If you want to implement jQuery UI tabs, all you need to do is copy the classes that are applied to the tabs.
Additionally, you can dynamically add or remove classes when a user interacts with the tabs.
This method mirrors how jQuery UI handles tab functionality.
Here are some example classes used by jQuery UI:
ui-tabs ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all
You can find these classes by inspecting the DOM after jQuery UI has processed the tabs. This will show you which classes are needed for each element.
UPDATE:
Below is the HTML markup:
<div class="ui-tabs ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all">
<ul class="ui-tabs-nav ui-helper-reset ui-helper-clearfix ui-widget-header ui-corner-all">
<li class="ui-state-default ui-corner-top ui-tabs-selected ui-state-active"><a href="#">The selected tab</a></li>
<li class="ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><a href="#">Other tabs</a></li>
<li class="ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><a href="#">Other tabs</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Below is the Javascript code:
$('.ui-tabs-nav li').mouseenter(function(){
$(this).addClass('ui-state-hover');
})
.mouseleave(function(){
$(this).removeClass('ui-state-hover');
})
.click(function(){
$(this).addClass('ui-tabs-selected ui-state-active')
.siblings().removeClass('ui-tabs-selected ui-state-active');
return false;
});
And don't forget the demo on http://jsfiddle.net/Bsa7J/.