jQuery Cookbook

Book description

jQuery simplifies building rich, interactive web frontends. Getting started with this JavaScript library is easy, but it can take years to fully realize its breadth and depth; this cookbook shortens the learning curve considerably. With these recipes, you'll learn patterns and practices from 19 leading developers who use jQuery for everything from integrating simple components into websites and applications to developing complex, high-performance user interfaces.

Ideal for newcomers and JavaScript veterans alike, jQuery Cookbook starts with the basics and then moves to practical use cases with tested solutions to common web development hurdles. You also get recipes on advanced topics, such as methods for applying jQuery to large projects.

  • Solve problems involving events, effects, dimensions, forms, themes, and user interface elements
  • Learn how to enhance your forms, and how to position and reposition elements on a page
  • Make the most of jQuery's event management system, including custom events and custom event data
  • Create UI elements-such as tabs, accordions, and modals-from scratch
  • Optimize your code to eliminate bottlenecks and ensure peak performance
  • Learn how to test your jQuery applications

The book's contributors include:

  • Cody Lindley
  • James Padolsey
  • Ralph Whitbeck
  • Jonathan Sharp
  • Michael Geary and Scott González
  • Rebecca Murphey
  • Remy Sharp
  • Ariel Flesler
  • Brian Cherne
  • Jörn Zaefferer
  • Mike Hostetler
  • Nathan Smith
  • Richard D. Worth
  • Maggie Wachs, Scott Jehl, Todd Parker, and Patty Toland
  • Rob Burns

