15 Days Of jQuery

What is jQuery?

I consider it the Swiss Army knife of javascript - it's small, versatile, and has almost zero learning curve.

Why should I care?

If your project calls for AJAX or DOM scripting and you need it done quickly, with minimal fuss, and you believe in keeping things simple, then jQuery might be perfect for you.

And what's "15 Days of jQuery" got for me?

Fantastic tutorials and example code that takes you from zero to hero in no time flat. If you're not a black belt in advanced javascript code by the end of these tutorials then you get 110% of your money back.

(starting with the most recent tutorial to be posted)

jQuery 1.1a Released, Big Speed Improvements

John Resig announced that jQuery 1.1a has a lot of changes that apparently turbo charge the little javascript library.

jQuery Tutorial Ideas Wanted

Two places you can post your request for new tutorials on jQuery. Plus, see what's just around the corner for 15 Days of jQuery.

jQuery 1.0.4 Just Released

I cover some of the highlights, as I see them, and start to work on some new tutorials to be released very soon.

jQuery Plugins Galore

Recent weeks have brought an explosion of contributions to jQuery as well as adoption by some leading websites and software authors.

From the creator of "15 Days of jQuery" (me):

Day 15: Draggable, Droppables, Selectables... Oh My!

Who says you can't crank out some eye popping Web 2.0-ish effects with jQuery?

Oh... I did...? Hmmm. Well, I was wrong.

Day 14: jTip Tweak - Javascript Tooltips on Steroids

Another bit of code from Cody Lindley, a jQuery convert. I take some nifty tooltip code of his and change things up just a little bit to make the tooltips a little more accessible.

Day 13: Accessible Unobtrusive Javascript Tabs

Very short "tutorial" but I have contributed a tool to help you create the XHTML.

Day 12: jQuery Lightbox

Cody Lindley got me hooked on jQuery in the first place, so it's only appropriate to make sure you've seen one of the more flexible lightbox scripts on the web.

Day 11: Multiple File Upload Magic With Unobtrusive Javascript

Yet again, two code samples packed into one tutorial. The first code sample is an attempt to convert some code I found on the web and giving it a jQuery makeover. The second example is for the accessibility zealots among you that thrive on unobtrusive javascript.

Day 10: Edit In Place with AJAX Using jQuery Javascript Library

Two ways to create an AJAX (really AHAH) proof of concept for editing an html page without opening a new window or tab or doing a browser refresh.

Day 9: Quick and Dirty AJAX with jQuery

I touched on some of these concepts with previous tutorials (Safer Mailto Links) but now I'll go into more detail about using the jQuery library to create some AJAX (and AHAH) magic on your site.

Day 8: Rounded Corners with Javascript (jQuery)

Rounded corners. You've seen plenty of other tutorials on ways to make it easy, but I'm going to show you two ways to use the jQuery library to give your website the shapely curves you crave. One using images, and the other without. A little something for everyone.

Day 7: Stylesheet Switcheroo

Quick and easy stylesheet switching with cookie support using jQuery.

Day 6: Safer Contact Forms Without CAPTCHA's

Quickly and easily throw an extra layer of security on any contact form on any website. This technique should eliminate most spam attacks before they even begin.

Day 5: Wrap It Up: Lazy Man's HTML Generation with jQuery

Who needs the extra work and sloppy markup that comes from adding extra div's to your source code? Let's kick back, get lazy, and let jQuery do the work.

Day 4: Safer Mailto Links

Remember the days when the web was young, spam was scarce, and mailto links were hunky dory? Well those days may be gone but perhaps a small dose of AJAX via jQuery can give you some comfort that your email addresses won't be harvested right out of your html source code.

Day 3: Affiliate Link Loveliness

A quickie tutorial that shows you how to target specific links on a page with unobtrusive javascript. A great way to eliminate javascript from the html of your links but still get the benefits of onMouseover and onMouseout.

Whether this tutorial "speaks to you" or not it will help beginners get up to speed with some of the basic tools of the jQuery library.

Day 2: Table Striping Made Easy

Table striping has been done before... many times. I'm going to give another fella's excellent code a jQuery makeover.

This step by step slide presentation is a great example of how jQuery makes it a snap to write powerful javascript code without being an expert at the Document Object Model. Plus we'll get it done with an amazingly small amount of code and the final product has better flexibility than other examples you've seen on the web.

Day 1: Quicker Than Window.Onload()

window.onload() makes your visitors wait for every element on the page to load before launching your javascript... How rude!

Discover how to jump the gun and get your javascript rolling as early as possible. Especailly useful for pages with lots of high resolution photos.