View source for The Power Vested in JQuery

Facilitated by the [http://www.radicaldesigns.org Radical Designs] Team and Jim Craner, [http://chicagotech.org/ Chicago Technology Cooperative]

JQuery is all the Javascript you'll ever need. This powerful open source library can be used to integrate different web platforms into a seamless user experience, and is a de facto Flash replacement for many situations. It offers cross-browser magic, search engine optimization, interaction libraries, dynamic effects, simple UI candy. It enables developers to treat CSS classes in genuine class architecture, effectively turning CSS into an object-oriented language. The facilitation team will elaborate on all of the above, demo some examples, and invite questions and curiosities.

=jQuery Notes=

* jQuery overview
** change the document object model
** Events handler
** AJAX - remote calls without refreshing the page
** The fundamental concept
*** Use the bling operator ($), then you select things using css selectors
**** it is just a alias to the jquery() function
*** If you understand css, the dom, or html, you can start right away
* Why jQuery is out ahead of the pack
** It's a later language
** First came Prototype, then came Mootools
** jQuery saw everything that everyone was doing, then rewrote it to do everything but in a better way
** It's very very clean
** Developer experience
** The barrier to entry is very low to people who know CSS
** It was the first one to push CSS as the core
** It implements the CSS3 spec
* Basic DOM manipulation
** Say you want to have one item in a list be styled differently but don't have control of the code
*** $('.list_item:odd').css('background', 'red');
** The dot operator is chain operator
* Cool stuff
** Native iteration
* Accessibility
** In general DOM manipulation does not go well with JS
** Graceful degredation or Progressive enhancement
*** In your basic HTML framework (pre-javascript), you need everything that people need to get around your site
*** You should attach cool stuff to what you already have, not add what you need
*** Orca is an open source screen reader
*** Lynx is a text-based browser to help check your site
* AJAX
** $.ajax() command which you can send all sorts of stuff to do, and functions to run
** $.load() is super simple way
** As a stylistic decision, I generally have AJAX pass back formatted html, but you can have it send back whatever you want
** Asynchronous
*** Duck Duck Goose
**** The Goose is like a JSON call, but you can keep going around say duck
*** You have to wait until the response comes back until you can do something with the response (obviously)
** You can find out how long something on the server is going to take
*** The server know and can tell you how it's going
** You can make multiple AJAX calls
* Anonymous functions
** I like them cuz their cool
** It's also idiomatic in jQuery
* Performance
** There is a memory limit. The browser just has to deal with it and some browsers do it better than others
** Everything you're doing with javascript is in the RAM
** Class-based selection is just slow
** You can scope any thing in jQuery
*** var foo = #('#content); $('.class', foo);
** Chrome is a big deal for performance because it's pushing everyone forward
** Internet explorer is not moving forward
* Use cases
** Client that wanted rounded corners
*** Just use a plugin
*** $('.selector').corner();
** Form that would give you a thumbnail
*** Thickbox plugin
** How to build an effect that doesn't exist already
*** Good plugin architecture
*** jQuery UI has a good animation function that can be extended
** When you're working in a harsh environment with no control or access to a system
* jQuery model has been used for other languages because it's so good
** hpricot for Ruby