jQuery

This article is about the JavaScript library. For the actor, see Jake Weary.

jQuery
Original author(s) John Resig
Developer(s) jQuery Team
Initial release August 26, 2006 (2006-08-26)
Stable release
1.12.4 (May 20, 2016 (2016-05-20))
2.2.4 (May 20, 2016 (2016-05-20))
3.1.1 (September 22, 2016 (2016-09-22))[1]
Repository github.com/jquery/jquery
Development status Active
Written in JavaScript
Platform See Browser support
Size
ver gzip prod dev
1.x 31kb 90.9kb 266kb
2.x 27.7kb 81.6kb 236kb
3.x 29.9kb 86.3kb 263kb
(KB)
Type JavaScript library
License MIT[2]
Website jquery.com

jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.[3] jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library in use today, with installation on 65% of the top 10 million highest-trafficked sites on the Web.[4][5][6] jQuery is free, open-source software licensed under the MIT License.[2]

jQuery's syntax is designed to make it easier to navigate a document, select DOM elements, create animations, handle events, and develop Ajax applications. jQuery also provides capabilities for developers to create plug-ins on top of the JavaScript library. This enables developers to create abstractions for low-level interaction and animation, advanced effects and high-level, themeable widgets. The modular approach to the jQuery library allows the creation of powerful dynamic web pages and Web applications.

The set of jQuery core features—DOM element selections, traversal and manipulation—enabled by its selector engine (named "Sizzle" from v1.3), created a new "programming style", fusing algorithms and DOM data structures. This style influenced the architecture of other JavaScript frameworks like YUI v3 and Dojo, later stimulating the creation of the standard Selectors API.[7]

Microsoft and Nokia bundle jQuery on their platforms.[8] Microsoft includes it with Visual Studio[9] for use within Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX and ASP.NET MVC frameworks while Nokia has integrated it into the Web Run-Time widget development platform.[10] jQuery has also been used in MediaWiki since version 1.16.[11]

Overview

jQuery, at its core, is a DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation library. The DOM is a tree-structure representation of all the elements of a Web page and jQuery simplifies the syntax for finding, selecting, and manipulating these DOM elements. For example, jQuery can be used for finding an element in the document with a certain property (e.g. all elements with an h1 tag), changing one or more of its attributes (e.g. color, visibility), or making it respond to an event (e.g. a mouse click).

jQuery also provides a paradigm for event handling that goes beyond basic DOM element selection and manipulation. The event assignment and the event callback function definition are done in a single step in a single location in the code. jQuery also aims to incorporate other highly used JavaScript functionality (e.g. fade ins and fade outs when hiding elements, animations by manipulating CSS properties).

The principles of developing with jQuery are:

Features

jQuery includes the following features:

Browser support

Both versions 1.x and 2.x of jQuery support "current-1 versions" (meaning the current stable version of the browser and the version that preceded it) of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. Version 1.x also supports Internet Explorer 6 or higher. However, jQuery version 2.x dropped Internet Explorer 6–8 support and supports only IE 9 and later versions.[13]

Usage

Including the library

The jQuery library is a single JavaScript file containing all of its common DOM, event, effects, and Ajax functions. It can be included within a Web page by linking to a local copy or to one of the many copies available from public servers. jQuery has a content delivery network (CDN) hosted by MaxCDN.[14] Google[15] and Microsoft[16] host it as well.

<script src="jquery.js"></script>

It is also possible to include jQuery directly from a CDN:

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.0.min.js"></script>

Usage styles

jQuery has two usage styles:

Access to and manipulation of multiple DOM nodes in jQuery typically begins with calling the $ function with a CSS selector string. This returns a jQuery object referencing all the matching elements in the HTML page. $("div.test"), for example, returns a jQuery object with all the div elements of class test. This node set can be manipulated by calling methods on the returned jQuery object or on the nodes themselves.

No-conflict mode

jQuery also includes .noConflict() mode, which relinquishes control of $. This is helpful if jQuery is used with other libraries that also use $ as an identifier. In no-conflict mode, developers can use jQuery as a replacement for $ without losing functionality.[17]

Typical start-point

Typically, jQuery is used by putting initialization code and event handling functions in $(handler). This is triggered when the browser has constructed the DOM and sends a load event.

