With contributions by James Padolsey, Paul Irish, and others. See the GitHub repository for a complete history of contributions.

Licensed by Rebecca Murphey under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit, and remix this work, provided you attribute the work to Rebecca Murphey as the original author and reference the GitHub repository for the work. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to the license.


Table of Contents

1. Welcome
Getting the Code
Software
Adding JavaScript to Your Page
JavaScript Debugging
Exercises
Conventions used in this book
Reference Material
I. JavaScript 101
2. JavaScript Basics
Overview
Syntax Basics
Operators
Basic Operators
Operations on Numbers & Strings
Logical Operators
Comparison Operators
Conditional Code
Truthy and Falsy Things
Conditional Variable Assignment with The Ternary Operator
Switch Statements
Loops
The for loop
The while loop
The do-while loop
Breaking and continuing
Reserved Words
Arrays
Objects
Functions
Using Functions
Self-Executing Anonymous Functions
Functions as Arguments
Testing Type
Scope
Closures
II. jQuery: Basic Concepts
3. jQuery Basics
$(document).ready()
Selecting Elements
Does My Selection Contain Any Elements?
Saving Selections
Refining & Filtering Selections
Form-Related Selectors
Working with Selections
Chaining
Getters & Setters
CSS, Styling, & Dimensions
Using CSS Classes for Styling
Dimensions
Attributes
Traversing
Manipulating Elements
Getting and Setting Information about Elements
Moving, Copying, and Removing Elements
Creating New Elements
Manipulating Attributes
Exercises
Selecting
Traversing
Manipulating
4. jQuery Core
$ vs $()
Utility Methods
Checking types
Data Methods
Feature & Browser Detection
Avoiding Conflicts with Other Libraries
5. Events
Overview
Connecting Events to Elements
Connecting Events to Run Only Once
Disconnecting Events
Namespacing Events
Inside the Event Handling Function
Triggering Event Handlers
Increasing Performance with Event Delegation
Unbinding Delegated Events
Event Helpers
$.fn.hover
$.fn.toggle
Exercises
Create an Input Hint
Add Tabbed Navigation
6. Effects
Overview
Built-in Effects
Changing the Duration of Built-in Effects
Doing Something when an Effect is Done
Custom Effects with $.fn.animate
Easing
Managing Effects
Exercises
Reveal Hidden Text
Create Dropdown Menus
Create a Slideshow
7. Ajax
Overview
Key Concepts
GET vs. Post
Data Types
A is for Asynchronous
Same-Origin Policy and JSONP
Ajax and Firebug
jQuery's Ajax-Related Methods
$.ajax
Convenience Methods
$.fn.load
Ajax and Forms
Working with JSONP
Ajax Events
Exercises
Load External Content
Load Content Using JSON
8. Plugins
What exactly is a plugin?
How to create a basic plugin
Finding & Evaluating Plugins
Writing Plugins
Exercises
Make a Table Sortable
Write a Table-Striping Plugin
III. Advanced Topics
This Section is a Work in Progress
9. Performance Best Practices
Cache length during loops
Append new content outside of a loop
Keep things DRY
Beware anonymous functions
Optimize Selectors
ID-Based Selectors
Specificity
Avoid the Universal Selector
Use Event Delegation
Detach Elements to Work With Them
Use Stylesheets for Changing CSS on Many Elements
Use $.data Instead of $.fn.data
Don't Act on Absent Elements
Variable Definition
Conditionals
Don't Treat jQuery as a Black Box

