jQuery Programming
jQuery is the key to smart, gorgeous websites
What is jQuery?
jQuery is a lightweight, cross-browser library that simplifies JavaScript development. In the 1990s and early 2000s, JavaScript development was a pain; programmers would write verbose JavaScript applications only to discover that what worked in Safari failed in Internet Explorer, and the fix for that problem would break in Opera. Developers also spent an enormous amount of time writing, and rewriting, code for HttpRequests (aka AJAX), animations, and other popular web technologies.
jQuery rescued JavaScript programmers from these pains. By abstracting JavaScript into a simple language that was supported in all modern browsers, the web as a whole took a giant step forward. By 2006, beginner programmers were developing their own complex UIs using jQuery alone. With the release of jQuery UI and qUnit, jQuery became the leading JavaScript library for HTML5 software development.
Who is using jQuery?
Who isn’t using jQuery? The library is so popular that it is becoming less and less common to find sites without jQuery. Here is a small sample:
- The White House
- All sites based on Drupal or Wordpress
- Microsoft
- NBC
- IBM
- ESPN
- Mozilla
- Electronic Arts
- Food Network
Out of the Box
- DOM selection and traversal based on Sizzle, the cross-browser open source selector engine.
- Namespaced events that are properly supported in all browsers, plus rapid development techniques of custom events.
- Extremely thin and simple AJAX methods.
- Enormous amount of smart, reusable animation code that should handle the majority of your animation needs.
- Ready to use plugin development model - the $.widget plugin factory is particularly smart.
- Full suite of visual UI elements and effects at jQuery UI
How does Metal Toad Media use jQuery?
We use jQuery in nearly all our projects. Our jQuery experience ranges from small gallery carousels to massive AJAX-driven animation effects involving hundreds of DOM elements. Some of our jQuery work involves no servers at all; instead, we've used jQuery alone to develop products that run solely in the browser.