 120,000 +
Repository: Bitbucket / WordPress
Developed when parallax effects were all the rage, this plugin (still the only one out there that can do it) will make adding a simple parallax effect anywhere on a WordPress site a breeze.
Using a custom post type, a generated shortcode per effect and a bit of CSS/Jquery trickery.
Project Overview
At the time when parallax scrolling was shiny and new; everyone wanted it on their site, but there was no way to easily integrate it into Word Press sites. Theme makers eventually started integrating it within themes (which is a much easier solution) but it didn’t help the users that already had a theme, or they wanted a theme that didn’t support it. The idea of the plugin was to provide a simple mechanism to just drop a parallax item anywhere on a website with no coding knowledge or special setup.
The solution
Because of the structure of a WordPress website, its extremely difficult to program a universal plugin that can work across all themes. Writing the plugin direct in a theme, or to target a specific theme would be easy; you know what the containers are and how to target them to give the desired results; the issue with making it universally work is that you can’t trust that a theme has implemented the containers correctly, or in a manner that you expect. Because of this; the plugin inherently contains some trade-offs.
The plugin has two parallax methods. The first is based on parallax.js. a java based script that generates a parallax effect within some CSS containers. This is the best method the plugin uses; but to try and provide better compatibility I implement a second (a horrible second!) that uses jquery to update positions…
The main downfall off the plugin; especially in this day and age is the lack of support on mobile devices. It just doesn’t work because of the makeup of how a plugin works. (There is a reason why this is the only plugin that tries to solve the parallax issue). It is on my list to try and address the issue, perhaps come up with some out the box thinking. I have completely re-factored the code in readiness.
Testimonials
Number 1 on CodeGeekz 15 Best Parallax plugins
See what CodeGeekz has to say about Parallax Scroll here.
PageBuilder by SiteOrigin uses Parallax Scroll to add parallax functionality to their system.
See what the guys that built Site Builder, SiteOrigin has to say about it here.
Mentioned in ElegentThemes.com parallax article.
Have a look what Elegant Themes wrote about it here.
4.8 Star Rating on WordPress Plugin directory with over 120,000 downloads and 10,000 active installs.
WordPress Plugin Directory
Screen Shots
Below are a select few screenshots from the plugin.