List of Examples

1.1. An example of inline Javascript
1.2. An example of including external JavaScript
1.3. Example of an example
2.1. A simple variable declaration
2.2. Whitespace has no meaning outside of quotation marks
2.3. Parentheses indicate precedence
2.4. Tabs enhance readability, but have no special meaning
2.5. Concatenation
2.6. Multiplication and division
2.7. Incrementing and decrementing
2.8. Addition vs. concatenation
2.9. Forcing a string to act as a number
2.10. Forcing a string to act as a number (using the unary-plus operator)
2.11. Logical AND and OR operators
2.12. Comparison operators
2.13. Flow control
2.14. Values that evaluate to true
2.15. Values that evaluate to false
2.16. The ternary operator
2.17. A switch statement
2.18. Loops
2.19. A typical for loop
2.20. A typical while loop
2.21. A while loop with a combined conditional and incrementer
2.22. A do-while loop
2.23. Stopping a loop
2.24. Skipping to the next iteration of a loop
2.25. A simple array
2.26. Accessing array items by index
2.27. Testing the size of an array
2.28. Changing the value of an array item
2.29. Adding elements to an array
2.30. Working with arrays
2.31. Creating an "object literal"
2.32. Function Declaration
2.33. Named Function Expression
2.34. A simple function
2.35. A function that returns a value
2.36. A function that returns another function
2.37. A self-executing anonymous function
2.38. Passing an anonymous function as an argument
2.39. Passing a named function as an argument
2.40. Testing the type of various variables
2.41. Functions have access to variables defined in the same scope
2.42. Code outside the scope in which a variable was defined does not have access to the variable
2.43. Variables with the same name can exist in different scopes with different values
2.44. Functions can "see" changes in variable values after the function is defined
2.45. Scope insanity
2.46. How to lock in the value of i?
2.47. Locking in the value of i with a closure
3.1. A $(document).ready() block
3.2. Shorthand for $(document).ready()
3.3. Passing a named function instead of an anonymous function
3.4. Selecting elements by ID
3.5. Selecting elements by class name
3.6. Selecting elements by attribute
3.7. Selecting elements by compound CSS selector
3.8. Pseudo-selectors
3.9. Testing whether a selection contains elements
3.10. Storing selections in a variable
3.11. Refining selections
3.12. Using form-related pseduo-selectors
3.13. Chaining
3.14. Formatting chained code
3.15. Restoring your original selection using $.fn.end
3.16. The $.fn.html method used as a setter
3.17. The html method used as a getter
3.18. Getting CSS properties
3.19. Setting CSS properties
3.20. Working with classes
3.21. Basic dimensions methods
3.22. Setting attributes
3.23. Getting attributes
3.24. Moving around the DOM using traversal methods
3.25. Iterating over a selection
3.26. Changing the HTML of an element
3.27. Moving elements using different approaches
3.28. Making a copy of an element
3.29. Creating new elements
3.30. Creating a new element with an attribute object
3.31. Getting a new element on to the page
3.32. Creating and adding an element to the page at the same time
3.33. Manipulating a single attribute
3.34. Manipulating multiple attributes
3.35. Using a function to determine an attribute's new value
4.1. Checking the type of an arbitrary value
4.2. Storing and retrieving data related to an element
4.3. Storing a relationship between elements using $.fn.data
4.4. Putting jQuery into no-conflict mode
4.5. Using the $ inside a self-executing anonymous function
5.1. Event binding using a convenience method
5.2. Event biding using the $.fn.bind method
5.3. Event binding using the $.fn.bind method with data
5.4. Switching handlers using the $.fn.one method
5.5. Unbinding all click handlers on a selection
5.6. Unbinding a particular click handler
5.7. Namespacing events
5.8. Preventing a link from being followed
5.9. Triggering an event handler the right way
5.10. Event delegation using $.fn.delegate
5.11. Event delegation using $.fn.live
5.12. Unbinding delegated events
5.13. The hover helper function
5.14. The toggle helper function
6.1. A basic use of a built-in effect
6.2. Setting the duration of an effect
6.3. Augmenting jQuery.fx.speeds with custom speed definitions
6.4. Running code when an animation is complete
6.5. Run a callback even if there were no elements to animate
6.6. Custom effects with $.fn.animate
6.7. Per-property easing
7.1. Using the core $.ajax method
7.2. Using jQuery's Ajax convenience methods
7.3. Using $.fn.load to populate an element
7.4. Using $.fn.load to populate an element based on a selector
7.5. Turning form data into a query string
7.6. Creating an array of objects containing form data
7.7. Using YQL and JSONP
7.8. Setting up a loading indicator using Ajax Events
8.1. Creating a plugin to add and remove a class on hover
8.2. The Mike Alsup jQuery Plugin Development Pattern

jQuery is fast becoming a must-have skill for front-end developers. The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of the jQuery JavaScript library; when you're done with the book, you should be able to complete basic tasks using jQuery, and have a solid basis from which to continue your learning. This book was designed as material to be used in a classroom setting, but you may find it useful for individual study.

