The first part of the book introduces jQuery and helps you to understand what the fuss is all about. Chapter 1 covers downloading and setting up the jQuery library, as well as writing your first script.

The second part of the book steps you through each of the major aspects of the jQuery library. In Chapter 2 , you’ll learn how to get anything you want. The selector expressions in jQuery allow you to find elements on the page, wherever they may be. You’ll work with these selector expressions to apply styling to a diverse set of page elements, sometimes in a way that pure CSS cannot.

In Chapter 3 , you’ll learn how to pull the trigger. You will use jQuery’s event-handling mechanism to fire off behaviors when browser events occur. You’ll also get the inside scoop on jQuery’s secret sauce: attaching events unobtrusively, even before the page finishes loading.

In Chapter 4 , you’ll learn how to add flair to your actions. You’ll be introduced to jQuery’s animation techniques and see how to hide, show, and move page elements with the greatest of ease.

In Chapter 5 , you’ll learn how to change your page on command. This chapter will teach you how to alter the very structure an HTML document on the fly.

In Chapter 6 , you’ll learn how to make your site buzzword compliant. After reading this chapter, you, too, will be able to access server-side functionality without resorting to clunky page refreshes.

The third part of the book takes a different approach. Here you’ll work through several real-world examples, pulling together what you’ve learned in previous chapters and creating robust jQuery solutions to common problems. In Chapter 7 , you’ll sort, sift, and style information to create beautiful and functional data layouts.

In Chapter 8 , you’ll master the finer points of client-side validation, design an adaptive form layout, and implement interactive client-server form features such as auto-completion.

In Chapter 9 , you’ll enhance the beauty and utility of page elements by showing them in bite-size morsels. You’ll make information fly in and out of view both on its own and under user control.

In Chapter 10 you’ll learn about jQuery’s impressive extension capabilities. You’ll examine three prominent jQuery plug-ins and how to use them, and proceed to develop your own from the ground up.

Appendix A provides a handful of informative websites on a wide range of topics related to jQuery, JavaScript, and web development in general.

Appendix B recommends a number of useful third-party programs and utilities for editing and debugging jQuery code within your personal development environment.

Appendix C discusses one of the common stumbling blocks with the JavaScript language. You’ll come to rely on the power of closures, rather than fear their side effects.

This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications.

The reader will need the basics of HTML and CSS, and should be comfortable with the syntax of JavaScript. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries required.

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.

There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: “Taken together, $() and .addClass() are enough for us to accomplish our goal of changing the appearance of the poem text.”

A block of code will be set as follows:

$(document).ready(function() {
  $('span:contains(language)').addClass('emphasized');
});

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:

$(document).ready(function() {
  $('a[@href$=".pdf"]').addClass('pdflink');
});

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: “The next step is to run those tests by clicking the All button.”