Developing with jQuery

The jQuery client-side framework simplifies the tasks of working with the DOM as described in the prior section. This includes providing easier access to elements and their attributes using the jQuery CSS-style selectors. It also makes working with these selected elements easier. For example, you can act on a group of selected items with a single line of code; no looping code is required. jQuery also makes creating event listeners easier. And it provides methods for calling the server asynchronously from the client (AJAX). Best of all, it makes the DOM code you write compliant with both new and older browsers—without the need to write fallback code.

It is important that you also understand the default JavaScript DOM selectors, events, and actions discussed in the prior section. These traditional techniques make you even more effective when writing JavaScript and working with jQuery.

jQuery is by far the single most used client-side framework on the Web. It is estimated that nearly one-third of all websites use jQuery. This number is much higher for newly created sites. If you are doing web development today, it is highly likely that you are writing JavaScript using the jQuery framework.