This is a hands-on class. We will spend a bit of time covering a concept, and then you’ll have the chance to work on an exercise related to the concept. Some of the exercises may seem trivial; others may be downright daunting. In either case, there is no grade; the goal is simply to get you comfortable working your way through problems you’ll commonly be called upon to solve using jQuery. Example solutions to all of the exercises are included in the sample code.

The code we’ll be using in this book is hosted in a repository on Github. You can download a .zip or .tar file of the code, then uncompress it to use it on your server. If you’re git-inclined, you’re welcome to clone or fork the repository.

Logical operators allow you to evaluate a series of operands using AND and OR operations.


Though it may not be clear from the example, the || operator returns the value of the first truthy operand, or, in cases where neither operand is truthy, it'll return the last of both operands. The && operator returns the value of the first false operand, or the value of the last operand if both operands are truthy.

Be sure to consult the section called “Truthy and Falsy Things” for more details on which values evaluate to true and which evaluate to false.

Note

You'll sometimes see developers use these logical operators for flow control instead of using if statements. For example:

// do something with foo if foo is truthy
foo && doSomething(foo);

// set bar to baz if baz is truthy;
// otherwise, set it to the return
// value of createBar()
var bar = baz || createBar();

This style is quite elegant and pleasantly terse; that said, it can be really hard to read, especially for beginners. I bring it up here so you'll recognize it in code you read, but I don't recommend using it until you're extremely comfortable with what it means and how you can expect it to behave.

Sometimes you only want to run a block of code under certain conditions. Flow control — via if and else blocks — lets you run code only under certain conditions.


Note

While curly braces aren't strictly required around single-line if statements, using them consistently, even when they aren't strictly required, makes for vastly more readable code.

Be mindful not to define functions with the same name multiple times within separate if/else blocks, as doing so may not have the expected result.

Loops let you run a block of code a certain number of times.


Note that in
Example 2.18, “Loops” even though we use the keyword var before the variable name i, this does not "scope" the variable i to the loop block. We'll discuss scope in depth later in this chapter.

Functions contain blocks of code that need to be executed repeatedly. Functions can take zero or more arguments, and can optionally return a value.

Functions can be created in a variety of ways:



I prefer the named function expression method of setting a function's name, for some rather in-depth and technical reasons. You are likely to see both methods used in others' JavaScript code.

"Scope" refers to the variables that are available to a piece of code at a given time. A lack of understanding of scope can lead to frustrating debugging experiences.

When a variable is declared inside of a function using the var keyword, it is only available to code inside of that function -- code outside of that function cannot access the variable. On the other hand, functions defined inside that function will have access to to the declared variable.

Furthermore, variables that are declared inside a function without the var keyword are not local to the function -- JavaScript will traverse the scope chain all the way up to the window scope to find where the variable was previously defined. If the variable wasn't previously defined, it will be defined in the global scope, which can have extremely unexpected consequences;






The most basic concept of jQuery is to “select some elements and do something with them.” jQuery supports most CSS3 selectors, as well as some non-standard selectors. For a complete selector reference, visit http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/.

Following are a few examples of common selection techniques.






Every time you make a selection, a lot of code runs, and jQuery doesn't do caching of selections for you. If you've made a selection that you might need to make again, you should save the selection in a variable rather than making the selection repeatedly.


Note

In Example 3.10, “Storing selections in a variable”, the variable name begins with a dollar sign. Unlike in other languages, there's nothing special about the dollar sign in JavaScript -- it's just another character. We use it here to indicate that the variable contains a jQuery object. This practice -- a sort of Hungarian notation -- is merely convention, and is not mandatory.

Once you've stored your selection, you can call jQuery methods on the variable you stored it in just like you would have called them on the original selection.

Note

A selection only fetches the elements that are on the page when you make the selection. If you add elements to the page later, you'll have to repeat the selection or otherwise add them to the selection stored in the variable. Stored selections don't magically update when the DOM changes.

Once you have a selection, you can call methods on the selection. Methods generally come in two different flavors: getters and setters. Getters return a property of the first selected element; setters set a property on all selected elements.

jQuery includes a handy way to get and set CSS properties of elements.

Note

CSS properties that normally include a hyphen need to be camel cased in JavaScript. For example, the CSS property font-size is expressed as fontSize in JavaScript.



