jQuery

jQuery is javascript library, which has a wide browser support and it emphasizes most importantly the interaction between JavaScript and HTML. John Resig published it in January 2006 on BarCamp NYC. It is an open source software licensed under MIT. jQuery’s popularity has risen dramatically during a short time and is currently one of the most favourite tools while developing websites and applications.

Introduction

jQuery is library, which functions on many browsers and is compatible with CSS3. Its main goal is to speed up and simplify programming scripting during website development. jQuery allows the development of dynamical pages and animations similar to Flash during relatively short time.

The main aim of jQuery is to simplify:

• navigation through the document,
• choice of DOM elements,
• animation creation,
• access to incidents,
• Ajax application development.

jQuery’s modular access enables the creation of strong dynamical websites and applications.

History

jQuery library was published in January 2006 for the first time on BarCamp NYC by John Resig. Month later, was added the support for Ajax and in May the same year, the jQuery took over open source MIT licensed model.

In September 2007, jQuery offered up new user interface and started to be popular. In September 2008, Microsoft and Nokia announced their support. Microsoft has tried to use jQuery for Visual Studio by integration to ASP.NET of Ajax Framework and Nokia has integrated jQuery to its development platform on widgets.

Advantages of jQuery usage

• Simplicity. One of the main advantages is, that it is simpler than the competing products. It allows simple adding of plugins, by which ensures significant saving of time and effort.

One of the original aims, why jQuery library was created, was the time saving.

• Active community. Open source license allows constant and fast support and constantly published actualizations. Community is very active and hardworking.
• Great integration with Ajax. Compared to Flash or pure CSS, it offers excellent integration with Ajax.

Disadvantages of jQuery

• High number of versions. One of the main disadvantages of jQuery is high number of published versions in a short time. It doesn’t matter if you have the latest version of jQuery, you will have to host the library yourself and actualize it constantly or download a library from Google, which is convenient, but it can cause trouble with compatibility.
• The complexity of installation. jQuery is simple when it comes to the primary installation and to learning but it is not as simple as e. g. CSS.
• If the jQuery library is incorrectly implemented as Framework, the developed environment can get out of control.