In Chapter 1 you'll get your feet wet with the jQuery JavaScript library. The chapter begins with a description of jQuery and what it can do for you. It walks you through downloading and setting up the library, as well as writing your first script.

In Chapter 2 you'll learn how to use jQuery's selector expressions and DOM traversal methods to find elements on the page, wherever they may be. You'll use jQuery to apply styling to a diverse set of page elements, sometimes in a way that pure CSS cannot.

In Chapter 3 you'll use jQuery's event-handling mechanism to fire off behaviors when browser events occur. You'll see how jQuery makes it easy to attach events to elements unobtrusively, even before the page finishes loading. And, you'll be introduced to more advanced topics, such as event bubbling, delegation, and namespacing.

In Chapter 4 you'll be introduced to jQuery's animation techniques and see how to hide, show, and move page elements with effects that are both useful and pleasing to the eye.

In Chapter 5 you'll learn how to change your page on command. This chapter will teach you how to alter the very structure of an HTML document, as well as its content, on the fly.

In Chapter 6 you'll discover the many ways in which jQuery makes it easy to access server-side functionality without resorting to clunky page refreshes.

In the next three chapters (7, 8, and 9) 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, "Table Manipulation," you'll sort, sift, and style information to create beautiful and functional data layouts.

In Chapter 8, "Forms with Function," you'll master the finer points of client-side validation, design an adaptive form layout, and implement interactive client-server form features such as autocompletion.

In Chapter 9, "Shufflers and Rotators," you'll enhance the beauty and utility of page elements by showing them in more manageable chunks. You'll make information fly in and out of view both on its own and under user control.

Chapters 10 and 11 take you beyond the core jQuery methods to explore third-party extensions to the library, and show you various ways you can extend the library yourself.

In Chapter 10, "Using Plug-ins," you'll examine the Form plug-in and the official collection of user interface plug-ins known as jQuery UI. You'll also learn where to find many other popular jQuery plug-ins and see what they can do for you.

In Chapter 11, "Developing Plug-ins," you'll learn how to take advantage of jQuery's impressive extension capabilities to develop your own plug-ins from the ground up. You'll create your own utility functions, add jQuery object methods, write custom selector expressions, and more.

In Appendix A, "Online Resources," you'll find recommendations for a handful of informative websites on a wide range of topics related to jQuery, JavaScript, and web development in general.

In Appendix B, "Development Tools," you'll discover a number of useful third-party programs and utilities for editing and debugging jQuery code within your personal development environment.

In Appendix C, "JavaScript Closures," you'll gain a solid understanding of closures—what they are and how you can use them to your advantage.

In Appendix D , "Quick Reference," you'll get a glimpse of the entire jQuery library, including every one of its methods and selector expressions. Its easy-to-scan format is perfect for those moments when you know what you want to do, but you're just unsure about the right method name or selector.

In order to both write and run the code demonstrated in this book, you need the following:

Additionally, to run the AJAX examples in Chapter 6, you will need a PHP-enabled server.

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. Basic JavaScript programming knowledge is required. You will need to know 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.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."

A block of code will be set as follows:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>the title</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
      <p>This is a paragraph.</p>
      <p>This is another paragraph.</p>
      <p>This is yet another paragraph.</p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

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^=mailto:]').addClass('mailto');
  $('a[href$=.pdf]').addClass('pdflink');
  $('a[href^=http][href*=henry]')
    .addClass('henrylink');
});

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

outerFn():Outer functionInner function

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: "Note the PDF icon to the right of the Hamlet link, the envelope icon next to the email link, and the white background and black border around the Henry V link.".

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