$(function () {
        // jQuery code, event handling callbacks here
});

Historically, $(document).ready(callback) has been the de facto signature for running code when the DOM is ready. However, since jQuery 3.0, developers are encouraged to use the much shorter $(handler) signature.[18]

Callback functions for event handling on elements that aren't loaded yet can be registered inside .ready() as anonymous functions. These event handlers will only be called when the event is triggered. For example, the following code adds an event handler for a mouse click on an img image element.

$(function () {
        $('img').on('click', function () {
              // handle the click event on any img element in the page
        });
});

The following syntaxes are equivalent, although only $(handler) should be used:[18]

Chaining

jQuery commands typically return a jQuery object, so commands can be chained:

$('div.test').add('p.quote').addClass('blue').slideDown('slow');

This line finds the union of all div tags with class attribute test and all p tags with class attribute quote, adds the class attribute blue to each matched element, and then increases their height with an animation. The $ and add functions affect the matched set, while the addClass and slideDown affect the referenced nodes.

Certain jQuery functions return specific values (such as $('#input-user-email').val()). In these cases, chaining will not work as the value does not reference the jQuery object.

Creating new DOM elements

Besides accessing DOM nodes through jQuery object hierarchy, it is also possible to create new DOM elements, if a string passed as the argument to $() looks like HTML. For example, this line finds an HTML select element with ID carmakes, and adds an option element with value "VAG" and text "Volkswagen":

$('select#carmakes').append($('<option />').attr({value:"VAG"}).append("Volkswagen"));

Utility functions

Functions prefixed with $. are utility functions or functions that affect global properties and behaviour. The following, for example, is a function used for iterating over arrays called each in jQuery:

$.each([1,2,3], function() {
  console.log(this + 1);
});

This writes "2", "3", "4" to the console.

Ajax

It is possible to perform cross-browser Ajax requests using $.ajax. Its associated methods can be used to load and manipulate remote data.

$.ajax({
  type: 'POST',
  url: '/process/submit.php',
  data: {
    name : 'John',
    location : 'Boston',
  },
}).done(function(msg) {
  alert('Data Saved: ' + msg);
}).fail(function(xmlHttpRequest, statusText, errorThrown) {
  alert(
    'Your form submission failed.\n\n'
      + 'XML Http Request: ' + JSON.stringify(xmlHttpRequest)
      + ',\nStatus Text: ' + statusText
      + ',\nError Thrown: ' + errorThrown);
});

This example posts the data name=John and location=Boston to /process/submit.php on the server. When this request finishes the success function is called to alert the user. If the request fails it will alert the user to the failure, the status of the request, and the specific error.

Asynchronous

Note that the above example uses the deferred nature of $.ajax() to handle its asynchronous nature: .done() and .fail() create callbacks that run only when the asynchronous process is complete.

jQuery plug-ins

jQuery's architecture allows developers to create plug-in code to extend its function. There are thousands of jQuery plug-ins available on the Web[19] that cover a range of functions, such as Ajax helpers, Web services, datagrids, dynamic lists, XML and XSLT tools, drag and drop, events, cookie handling, and modal windows.

An important source of jQuery plug-ins is the plugins subdomain of the jQuery Project website.[19] The plugins in this subdomain, however, were accidentally deleted in December 2011 in an attempt to rid the site of spam.[20] The new site will include a GitHub-hosted repository, which will require developers to resubmit their plugins and to conform to new submission requirements.[21] There are alternative plug-in search engines[22] like jquer.in that take more specialized approaches, such as listing only plug-ins that meet certain criteria (e.g. those that have a public code repository). jQuery provides a "Learning Center" that can help users understand JavaScript and get started developing jQuery plugins.[23]

History

jQuery was originally released in January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resig and was influenced by Dean Edwards' earlier cssQuery library.[24] It is currently maintained by a team of developers led by Timmy Willison (with the jQuery selector engine, Sizzle, being led by Richard Gibson).

jQuery has also an interesting software license history.[25] Originally under the CC BY-SA 2.5, it was relicensed to the MIT license in 2006.[26] On end of 2006 it was dual-licensed under GPL and MIT license.[27] As this led to some confusion, in 2012 the GPL was dropped and is now only MIT licensed.[28]

As of 2015, jQuery remains the most widely used JavaScript library on the Web.