Note the style of the argument we use on the second line -- it is an object that contains multiple properties. This is a common way to pass multiple arguments to a function, and many jQuery setter methods accept objects to set mulitple values at once.

Once you've made a selection, the fun begins. You can change, move, remove, and clone elements. You can also create new elements via a simple syntax.

For complete documentation of jQuery manipulation methods, visit http://api.jquery.com/category/manipulation/.

There are any number of ways you can change an existing element. Among the most common tasks you'll perform is changing the inner HTML or attribute of an element. jQuery offers simple, cross-browser methods for these sorts of manipulations. You can also get information about elements using many of the same methods in their getter incarnations. We'll see examples of these throughout this section, but specifically, here are a few methods you can use to get and set information about elements.

Note

Changing things about elements is trivial, but remember that the change will affect all elements in the selection, so if you just want to change one element, be sure to specify that in your selection before calling a setter method.

Note

When methods act as getters, they generally only work on the first element in the selection, and they do not return a jQuery object, so you can't chain additional methods to them. One notable exception is $.fn.text; as mentioned below, it gets the text for all elements in the selection.

$.fn.html

Get or set the html contents.

$.fn.text

Get or set the text contents; HTML will be stripped.

$.fn.attr

Get or set the value of the provided attribute.

$.fn.width

Get or set the width in pixels of the first element in the selection as an integer.

$.fn.height

Get or set the height in pixels of the first element in the selection as an integer.

$.fn.position

Get an object with position information for the first element in the selection, relative to its first positioned ancestor. This is a getter only.

$.fn.val

Get or set the value of form elements.


There are a variety of ways to move elements around the DOM; generally, there are two approaches:

  • Place the selected element(s) relative to another element

  • Place an element relative to the selected element(s)

For example, jQuery provides $.fn.insertAfter and $.fn.after. The $.fn.insertAfter method places the selected element(s) after the element that you provide as an argument; the $.fn.after method places the element provided as an argument after the selected element. Several other methods follow this pattern: $.fn.insertBefore and $.fn.before; $.fn.appendTo and $.fn.append; and $.fn.prependTo and $.fn.prepend.

The method that makes the most sense for you will depend on what elements you already have selected, and whether you will need to store a reference to the elements you're adding to the page. If you need to store a reference, you will always want to take the first approach -- placing the selected elements relative to another element -- as it returns the element(s) you're placing. In this case, $.fn.insertAfter, $.fn.insertBefore, $.fn.appendTo, and $.fn.prependTo will be your tools of choice.


jQuery offers a trivial and elegant way to create new elements using the same $() method you use to make selections.



Note that in the attributes object we included as the second argument, the property name class is quoted, while the property names text and href are not. Property names generally do not need to be quoted unless they are reserved words (as class is in this case).

When you create a new element, it is not immediately added to the page. There are several ways to add an element to the page once it's been created.


Strictly speaking, you don't have to store the created element in a variable -- you could just call the method to add the element to the page directly after the $(). However, most of the time you will want a reference to the element you added, so you don't need to select it later.

You can even create an element as you're adding it to the page, but note that in this case you don't get a reference to the newly created element.


Note

The syntax for adding new elements to the page is so easy, it's tempting to forget that there's a huge performance cost for adding to the DOM repeatedly. If you are adding many elements to the same container, you'll want to concatenate all the html into a single string, and then append that string to the container instead of appending the elements one at a time. You can use an array to gather all the pieces together, then join them into a single string for appending.

var myItems = [], $myList = $('#myList');

for (var i=0; i<100; i++) {
    myItems.push('<li>item ' + i + '</li>');
}

$myList.append(myItems.join(''));

jQuery offers several utility methods in the $ namespace. These methods are helpful for accomplishing routine programming tasks. Below are examples of a few of the utility methods; for a complete reference on jQuery utility methods, visit http://api.jquery.com/category/utilities/.

$.trim

Removes leading and trailing whitespace.

$.trim('    lots of extra whitespace    ');
// returns 'lots of extra whitespace'
$.each

Iterates over arrays and objects.

$.each([ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ], function(idx, val) {
    console.log('element ' + idx + 'is ' + val);
});

$.each({ foo : 'bar', baz : 'bim' }, function(k, v) {
    console.log(k + ' : ' + v);
});

Note

There is also a method $.fn.each, which is used for iterating over a selection of elements.

