Watch a video tutorial to get started with jQuery. I will cover a few of the basics in this video.
I was pretty hesitant to get started with AJAX. I uderstood that it was used to make refresh free pages and transfer data, so it seemed a bit outside my comfort zone. Even the acronymn is difficult for designers to grasp, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Much of the code seems pretty arcane to those of us who are unfamiliar with OOP techniques.
Here’s the thing. AJAX make JavaScript easier to work with and in the case of jQuery, it’s much easier. Of course AJAX is still able to transfer data XML, JSON etc, but for me it’s all about creating nifty user interfaces. Using AJAX means that I don’t have to spend an inordinate about of time worrying about browser specific JavaScript syntax, browser detection and can focus on getting UI’s to work well and look good.
While there are numerous libraries to pick from I use jQuery and highly reccomend it. I also reccomend Remmy Sharp’s blog jQuery for Designers it’s a fantastic resource for tutorials on jQuery.
Getting started with jQuery is pretty easy. Im going to cover the following in this tutorial.
- loading jQuery into your webpage using Google’s Ajax Libraries
- creating a “Hello World!” sample
- Listening for a click