jQuery – The beginning of Web 3.0
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
I am fully aware that ‘Web 3.0′ isn’t really defined, other than it’s a step in the direction of a new age in web browsing. I believe jQuery is a large part/start in that direction.
So, what is jQuery?
“jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.”
That just sounds like a new way of writing Javascript, and not all that new and exciting. Essentially, it is just that, but what it brings about can yield spectacular results. It gives you complete control over Javascript and makes you able to change everything with ease.
Recently I had a project that I wanted everything to be on one page. With jQuery I was able to setup a Split-Pane Divider (like the ones you see in an explorer window), a sortable table that you could change the widths of the columns (by dragging), made my own accordion menu that when clicking on an item, dynamically populated the sortable table.
On top of all that, I used ThickBox to make it even more dynamic.
There’s more functionality that I’m not going into here (Calendar Control, etc.), but I ended up with a fully functional page that used multiple database tables and completely functional like a regular web page, without any refreshing, with animated effects (according menu slides down, other fields faded in and out). This is the result of jQuery.
From what I’ve gathered there are four main Javascript libraries, jQuery, Prototype, Dojo and Mootools. From the reviews I’ve read, jQuery is on the top, though some people prefer the others. Dojo might have a little bit more funtionality. All of them have their own plugins, hundreds of things to make your site more functional and increase it’s design with javascript animated effects.
jQuery has full documentation as well as premade visual plugins in their jQuery UI pack.
I’m completely sold and have been using it for a while. If you need tutorials, they have them too.