If you are working on web development, you should have heard the name of jQuery one of the most popular JavaScript framework on the internet.
jQuery makes your DOM traversal and event manipulation extremely easy task.
In other words, jQuery makes your HTML document traversal, event listing, animation and Ajax related task extremely easy.
Please be clear that jQuery is by no means a JavaScript replacement. On a contradictory note, jQuery is built on top of JavaScript.
jQuery provides an easy to use and short APIs that makes an interface between your code and jQuery.
jQuery works on the DOM (Document Object Model) level of your HTML pages. DOM represents the structure of your HTML page.
And if you have ever worked with jQuery you might be familiar with the $(document).ready() here the ready suggests the DOM ready event. You make jQuery work once the DOM of the HTML page completely loads.
If you remember it correctly the $ represents the jQuery object. It’s a short syntax for the jQuery object. You can use the jQuery(document).ready() just as you use the $(document).ready() to use various jQuery APIs.
1 Cross Browser Support:
Have you ever worked on long and complex JavaScript code? The chances are you may be familiar with the pain to test the code on most of in use web browser to check the compatibility.
You may need the know the patch that works on Mac Safari and the one that works on the Opera on Linux! It is really a pain writing a piece of code that works the same on various browsers.
The developers and community know about the issue. They addressed it with a very minimal in size JavaScript library.
jQuery is mostly (not completely) cross browser supported. It has an implementation that makes your desired functionality work on various browsers on different Operating system platforms.
With jQuery, you will be using the provided APIs. These APIs makes your long code short and more readable. The APIs have an implementation for various browsers.
2 Plugins:
Apparently, the WordPress has made the plugin thing so popular lately. The same theme goes with the plugins for jQuery.
The team behind the jQuery has taken precise care of making the framework minimal in size. They only included the core part of the framework and made it extensible.
You can create the plugin which adds some sort of extra functionality using the core of the jQuery. You can reuse and distribute these plugins in many of your projects.
There a rich set of well-tested plugins collection available that you can use on any of your projects. Check the jQuery plugin collection for more information.
3 Availability:
jQuery one of the widely used JavaScript framework on the web. If builitwith jQuery usage report to be believed, there are more than sixty-seven million websites on the internet actively using it.
There are various ways available for jQuery usage. You can download the jQuery minified version, store in your project and start using it.
There are various CDN resources available that you can link to your page and start using it. The jQuery CDN, Google CDN, Microsoft CDN, and MaxCDN are some of the most popular CDN providers available as an option.
These CDN resources make library download the loading process much faster. There are millions of website using the jQuery and Google CDN libraries.
The chances are the client visiting your website has already jQuery library in a browser cache. In such situations, you page would not need to download the resource.
4 Support:
You may need support when you start using something new for the first time.
And when it comes to professional project development, you need the best help and resource to make sure nothing will put you in blocking situation.
jQuery has the best documentation. And it should be the ideal place you should start your jQuery learning journey.
As we have seen the figures how many websites are using this library. There is a live and vibrant community available for support.
Stackoverflow is one of the best places for your to get your query answered.
The framework is very popular since 2009, so there are bright chance that your question/query has already been answered by someone.
5 Learning Curve:
jQuery has a short and sweet learning curve. You don’t need to spend hours and hours to make your first move.
Link the CDN resource on your page, and start using the APIs you just read or learned live on the page.
The best learning strategy I would suggest to any novice is that they should apply one thing at a time.
Learn a single concept at a time, try the code, explore it and learn it. Once the confident move to the next thing.
Learning the random thing would not help you master the jQuery programming. Start with the small modules like getting or setting values using element selectors.
Move ahead with the event binding, DOM element modification, Ajax and then building the complex JavaScript functions for your web application.
Conclusion:
jQuery makes your DOM manipulation task very easy. You don’t need to worry about the code and browser compatibility issues. I have discussed the five points make you get a clear picture about the reason behind the popularity of the jQuery library.
darshan
Darshan is a technology enthusiast. He loves to share his experience and knowledge with the developer community. You can use his hire CodeIgniter developer service if you are looking for website or web application development.
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