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
  2. Foreword
  3. Contributors
    1. Chapter Authors
    2. Tech Editors
  4. Preface
    1. Who This Book Is For
    2. What You’ll Learn
    3. jQuery Style and Conventions
    4. Other Options
    5. If You Have Problems Making Examples Work
    6. If You Like (or Don’t Like) This Book
    7. Conventions Used in This Book
    8. Using Code Examples
    9. Safari® Books Online
    10. How to Contact Us
  5. 1. jQuery Basics
    1. Introduction
    2. 1.1. Including the jQuery Library Code in an HTML Page
    3. 1.2. Executing jQuery/JavaScript Coded After the DOM Has Loaded but Before Complete Page Load
    4. 1.3. Selecting DOM Elements Using Selectors and the jQuery Function
    5. 1.4. Selecting DOM Elements Within a Specified Context
    6. 1.5. Filtering a Wrapper Set of DOM Elements
    7. 1.6. Finding Descendant Elements Within the Currently Selected Wrapper Set
    8. 1.7. Returning to the Prior Selection Before a Destructive Change
    9. 1.8. Including the Previous Selection with the Current Selection
    10. 1.9. Traversing the DOM Based on Your Current Context to Acquire a New Set of DOM Elements
    11. 1.10. Creating, Operating on, and Inserting DOM Elements
    12. 1.11. Removing DOM Elements
    13. 1.12. Replacing DOM Elements
    14. 1.13. Cloning DOM Elements
    15. 1.14. Getting, Setting, and Removing DOM Element Attributes
    16. 1.15. Getting and Setting HTML Content
    17. 1.16. Getting and Setting Text Content
    18. 1.17. Using the $ Alias Without Creating Global Conflicts
  6. 2. Selecting Elements with jQuery
    1. Introduction
    2. 2.1. Selecting Child Elements Only
    3. 2.2. Selecting Specific Siblings
    4. 2.3. Selecting Elements by Index Order
    5. 2.4. Selecting Elements That Are Currently Animating
    6. 2.5. Selecting Elements Based on What They Contain
    7. 2.6. Selecting Elements by What They Don’t Match
    8. 2.7. Selecting Elements Based on Their Visibility
    9. 2.8. Selecting Elements Based on Attributes
    10. 2.9. Selecting Form Elements by Type
    11. 2.10. Selecting an Element with Specific Characteristics
    12. 2.11. Using the Context Parameter
    13. 2.12. Creating a Custom Filter Selector
  7. 3. Beyond the Basics
    1. Introduction
    2. 3.1. Looping Through a Set of Selected Results
    3. 3.2. Reducing the Selection Set to a Specified Item
    4. 3.3. Convert a Selected jQuery Object into a Raw DOM Object
    5. 3.4. Getting the Index of an Item in a Selection
    6. 3.5. Making a Unique Array of Values from an Existing Array
    7. 3.6. Performing an Action on a Subset of the Selected Set
    8. 3.7. Configuring jQuery Not to Conflict with Other Libraries
    9. 3.8. Adding Functionality with Plugins
    10. 3.9. Determining the Exact Query That Was Used
  8. 4. jQuery Utilities
    1. Introduction
    2. 4.1. Detecting Features with jQuery.support
    3. 4.2. Iterating Over Arrays and Objects with jQuery.each
    4. 4.3. Filtering Arrays with jQuery.grep
    5. 4.4. Iterating and Modifying Array Entries with jQuery.map
    6. 4.5. Combining Two Arrays with jQuery.merge
    7. 4.6. Filtering Out Duplicate Array Entries with jQuery.unique
    8. 4.7. Testing Callback Functions with jQuery.isFunction
    9. 4.8. Removing Whitespace from Strings or Form Values with jQuery.trim
    10. 4.9. Attaching Objects and Data to DOM with jQuery.data
    11. 4.10. Extending Objects with jQuery.extend
  9. 5. Faster, Simpler, More Fun
    1. Introduction
    2. 5.1. That’s Not jQuery, It’s JavaScript!
    3. 5.2. What’s Wrong with $(this)?
    4. 5.3. Removing Redundant Repetition
    5. 5.4. Formatting Your jQuery Chains
    6. 5.5. Borrowing Code from Other Libraries
    7. 5.6. Writing a Custom Iterator
    8. 5.7. Toggling an Attribute
    9. 5.8. Finding the Bottlenecks
    10. 5.9. Caching Your jQuery Objects
    11. 5.10. Writing Faster Selectors
    12. 5.11. Loading Tables Faster
    13. 5.12. Coding Bare-Metal Loops
    14. 5.13. Reducing Name Lookups
    15. 5.14. Updating the DOM Faster with .innerHTML
    16. 5.15. Debugging? Break Those Chains
    17. 5.16. Is It a jQuery Bug?
    18. 5.17. Tracing into jQuery
    19. 5.18. Making Fewer Server Requests
    20. 5.19. Writing Unobtrusive JavaScript
    21. 5.20. Using jQuery for Progressive Enhancement
    22. 5.21. Making Your Pages Accessible
  10. 6. Dimensions
    1. Introduction
    2. 6.1. Finding the Dimensions of the Window and Document
    3. 6.2. Finding the Dimensions of an Element
    4. 6.3. Finding the Offset of an Element
    5. 6.4. Scrolling an Element into View
    6. 6.5. Determining Whether an Element Is Within the Viewport
    7. 6.6. Centering an Element Within the Viewport
    8. 6.7. Absolutely Positioning an Element at Its Current Position
    9. 6.8. Positioning an Element Relative to Another Element
    10. 6.9. Switching Stylesheets Based on Browser Width
  11. 7. Effects
    1. Introduction
    2. 7.1. Sliding and Fading Elements in and out of View
    3. 7.2. Making Elements Visible by Sliding Them Up
    4. 7.3. Creating a Horizontal Accordion
    5. 7.4. Simultaneously Sliding and Fading Elements
    6. 7.5. Applying Sequential Effects
    7. 7.6. Determining Whether Elements Are Currently Being Animated
    8. 7.7. Stopping and Resetting Animations
    9. 7.8. Using Custom Easing Methods for Effects
