Have you ever had to manually code something that is sequential? Didn't you find it annonying? Well, here is a simple solution for you. This tutorial will show you how to use jQuery to add a sequent of CSS classes to create a graphical list. The second example will show you how to add a comment counter to a comment list using jQuery's prepend feature.

View Demo Sequential List

1a. Insert jQuery Code

First, download a copy of jQuery. In between the <head> tag, insert the jQuery code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
  
  $("#step li").each(function (i) {
    i = i+1;
    $(this).addClass("item" i);
   });

});
</script>

The jQuery will output the source code as:

code explain

1b. CSS Code

Style the <li> element with a background image accordingly (step1.png, step2.png, step3.png, and so on..).

#step .item1 {
  background: url(step1.png) no-repeat;
}
#step .item2 {
  background: url(step2.png) no-repeat;
}
#step .item3 {
  background: url(step3.png) no-repeat;
}

step list

2a. Add Sequential Content

You can also use this technique to add sequential content using jQuery's prepend feature. The following example shows how you can add a counter number to a comment list.

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
  
  $("#commentlist li").each(function (i) {
    i = i+1;
    $(this).prepend('<span class="commentnumber"> #' i '</span>');
   });

});
</script>

The code will add the <span class="commentnumber"> tag (with # + 1) to each <li> tag.

code explain

2b. CSS

Style the <li> element with position:relative and use position:absolute to place the .commentnumber to the top right corner.

#commentlist li {
  position: relative;
}

#commentlist .commentnumber {
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  top: 8px;
}

commentlist counter