$.inArray

Returns a value's index in an array, or -1 if the value is not in the array.

var myArray = [ 1, 2, 3, 5 ];

if ($.inArray(4, myArray) !== -1) {
    console.log('found it!');
}
$.extend

Changes the properties of the first object using the properties of subsequent objects.

var firstObject = { foo : 'bar', a : 'b' };
var secondObject = { foo : 'baz' };

var newObject = $.extend(firstObject, secondObject);
console.log(firstObject.foo); // 'baz'
console.log(newObject.foo);   // 'baz'

If you don't want to change any of the objects you pass to $.extend, pass an empty object as the first argument.

var firstObject = { foo : 'bar', a : 'b' };
var secondObject = { foo : 'baz' };

var newObject = $.extend({}, firstObject, secondObject);
console.log(firstObject.foo); // 'bar'
console.log(newObject.foo);   // 'baz'
$.proxy

Returns a function that will always run in the provided scope — that is, sets the meaning of this inside the passed function to the second argument.

var myFunction = function() { console.log(this); };
var myObject = { foo : 'bar' };

myFunction(); // logs window object

var myProxyFunction = $.proxy(myFunction, myObject);
myProxyFunction(); // logs myObject object

If you have an object with methods, you can pass the object and the name of a method to return a function that will always run in the scope of the object.

var myObject = {
    myFn : function() {
        console.log(this);
    }
};

$('#foo').click(myObject.myFn); // logs DOM element #foo
$('#foo').click($.proxy(myObject, 'myFn')); // logs myObject

As your work with jQuery progresses, you'll find that there's often data about an element that you want to store with the element. In plain JavaScript, you might do this by adding a property to the DOM element, but you'd have to deal with memory leaks in some browsers. jQuery offers a straightforward way to store data related to an element, and it manages the memory issues for you.


You can store any kind of data on an element, and it's hard to overstate the importance of this when you get into complex application development. For the purposes of this class, we'll mostly use $.fn.data to store references to other elements.

For example, we may want to establish a relationship between a list item and a div that's inside of it. We could establish this relationship every single time we interact with the list item, but a better solution would be to establish the relationship once, and then store a pointer to the div on the list item using $.fn.data:


In addition to passing $.fn.data a single key-value pair to store data, you can also pass an object containing one or more pairs.

Although jQuery eliminates most JavaScript browser quirks, there are still occasions when your code needs to know about the browser environment.

jQuery offers the $.support object, as well as the deprecated $.browser object, for this purpose. For complete documentation on these objects, visit http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.support/ and http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.browser/.

The $.support object is dedicated to determining what features a browser supports; it is recommended as a more “future-proof” method of customizing your JavaScript for different browser environments.

The $.browser object was deprecated in favor of the $.support object, but it will not be removed from jQuery anytime soon. It provides direct detection of the browser brand and version.

jQuery offers convenience methods for most common events, and these are the methods you will see used most often. These methods -- including $.fn.click, $.fn.focus, $.fn.blur, $.fn.change, etc. -- are shorthand for jQuery's $.fn.bind method. The bind method is useful for binding the same hadler function to multiple events, and is also used when you want to provide data to the event hander, or when you are working with custom events.




You'll frequently use jQuery to add new elements to the page, and when you do, you may need to bind events to those new elements -- events you already bound to similar elements that were on the page originally. Instead of repeating your event binding every time you add elements to the page, you can use event delegation. With event delegation, you bind your event to a container element, and then when the event occurs, you look to see which contained element it occurred on. If this sounds complicated, luckily jQuery makes it easy with its $.fn.live and $.fn.delegate methods.

While most people discover event delegation while dealing with elements added to the page later, it has some performance benefits even if you never add more elements to the page. The time required to bind event handlers to hundreds of individual elements is non-trivial; if you have a large set of elements, you should consider delegating related events to a container element.

Note

The $.fn.live method was introduced in jQuery 1.3, and at that time only certain event types were supported. As of jQuery 1.4.2, the $.fn.delegate method is available, and is the preferred method.



Frequently used effects are built into jQuery as methods:

$.fn.show

Show the selected element.

$.fn.hide

Hide the selected elements.

$.fn.fadeIn

Animate the opacity of the selected elements to 100%.

