Ajax and the JQuery JavaScript Library

For many web designers, developing JavaScript applications can be a truly challenging task, since they’re mostly focused on dealing with the structural markup and CSS styles that comprise a web site. As you know, popular JavaScript frameworks like Prototype and Ext JS, to cite just two, require an intermediate background in client-side programming to get the most out of them.

However, with the introduction of the jQuery library into the terrain of third-party frameworks, hopefully this scenario will start to change soon. This software allows you to build full-featured JavaScript programs by means of an intuitive interface that many web designers may find appealing.

So, if you’re interested in learning to use some of the most important methods that come with the jQuery package, then don’t hesitate anymore; begin reading this tutorial now!

In the last article I left off discussing how to use the library to dynamically manipulate the CSS styles of certain elements within a web document. As you’ll possibly recall, this process was performed with the assistance of the “addClass()” and “removeClass()” methods respectively. When used intelligently, they allow you to implement some basic, yet attractive, mouse over effects.

The functionality of “jQuery” isn’t limited to handling mouse events and CSS styles, however. It includes an Ajax module that’s pretty simple to use and implement. Thus, in the next few lines, I’m going to show you how to build some basic Ajax applications, and introduce some of jQuery's numerous animation effects.

With the preliminaries out of our way, it’s time to continue learning more useful ways to implement the jQuery library. Let’s go!