Fullscreen Websites with jQuery.fullscreen

Many years ago, when flash websites were popular and no-one cared about SEO, websites often went fullscreen.

A fullscreen website would hide all the browser elements such as address bar and bookmarks menu.

Thanks to the jQuery.fullscreen plugin, you can add this feature to your non-Flash websites.

Here’s how to use the jQuery.fullscreen plugin:

Step #1. Download jQuery.fullscreen

Go to the Github repository and click the Download zip button.

Decompress the zip file.
Find this folder: jquery.fullscreen-master/release/.
Upload the file jquery.fullscreen-0.4.1.js to your website.

Step #2. Load jQuery and jQuery.fullscreen

Inside any HTML file, add the following code just before the closing head tag:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/jquery.fullscreen-0.4.1.js">
</script>

Step #3. Define your open/close links

After the previous code, add the following:

<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$('.open').click(function() {
$('body').fullscreen();
return false;
});
$('.close').click(function() {
$.fullscreen.exit();
return false;
});
});
</script>

Inside the body tag add two links. One link is will open the fullscreen and the other will it close it again.

Use the same classes defined in previous code: .open and .close:

<p>
<a href="#" class="open">Open Fullscreen</a>
<a href="#" class="close">Exit fullscreen</a>
</p>

The final result will look like the example below:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en-US">
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"> </script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="pah/to/jquery.fullscreen-0.4.1.js"> </script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$('.open').click(function() {
$('body').fullscreen();
return false;
});
$('.close').click(function() {
$.fullscreen.exit();
return false;
});
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p>
<a href="#" class="open">Open Fullscreen</a> / <a href="#" class="close">Exit fullscreen</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

Step #4. Test the fullscreen

Open your HTML file using your favorite browser.
Click on the “Open Fullscreen” link and you will see the magic.

Click on “Exit Fullscreen” or press the Escape key to close.

Author

Valentin Garcia

Valentin discovered Joomla in 2010, and since then he has considered it as the best CMS. Valentin has been coding extensions and templates for Joomla for many years and truly enjoys helping people build their own websites with Open Source tools. He lives in San Julián, Jalisco, México.
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