$.fn.fadeOut

Animate the opacity of the selected elements to 0%.

$.fn.slideDown

Display the selected elements with a vertical sliding motion.

$.fn.slideUp

Hide the selected elements with a vertical sliding motion.

$.fn.slideToggle

Show or hide the selected elements with a vertical sliding motion, depending on whether the elements are currently visible.


Proper use of Ajax-related jQuery methods requires understanding some key concepts first.

While jQuery does offer many Ajax-related convenience methods, the core $.ajax method is at the heart of all of them, and understanding it is imperative. We'll review it first, and then touch briefly on the convenience methods.

I generally use the $.ajax method and do not use convenience methods. As you'll see, it offers features that the convenience methods do not, and its syntax is more easily understandable, in my opinion.

jQuery’s core $.ajax method is a powerful and straightforward way of creating Ajax requests. It takes a configuration object that contains all the instructions jQuery requires to complete the request. The $.ajax method is particularly valuable because it offers the ability to specify both success and failure callbacks. Also, its ability to take a configuration object that can be defined separately makes it easier to write reusable code. For complete documentation of the configuration options, visit http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/.


Note

A note about the dataType setting: if the server sends back data that is in a different format than you specify, your code may fail, and the reason will not always be clear, because the HTTP response code will not show an error. When working with Ajax requests, make sure your server is sending back the data type you're asking for, and verify that the Content-type header is accurate for the data type. For example, for JSON data, the Content-type header should be application/json.

There are many, many options for the $.ajax method, which is part of its power. For a complete list of options, visit http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/; here are several that you will use frequently:

async

Set to false if the request should be sent synchronously. Defaults to true. Note that if you set this option to false, your request will block execution of other code until the response is received.

cache

Whether to use a cached response if available. Defaults to true for all dataTypes except "script" and "jsonp". When set to false, the URL will simply have a cachebusting parameter appended to it.

complete

A callback function to run when the request is complete, regardless of success or failure. The function receives the raw request object and the text status of the request.

context

The scope in which the callback function(s) should run (i.e. what this will mean inside the callback function(s)). By default, this inside the callback function(s) refers to the object originally passed to $.ajax.

data

The data to be sent to the server. This can either be an object or a query string, such as foo=bar&baz=bim.

dataType

The type of data you expect back from the server. By default, jQuery will look at the MIME type of the response if no dataType is specified.

error

A callback function to run if the request results in an error. The function receives the raw request object and the text status of the request.

jsonp

The callback name to send in a query string when making a JSONP request. Defaults to "callback".

success

A callback function to run if the request succeeds. The function receives the response data (converted to a JavaScript object if the dataType was JSON), as well as the text status of the request and the raw request object.

timeout

The time in milliseconds to wait before considering the request a failure.

traditional

Set to true to use the param serialization style in use prior to jQuery 1.4. For details, see http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.param/.

type

The type of the request, "POST" or "GET". Defaults to "GET". Other request types, such as "PUT" and "DELETE" can be used, but they may not be supported by all browsers.

url

The URL for the request.

The url option is the only required property of the $.ajax configuration object; all other properties are optional.

If you don't need the extensive configurability of $.ajax, and you don't care about handling errors, the Ajax convenience functions provided by jQuery can be useful, terse ways to accomplish Ajax requests. These methods are just "wrappers" around the core $.ajax method, and simply pre-set some of the options on the $.ajax method.

The convenience methods provided by jQuery are:

$.get

Perform a GET request to the provided URL.

$.post

Perform a POST request to the provided URL.

$.getScript

Add a script to the page.

$.getJSON

Perform a GET request, and expect JSON to be returned.

In each case, the methods take the following arguments, in order:

url

The URL for the request. Required.

data

The data to be sent to the server. Optional. This can either be an object or a query string, such as foo=bar&baz=bim.

Note

This option is not valid for $.getScript.

success callback

A callback function to run if the request succeeds. Optional. The function receives the response data (converted to a JavaScript object if the data type was JSON), as well as the text status of the request and the raw request object.

data type

The type of data you expect back from the server. Optional.

