xx
INTRODUCTION
fl ast.indd 02/19/2015 Page xx
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This book is for anyone interested in doing more with less JavaScript. You should have an under-
standing of JavaScript, as this book doesn’t go into detail about JavaScript itself. You need to under-
stand the Document Object Model (DOM) and JavaScript programming syntax. In addition, you
need to know your way around CSS and HTML5 or XHTML5, as knowledge of those technologies
is also assumed. This book covers primarily programming in JavaScript with jQuery.A complete beginner might grasp what is taking place in the examples in this book but might not
understand certain terminology and programming concepts that would be presented in a beginner’s
JavaScript guide. So, if you are a beginner and insist with pressing forward, you should do so with
a beginning JavaScript book on hand as well. Specifi cally, consider the following Wrox books for
more help with the basics:➤ (^) Beginning HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript (2009), by Jon Duckett
➤ (^) Beginning CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design, 3rd Edition (2011), by Ian Pouncey
and Richard York
➤ (^) Beginning JavaScript, 4th Edition (2009), by Paul Wilton and Jeremy McPeak
For further knowledge of JavaScript beyond what is covered in this book, check out Professional
JavaScript for Web Developers, 3rd Edition (2012), by Nicholas C. Zakas.
WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS
This book covers the jQuery JavaScript framework and the jQuery UI JavaScript framework, in
addition to some popular third-party plugins and how to write and use your own third-party
plugins. It covers each method exposed by jQuery’s API, which contains methods to make com-
mon, redundant tasks go more quickly in less code. Some examples are methods that help you to
select elements from a markup document through the DOM and methods that help you to traverse
through those selections and fi lter them using jQuery’s fi ne-grained controls. This makes working
with the DOM easier and more effortless. It also covers jQuery’s event model, which both wraps
around the normal W3C event API and provides an API that when used correctly can heavily opti-
mize and reduce complexity in your applications.
Later in the book, you see how to leverage the jQuery UI library to make user interface (UI) widgets.
jQuery gives you the ability to break up content among multiple tabs in the same page. You have the
ability to customize the look and feel of the tabs, and even to create a polished look and feel by pro-
viding different effects when you mouse over tabs and click them. The jQuery UI library also makes
it easy to create accordion sidebars. These sidebars have two or more panels, and when you mouse
over an item, one pane transitions to another via a smooth, seamless animation wherein the preced-
ing pane collapses and the proceeding pane expands.
http://www.it-ebooks.info