jQueryjQuery is a new type of Javascript library. It is not a huge, bloated framework promising the best in AJAX - nor is it just a set of needlessly complex enhancements - jQuery is designed to change the way that you write Javascript.
What is jQuery?
jQuery is a Javascript library that takes this motto to heart: Writing Javascript code should be fun. jQuery achieves this goal by taking common, repetitive, tasks, stripping out all the unnecessary markup, and leaving them short, smart and understandable.
What does jQuery code look like? The quick and dirty:
$("p.surprise").addClass("ohmy").show("slow");
Congratulations! You just ran a snippet of jQuery code - wasn't that easy? There's lots of example code throughout the documentation, on this site - be sure to give all the code a test run, to see what happens.
The above code snippet looks for all paragraphs that have a class
of 'surprise', adds the class 'ohmy' to them, then slowly reveals them.
Click the 'Run' button to see it in action!
Quick Facts
- jQuery supports CSS 1-3 and basic XPath.
- jQuery is about 15kb in size.
- jQuery works in Internet Explorer 5.5+, Firefox 1.0+, Safari 1.3+, and Opera 8.5+.
Getting Started:
» Download jQuery» Download jQuery Compressed
If you're new to jQuery, we recommend that you check out the
tutorials, look at some
of the demos, then move
on over to the documentation and start coding!
If you'd like to keep up-to-date with jQuery, and see some more code examples, then you should read the jQuery Blog and check out the jQuery Mailing List.
Advanced:
If you're feeling adventurous, you may take a peek at the full source code, or look into the jQuery Development Process.
About:
jQuery is written, hosted, and maintained by John Resig and is actively contributed to by a number of developers.
jQuery was heavily inspired by the previous work of Simon Willison, Ben Nolan, Sam Stephenson, Valerio Proietti, Dean Edwards, and Devo.