Note

This option is only applicable for methods that don't already specify the data type in their name.


jQuery’s ajax capabilities can be especially useful when dealing with forms. The jQuery Form Plugin is a well-tested tool for adding Ajax capabilities to forms, and you should generally use it for handling forms with Ajax rather than trying to roll your own solution for anything remotely complex. That said, there are a two jQuery methods you should know that relate to form processing in jQuery: $.fn.serialize and $.fn.serializeArray.



The notation for creating a typical plugin is as follows:

(function($){
    $.fn.myNewPlugin = function() {
        return this.each(function(){
            // do something
        });
    };
}(jQuery));

Don't let that confuse you though. The point of a jQuery plugin is to extend jQuery's prototype object, and that's what's happening on this line:

$.fn.myNewPlugin = function() { //...

We wrap this assignment in an immediately-invoked function:

(function($){
    //...
}(jQuery));

This has the effect of creating a "private" scope that allows us to extend jQuery using the dollar symbol without having to risk the possibility that the dollar has been over-written by another library.

So our actual plugin, thus far, is this:

$.fn.myNewPlugin = function() {
    return this.each(function(){
        // do something
    });
};

The this keyword within the new plugin refers to the jQuery object on which the plugin is being called.

var somejQueryObject = $('#something');

$.fn.myNewPlugin = function() {
    alert(this === somejQueryObject);
};

somejQueryObject.myNewPlugin(); // alerts 'true'

Your typical jQuery object will contain references to any number of DOM elements, and that's why jQuery objects are often referred to as collections.

So, to do something with a collection we need to loop through it, which is most easily achieved using jQuery's each() method:

$.fn.myNewPlugin = function() {
    return this.each(function(){
    
    });
};

jQuery's each() method, like most other jQuery methods, returns a jQuery object, thus enabling what we've all come to know and love as 'chaining' ($(...).css().attr()...). We wouldn't want to break this convention so we return the this object. Within this loop you can do whatever you want with each element. Here's an example of a small plugin using some of the techniques we've discussed:

(function($){
    $.fn.showLinkLocation = function() {
        return this.filter('a').each(function(){
            $(this).append(
                ' (' + $(this).attr('href') + ')'
            );
        });
    };
}(jQuery));
    
// Usage example:
$('a').showLinkLocation();

This handy plugin goes through all anchors in the collection and appends the href attribute in brackets.

<!-- Before plugin is called: -->
<a href="page.html">Foo</a>
    
<!-- After plugin is called: -->
<a href="page.html">Foo (page.html)</a>

Our plugin can be optimised though:

(function($){
    $.fn.showLinkLocation = function() {
        return this.filter('a').append(function(){
              return ' (' + this.href + ')';
        });
    };
}(jQuery));

We're using the append method's capability to accept a callback, and the return value of that callback will determine what is appended to each element in the collection. Notice also that we're not using the attr method to retrieve the href attribute, because the native DOM API gives us easy access with the aptly named href property.

Here's another example of a plugin. This one doesn't require us to loop through every elememt with the each() method. Instead, we're simply going to delegate to other jQuery methods directly:

(function($){
    $.fn.fadeInAndAddClass = function(duration, className) {
        return this.fadeIn(duration, function(){
            $(this).addClass(className);
        });
    };
}(jQuery));
    
// Usage example:
$('a').fadeInAndAddClass(400, 'finishedFading');

Sometimes you want to make a piece of functionality available throughout your code; for example, perhaps you want a single method you can call on a jQuery selection that performs a series of operations on the selection. In this case, you may want to write a plugin.

Most plugins are simply methods created in the $.fn namespace. jQuery guarantees that a method called on a jQuery object will be able to access that jQuery object as this inside the method. In return, your plugin needs to guarantee that it returns the same object it received, unless explicitly documented otherwise.

Here is an example of a simple plugin:


For more on plugin development, read Mike Alsup's essential post, A Plugin Development Pattern. In it, he creates a plugin called $.fn.hilight, which provides support for the metadata plugin if it's present, and provides a centralized method for setting global and instance options for the plugin.


Please visit http://github.com/rmurphey/jqfundamentals to contribute!

This chapter covers a number of jQuery and JavaScript best practices, in no particular order. Many of the best practices in this chapter are based on the jQuery Anti-Patterns for Performance presentation by Paul Irish.

Selector optimization is less important than it used to be, as more browser implement document.querySelectorAll() and the burden of selection shifts from jQuery to the browser. However, there are still some tips to keep in midn.