    10. 7.9. Disabling All Effects
    11. 7.10. Using jQuery UI for Advanced Effects
  12. 8. Events
    1. Introduction
    2. 8.1. Attaching a Handler to Many Events
    3. 8.2. Reusing a Handler Function with Different Data
    4. 8.3. Removing a Whole Set of Event Handlers
    5. 8.4. Triggering Specific Event Handlers
    6. 8.5. Passing Dynamic Data to Event Handlers
    7. 8.6. Accessing an Element ASAP (Before document.ready)
    8. 8.7. Stopping the Handler Execution Loop
    9. 8.8. Getting the Correct Element When Using event.target
    10. 8.9. Avoid Multiple hover() Animations in Parallel
    11. 8.10. Making Event Handlers Work for Newly Added Elements
  13. 9. Advanced Events
    1. Introduction
    2. 9.1. Getting jQuery to Work When Loaded Dynamically
    3. 9.2. Speeding Up Global Event Triggering
    4. 9.3. Creating Your Own Events
    5. 9.4. Letting Event Handlers Provide Needed Data
    6. 9.5. Creating Event-Driven Plugins
    7. 9.6. Getting Notified When jQuery Methods Are Called
    8. 9.7. Using Objects’ Methods as Event Listeners
  14. 10. HTML Form Enhancements from Scratch
    1. Introduction
    2. 10.1. Focusing a Text Input on Page Load
    3. 10.2. Disabling and Enabling Form Elements
    4. 10.3. Selecting Radio Buttons Automatically
    5. 10.4. (De)selecting All Checkboxes Using Dedicated Links
    6. 10.5. (De)selecting All Checkboxes Using a Single Toggle
    7. 10.6. Adding and Removing Select Options
    8. 10.7. Autotabbing Based on Character Count
    9. 10.8. Displaying Remaining Character Count
    10. 10.9. Constraining Text Input to Specific Characters
    11. 10.10. Submitting a Form Using Ajax
    12. 10.11. Validating Forms
  15. 11. HTML Form Enhancements with Plugins
    1. Introduction
    2. 11.1. Validating Forms
    3. 11.2. Creating Masked Input Fields
    4. 11.3. Autocompleting Text Fields
    5. 11.4. Selecting a Range of Values
    6. 11.5. Entering a Range-Constrained Value
    7. 11.6. Uploading Files in the Background
    8. 11.7. Limiting the Length of Text Inputs
    9. 11.8. Displaying Labels Above Input Fields
    10. 11.9. Growing an Input with Its Content
    11. 11.10. Choosing a Date
  16. 12. jQuery Plugins
    1. Introduction
    2. 12.1. Where Do You Find jQuery Plugins?
    3. 12.2. When Should You Write a jQuery Plugin?
    4. 12.3. Writing Your First jQuery Plugin
    5. 12.4. Passing Options into Your Plugin
    6. 12.5. Using the $ Shortcut in Your Plugin
    7. 12.6. Including Private Functions in Your Plugin
    8. 12.7. Supporting the Metadata Plugin
    9. 12.8. Adding a Static Function to Your Plugin
    10. 12.9. Unit Testing Your Plugin with QUnit
  17. 13. Interface Components from Scratch
    1. Introduction
    2. 13.1. Creating Custom Tool Tips
    3. 13.2. Navigating with a File-Tree Expander
    4. 13.3. Expanding an Accordion
    5. 13.4. Tabbing Through a Document
    6. 13.5. Displaying a Simple Modal Window
    7. 13.6. Building Drop-Down Menus
    8. 13.7. Cross-Fading Rotating Images
    9. 13.8. Sliding Panels
  18. 14. User Interfaces with jQuery UI
    1. Introduction
    2. 14.1. Including the Entire jQuery UI Suite
    3. 14.2. Including an Individual jQuery UI Plugin or Two
    4. 14.3. Initializing a jQuery UI Plugin with Default Options
    5. 14.4. Initializing a jQuery UI Plugin with Custom Options
    6. 14.5. Creating Your Very Own jQuery UI Plugin Defaults
    7. 14.6. Getting and Setting jQuery UI Plugin Options
    8. 14.7. Calling jQuery UI Plugin Methods
    9. 14.8. Handling jQuery UI Plugin Events
    10. 14.9. Destroying a jQuery UI Plugin
    11. 14.10. Creating a jQuery UI Music Player
  19. 15. jQuery UI Theming
    1. Introduction
    2. 15.1. Styling jQuery UI Widgets with ThemeRoller
    3. 15.2. Overriding jQuery UI Layout and Theme Styles
    4. 15.3. Applying a Theme to Non-jQuery UI Components
    5. 15.4. Referencing Multiple Themes on a Single Page
    6. 15.5. Appendix: Additional CSS Resources
  20. 16. jQuery, Ajax, Data Formats: HTML, XML, JSON, JSONP
    1. Introduction
    2. 16.1. jQuery and Ajax
    3. 16.2. Using Ajax on Your Whole Site
    4. 16.3. Using Simple Ajax with User Feedback
    5. 16.4. Using Ajax Shortcuts and Data Types
    6. 16.5. Using HTML Fragments and jQuery
    7. 16.6. Converting XML to DOM
    8. 16.7. Creating JSON
    9. 16.8. Parsing JSON
    10. 16.9. Using jQuery and JSONP
  21. 17. Using jQuery in Large Projects
    1. Introduction
    2. 17.1. Using Client-Side Storage
    3. 17.2. Saving Application State for a Single Session
    4. 17.3. Saving Application State Between Sessions
    5. 17.4. Using a JavaScript Template Engine
    6. 17.5. Queuing Ajax Requests
    7. 17.6. Dealing with Ajax and the Back Button
    8. 17.7. Putting JavaScript at the End of a Page
  22. 18. Unit Testing
    1. Introduction
    2. 18.1. Automating Unit Testing
    3. 18.2. Asserting Results
    4. 18.3. Testing Synchronous Callbacks
    5. 18.4. Testing Asynchronous Callbacks
    6. 18.5. Testing User Actions
    7. 18.6. Keeping Tests Atomic
    8. 18.7. Grouping Tests
    9. 18.8. Selecting Tests to Run
  23. Index
  24. Colophon
  25. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: jQuery Cookbook
  • Author(s): Cody Lindley
  • Release date: November 2009
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596159771