JQuery UI Slider with Non-linear/Exponential/Logarithmic steps

Question

I'm new to Javascript and JQuery, I am trying to use JQuery UI Slider to replace price range dropdown boxes(one for Minimum Price, another for Maximum Price) for one of my sites.

Here is my current code:

$(function() {
var slider = $( "#slider-range" ).slider({
    range: true,
    min: 0,
    max: 2500000,
    step: 1000,
    values: [ 0, 2500000 ],
    slide: function( event, ui ) {
            $( "#amount" ).val( "RM " + commafy(ui.values[ 0 ]) + "  to  RM " + commafy(ui.values[ 1 ]) );
    }
});
    $( "#amount" ).val( "RM " + commafy($( "#slider-range" ).slider( "values", 0 )) +
"  to  RM " + commafy($( "#slider-range" ).slider( "values", 1 )) );
    function commafy(val) {
    return String(val).split("").reverse().join("")
                      .replace(/(.{3}\B)/g, "$1,")
                      .split("").reverse().join("");
}
});

The price range is from 0 to 2500,000. After testing I found out that UX will be better if the slider scales non-linearly as most of the users on my site would search between the 25,000 to 200,000 range.

A very minute portion of the slider should show the 0 to 25000 range, 70% of it showing 25,000 to 200,000 while the rest should show 200,000 and above. I don't want it to snap to fixed values but the steps has to be 1000.

I found two solutions on this site:
1) Logarithmic slider <- The solution wasn't based on the using the JQuery UI slider so I don't really know how to apply into my code.
2) JQuery Slider, how to make "step" size change <- I can't make heads or tails of it after the guy started using truevalues and values as part of the solution. I tried applying to my code, the slider works fine (Though moved too fast towards the end for my taste) but the text did not show.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can take this approach: use slider range 0-100, than calculate values. With html:

<div id="slider-range"></div>
<input id="amount" type="text" size="40" />

and JS:

var slider = $("#slider-range").slider({
    range: true,
    min: 0,
    max: 100,
    step: 1,
    values: [10, 80],
    slide: function (event, ui) {
        $("#amount").val("RM " + commafy(ui.values[0]) + "  to  RM " + commafy(ui.values[1]));
    }
});
$("#amount").val("RM " + commafy($("#slider-range").slider("values", 0)) +
    "  to  RM " + commafy($("#slider-range").slider("values", 1)));

function commafy(val) {
    /* Total range 0 - 2,500,000 */
    /* 70% from 25,000 to 200,000, what have left (2,325,000) share left (25,000) and right (2,300,000) */
    /* So, final dividing */
    var toPresent = 0;
    if (val < 10) {
        toPresent = (val / 10) * 25000;
    } else if (val <= 80) {
        toPresent = 25000 + (val - 10) / 70 * 175000;
    } else {
        toPresent = 200000 + (val - 80) / 20 * 2300000;
    };
    return String(toPresent).split("").reverse().join("")
        .replace(/(.{3}\B)/g, "$1,")
        .split("").reverse().join("");
}

Example Fiddle.