Release history

Version number Release date Latest update Size Prod (KB) Additional notes
1.0 August 26, 2006 First stable release
1.1 January 14, 2007
1.2 September 10, 2007
1.3 January 14, 2009 55.9 Sizzle Selector Engine introduced into core
1.4 January 14, 2010
1.5 January 31, 2011 Deferred callback management, ajax module rewrite
1.6 May 3, 2011 Significant performance improvements to the attr() and val() functions
1.7 November 3, 2011 1.7.2 (March 21, 2012) New Event APIs: .on() and .off(), while the old APIs are still supported.
1.8 August 9, 2012 1.8.3 (November 13, 2012) 91.4 Sizzle Selector Engine rewritten, improved animations and $(html, props) flexibility.
1.9 January 15, 2013 1.9.1 (February 4, 2013) Removal of deprecated interfaces and code cleanup
1.10 May 24, 2013 1.10.2 (July 3, 2013) Incorporated bug fixes and differences reported from both the 1.9 and 2.0 beta cycles
1.11 January 24, 2014 1.11.3 (April 28, 2015) 95.9
1.12 January 8, 2016 1.12.4 (May 20, 2016) 95
2.0 April 18, 2013 2.0.3 (July 3, 2013) 81.1 Dropped IE 6–8 support for performance improvements and reduction in filesize
2.1 January 24, 2014 2.1.4 (April 28, 2015) 82.4
2.2 January 8, 2016 2.2.4 (May 20, 2016) 85.6
3.0 June 9, 2016 3.0.0 (June 9, 2016) 86.3 Promises/A+ support for Deferreds, $.ajax and $.when, .data() HTML5-compatible
3.1 July 7, 2016 3.1.0 (July 7, 2016) 86.3 jQuery.readyException added, ready handler errors are now not silenced

Testing framework

QUnit is a test automation framework used to test the jQuery project. The jQuery team developed it as an in-house unit testing library.[29] The jQuery team uses it to test its code and plugins, but it can test any generic JavaScript code, including server-side JavaScript code.[29]

As of 2011, the jQuery Testing Team uses QUnit with TestSwarm to test each jQuery codebase release.[30]

See also

References

  1. jquery.org, jQuery Foundation-. "jQuery 3.1.1 Released! - Official jQuery Blog".
  2. 1 2 "License - jQuery Project". jQuery Foundation. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  3. "jQuery: The write less, do more, JavaScript library". The jQuery Project. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  4. "Usage of JavaScript libraries for websites". Retrieved 2015-07-14.
  5. "jQuery Usage Statistics". Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  6. "Libscore".
  7. "Selectors API Level 1, W3C Recommendation" (21 February 2013). This standard turned what was jQuery "helper methods" into JavaScript-native ones, and the wide use of jQuery stimulated the fast adoption of querySelector/querySelectorAll into main Web browsers.
  8. Resig, John (2008-09-28). "jQuery, Microsoft, and Nokia". jQuery Blog. jQuery. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  9. Guthrie, Scott (2008-09-28). "jQuery and Microsoft". ScottGu's Blog. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
  10. "Guarana UI: A jQuery Based UI Library for Nokia WRT". Forum Nokia. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  11. "jQuery". MediaWiki. January 19, 2012. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  12. Resig, John (2009-01-14). "jQuery 1.3 and the jQuery Foundation". jQuery Blog. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  13. Browser Support | jQuery
  14. jquery.org, jQuery Foundation -. "jQuery CDN".
  15. "Google Libraries API - Developer's Guide". code.google.com. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  16. "Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network". ASP.net. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  17. "jQuery.noConflict() jQuery API Documentation".
  18. 1 2 jquery.org, jQuery Foundation -. "jQuery Core 3.0 Upgrade Guide - jQuery".
  19. 1 2 "Plugins". The jQuery Project. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  20. "What Is Happening To The jQuery Plugins Site?". Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  21. "jquery/plugins.jquery.com". GitHub. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  22. Kanakiya, Jay. "jquery plugins".
  23. "jQuery Learning Center". jQuery Foundation. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  24. York, Richard (2009). Beginning JavaScript and CSS Development with jQuery. Wiley. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-470-22779-4.
  25. jquery history on softwarefreedom.org
  26. jquery-under-the-mit-license on jquery.org (2006)
  27. license on jquery.org (archived 2010)
  28. jquery-licensing-changes on jquery.org (2012)
  29. 1 2 "History". qunitjs.com. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  30. "jQuery Testing Team Wiki".

Further reading

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