Professional Jquery

by Cesar Otero, Rob Larsen

Over the past several years JavaScript has undergone a remarkable transformation. It is now one of the most important programming languages in the world. With the ongoing importance of Ajax-based development and the rise of full-featured JavaScript libraries, most of the stigma around JavaScript has vanished. The most beginner-friendly library, jQuery, is responsible for most of this turnaround.jQuery is used at some of the largest organizations in the world, including Amazon, IBM, Twitter, NBC, Best Buy, and Dell. In 2011 there were three major releases in jQuery and the community surrounding it continues to grow. jQuery is prominently featured at the front end of Java/Spring, PHP, .NET, Ruby on Rails, and Python/Django stacks all over the Web. If you have experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, this book is for you. It will expand your jQuery knowledge by focusing on the core library with the benefit of strong core JavaScript expertise in many of the lessons.This book is aimed at three groups of Experienced server-side web application developers looking to move into the client-side using the world's most popular front-end libraryExperienced JavaScript programmers looking to ramp up quickly on jQueryNovice to intermediate jQuery developers looking to expand their jQuery knowledge into more advanced topicsThis book is not aimed at beginners. For those looking to start with the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript/jQuery development, " Beginning JavaScript and CSS Development with jQuery (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)" by Richard York will most likely help you more.This book covers a lot of information about jQuery including a developer-level introduction as well as providing an in-depth look into some of the more advanced features. The book is divided into two parts, jQuery Fundamentals and Applied jQuery. jQuery Fundamentals introduces the core concepts while Applied jQuery focuses on more advanced subjects. The first part of the book offers an in-depth introduction to jQuery fundamentals, which includes selecting elements, manipulating the DOM, and binding and reacting to browser books. After providing a solid foundation, the book will then outline more advanced topics such as plugin development, unit testing with JavaScript, and other advanced features of the library. The book also focuses on features available as of jQuery 1.7.1. but also tries to incorporate feature support in older versions of the library wherever it is relevant.The first few chapters will help you set up a development environment and they also review important JavaScript concepts. Chapters 3-7 examine the jQuery core concepts. The second half of the book focuses on applying jQuery in the real world as well as detailing jQuery UI, plugin development, and templates among other lessons.Part 1, jQuery Fundamentals, contains chapters 1-7. Chapter 1 sets up an environment for developing and debugging jQuery and JavaScript code. It also defines the code standards that will be used throughout the book. Chapter 2 goes through the basics of JavaScript programming language to strengthen the foundation that the rest of the book is built upon. Chapter 3 introduces the basic functions that make up the library and illuminates usages of the core jQuery functions. It also introduces many of the functions that you will need to perform varieties of tasks. Chapter 4 goes in-depth into one of the core features of jQuery, which is the ability to select and manipulate HTML elements. Chapter 5 introduces another feature of the cross-browser ability to bind and manage browser events. Chapter 6 explores one of the biggest revolutions in web development in recent years--Ajax. Chapter 7 focuses on some of the shortcuts jQuery offers for animating components in your web applications. These include moving, fading, toggling, and resizing elements.Part 2, Ap

456 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Naum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really had high hopes for this title, after examining the table of contents. But the contents are bare bones, and it appeared to me, to be a partial subset of the online API documentation for jQuery and some relevant plugins. Yes, there is a rudimentary chapter on Javascript, but it adds nothing to the knowledge store of an already experienced developer, and would be totally insufficient (unlike Crockford's *Javascript: The Good Parts*, which the chapter specifically references).

Furthermore, there are some major print annoyances -- such as every code listing includes a large text and graphic image indicating code blurb is available for download at wrox.com. Was that really necessary? Could not that have been specified in the book introduction/prefix, where to download the example code? And most of the examples were so simple and basic, even more remedial than the online docs at api.jquery.com (or at any of the plugin topics like jQuery templates, QUnit, etc.…).

I really feel ripped off of $20-30, cannot recall the exact amount I paid on the Amazon order…