Chapter 1, Installing jQuery, kicks off our journey into the world of mastering jQuery, where you will learn that there is more to downloading and installing jQuery than simply using CDN or local links. We'll take a look at how to install jQuery using package managers, how we can customize the elements of our download, as well as how to add source maps and more to help fine-tune our copy of the library.

Chapter 2, Customizing jQuery, takes things further—you may find that the elements of jQuery don't quite work the way you want. In this chapter, we'll take a look at how you can create and distribute patches that can be applied temporarily in order to extend or alter the core functionality within jQuery.

Chapter 3, Organizing Your Code, explores the use of jQuery design patterns, which is a useful concept in maintaining well-organized code that makes developing and debugging easier. We'll take a look at some examples of patterns and how they fit in with jQuery.

Chapter 4, Working with Forms, takes a look at the doyen of form functionality - validating responses on forms. We'll explore how you can be more effective at form validation, before using it to great effect in a contact form that employs AJAX, and develop a file upload form.

Chapter 5, Integrating AJAX, examines how we can improve the speed of loading data on static sites, with the use of callbacks to help manage multiple AJAX requests. We'll take a look at AJAX best practices and explore how best to manage these requests through the use of jQuery's Deferreds and Promises functionalities.

Chapter 6, Animating in jQuery, takes us on a journey to discover how we can be smarter at managing animations within jQuery, and explores how best to manage the jQuery queue to prevent animation build-ups. We'll also learn how we can implement custom animations and why jQuery isn't always the right tool to use in order to move elements on a page.

Chapter 7, Advanced Event Handling, examines how many developers may simply use .on() or .off() to handle events, but you'll see that there is more to using these methods, if you really want to take advantage of jQuery. We'll create a number of custom events before we explore the use of event delegation to better manage when these event handlers are called in our code.

Chapter 8, Using jQuery Effects, continues our journey, with a quick recap on using effects in jQuery, as we explore how we can create custom effects with callbacks and learn how to better manage the queue that forms the basis of their use within jQuery.

Chapter 9, Using the Web Performance APIs, starts the second part of the book, where we explore some of the more interesting options available to us when using jQuery. In this chapter, we'll discover how to use the Page Visibility API with jQuery and see how we can use it to provide a smoother appearance, reduce resources, and still maintain complex animations on our pages. Intrigued? You will be, when you visit this chapter!

Chapter 10, Manipulating Images, illustrates how, with the use of jQuery and some reasonably simple math, we can apply all kinds of effects to images. We can perform something as simple as blurring images to creating custom effects. We'll then use some of these techniques to create a simple signature page that exports images, and apply all kinds of effects to images extracted from your own webcam.

Chapter 11, Authoring Advanced Plugins, covers one of the key topics of using jQuery: creating and distributing plugins. With more and more functionality being moved to using plugins, we'll cover some of the tips and tricks behind creating your own plugins; you'll see that there is more to it than just writing code!

Chapter 12, Using jQuery with the Node-WebKit Project, explores an interesting library that takes the best elements of Node, JavaScript/jQuery, CSS, and plain HTML and combines them into something that blurs the boundaries between desktops and the online world. We'll work through some existing online code and convert it for use as a desktop application, before packaging it and making it available for download online.

Chapter 13, Enhancing Performance in jQuery, takes you through some of the considerations, tips, and tricks that you need to use in order to optimize and enhance the performance of your code. You'll see how easy it is to get the basics from DOM inspectors, such as Firebug, right through to automating your tests with Grunt, and finally developing a strategy to keep monitoring the performance of your code.

Chapter 14, Testing jQuery, is the concluding chapter in our journey through the world of mastering jQuery, where we will take a look at testing our code using QUnit and how we can take advantage of Grunt to automate an otherwise routine but important task within the world of developing with jQuery.

All you need to work through most of the examples in this book is a simple text or code editor, a copy of the jQuery library, Internet access, and a browser. I recommend that you install Sublime Text—either version 2 or 3; it works well with Node and Grunt, which we will use at various stages throughout the book.

Some of the examples make use of additional software, such as Node or Grunt—details are included within the appropriate chapter along with links to download the application from its source.

The book is for frontend developers who want to do more than just write code, but who want to explore the tips and tricks that can be used to expand their skills within jQuery development. To get the most out of this book, you should have a good knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and ideally be at an intermediate level with jQuery.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "We'll start by extracting the relevant files from the code download for this book; for this demo, we'll need clicktoggle.css, jquery.min.js, and clicktoggle.html."

A block of code is set as follows:

$(this).on("click", function() {
  if (clicked) {
    clicked = false;
      return b.apply(this, arguments);
    }
    clicked = true;
    return a.apply(this, arguments);
  });
});

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

$('#section').hide(2000, 'swing', function() {
  $(this).html("Animation Completed");
});

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

npm install jquery

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "When we view the page and select the Images tab, after a short delay we should see six new images."

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