JQuery is a library that is used to implement JavaScript oriented and AJAX functionality. The client side scripting in webpages becoems more modularized and extensible this way. Allthe interactive usages that you expect from a website like the user event handling, animations and other such dynamic content creation becomes easy with the use of jQuery. This is the purpose for which jQuery was built as a library over the existing platform of javaScript. This has in turn lead to the major players in software incorporarting the jQuery in the IDEs and their own web development frameworks.
Rise of Webapps:
The web apps have become the concept of interest these days. You can create the server side processing programs and applications. These are accessed only through the interface that is available to the user through the browser. This is where interactivity and development of dynamic JavaScript oriented content becomes very much important. So jQuery comes in handy as it gives the mush needed abstraction over the lower level javaSript API. Most of the times it is the same even handling mechanism you are trying to add on to your webpage and with a library it becomes much more easier than ever.
How to use?
The jQuery is included as an object instance over which the available functions are put into use. The jQuery library is just a single javascript file that anyone can download from the various servers including google and Microsoft. These js files have to be included into the webpages that you are developing through the normal <script> tags. After this entire set of functionality can be used by the $ and $. function references from the webpage files. The “each” function is one that can solve many difficult implementation problems.
The plugins:
The jQuery can have additional features just by adding a new function to the already existing Javascript. There are already thousands of such plugins available from the internet. One can easily search the web and find out the exact event handling function or layout maps, AJAX based templates. These just increase the huge feature set of the jQuery.
By building the jQuery based webpages one can be assured of the cross-browser compatibility, DOM based access references to all the components that is there on the page. There are also effective CSS manipulation functions and animation/dynamic effects can be gotten to work without any glitch by having the use of tested functions. The jQuery thus is a tool that everyone can use to make the web development works simpler. And, not just simpler but with the use of these the latest technology based pages can be built with the same IDE that every one has already been using. The jQuery add-ons for development is available for every popular IDE distributions that are out there.
The jQuery project has been growing with the community based developments coming in very efficiently. The jQuery project website can be the one stop for every jQuery based needs and all the plugins are also made available right from the project site.