jQuery Tutorial In 7 Easy Points

Introduction

Welcome to the jQuery Tutorial. jQuery is a JavaScript library packed in a tiny package that plays a significant role in transforming the web into offering an outstanding experience. A popular JavaScript library, read below in this jQuery Tutorial to understand more about the fundamentals and the importance of jQuery.

In this article let us look at:

1. What is JavaScript?
2. Why use jQuery?
3. What is jQuery?
4. How to install jQuery?
5. The Document Object Model(DOM)
6. What are jQuery Selectors?
7. What are jQuery Fundamentals?

1. What is JavaScript?

The language of the websites, JavaScript is used to make the websites come alive. This it does by adding an element of motion to it. JavaScript is a scripting language and it allows implementing beautiful and complex designs and things on the website pages. If you see a website that does a lot more than just sitting there then you can be sure that the web pages are using JavaScript.

Here are the JavaScript features:

• It makes the website pages look more interactive which it does by adding graphics and motions
• The language is interpreted which means that there is no need for a compiler to run the JavaScript
• JavaScript is a client-side scripting language

2. Why use jQuery?

To kick off this exhaustive jQuery Tutorial, we must appreciate that there are more than a hundred JavaScript libraries and frameworks. So what is it that makes jQuery so useful?

Here are the features that make jQuery effective.

• jQuery makes it easy to manipulate the DOM.
• It is very easy to use jQuery for DOM manipulation. This is useful to make the website highly interactive.

• The jQuery community is very diverse than any of the other JavaScript libraries. It offers detailed documentation which is something that every developer needs.

• There are more than a thousand plugins in jQuery that are available for free which in turn helps to improve the users’ experience. AJAX and XML are among them that develops a feature-rich and responsive site.

• jQuery offers a cross-browser support which allows running of the code on several browsers without any worry of dependency.

3. What is jQuery?

A fast and efficient JavaScript library, jQuery was created in the year 2006 by John Resig. The main reason why jQuery was created was to write less of the code but do more with it. This is the main reason and the answer to what is the use of jQuery.

This is pretty apt because jQuery revolves around simplifying each line of the code.

• jQuery helps in simplifying the JavaScript. It simplifies the manipulation of DOM and the event handling to allow rapid development of the websites.

• jQuery allows an effective way to capture many events such as letting the user click on the link without having to clutter the HTML code.

• jQuery is compact and lightweight and the library is only 19KB in size.

• There are many built-in effects of animations in jQuery which can be used in web applications to make it highly interactive. You learn about these when you do the jQuery Tutorial.

4. How to install jQuery?

Probably the most important segment of this jQuery Tutorial. jQuery does not have a tedious installation process. It is simple, just like you would download an application. Here is how you can install jQuery.

• For local installation just download the jQuery library from the official site and include the query in the HTML code.
• You can also link it to a CDN. You can add the jQuery library into the HTML code directly from the Content Delivery Network.

5. The Document Object Model(DOM)

DOM or the Document Object Model is a tree structure that contains many HTML elements. The concept of DOM must be understood to manipulate the elements of DOM.

6. What are jQuery Selectors?

The jQuery selectors are used to select the HTML elements and then manipulate them which is done by using the “$()”jQuery functions. Many functions let you do the same thing in JavaScript. However, in jQuery, the “$()” function replaces all of the JavaScript functions.

Once you run the code just open the JavaScript console and type the “$()” selector function to check if jQuery has been installed successfully.

7. What are jQuery Fundamentals?

Now that you have a basic understanding of what jQuery is let us dig into what jQuery programming is all about. The jQuery fundamentals are divided into:

1) jQuery Methods

2) jQuery Events

3) jQuery Effects

4) jQuery UI

1) jQuery Methods

There are many jQuery methods however here are the common ones that are used.

a. jQuery Methods – before()

b. jQuery Methods – after()

c. jQuery Methods – text()

d. jQuery Methods – html()

e. jQuery Methods – css()

f. jQuery Methods – attr()

g. jQuery Methods – val()

h. jQuery Methods – addClass()

i. jQuery Methods – removeClass()

j. jQuery Methods – toggleClass()

2) jQuery Events

There are many jQuery events and the common ones are as below:

• jQuery Events – click()
• jQuery Events- on()
• jQuery Events- keypress()

3) jQuery Effects

Among the many jQuery effects here are the common ones that are used.

• jQuery Effects- hide()
• jQuery Effects- show()
• jQuery Effects- toggle()
• jQuery Effects- fadeOut()
• jQuery Effects- fadeIn()
• jQuery Effects- fadeToggle()
• jQuery Effects- slideDown()
• jQuery Effects- slideUp()
• jQuery Effects- slideToggle()

4) jQuery UI

There are various jQuery effects and widgets and the commonly used effects are:

• jQuery UI- draggable()
• jQuery UI- droppable()
• jQuery UI- datepicker()

Conclusion

To wrap up this jQuery Tutorial, jQuery is a lightweight, fast, and feature-rich library in JavaScript that lets you write less but do more out of it. Big companies today make use of jQuery which clearly shows its popularity and demand.

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