Web Developers have always entwined various coding languages to deliver dynamic websites to you - the end-user, languages that can change, improve or sometimes be replaced. HTML or XHTML is used to create content structure, CSS to deliver style, a server-side script like PHP or ASP.NET to talk to databases as well as JavaScript (a client-side language) to aid interaction on the page. Making these all talk at once and translate them into a great website is part of the fun.
Amongst the Forepoint Web Team we had always seen JavaScript as a friend. JavaScript was able to do the odd ‘on the fly’ validation on a web form or a nice random image rotation on a homepage. It had nice things to say, but to make it shout took some time and it was always a concern that, be it for security or accessibility reasons, JavaScript could not be relied upon alone.
Then AJAX arrived. AJAX let you deliver content to your website without having to leave the page. JavaScript had found its voice and we all started to listen. Interaction that had previously been reserved for software applications was now being exposed on the web. JavaScript had upped its game so we all paid it more attention; it just seemed that the more you wanted to do and the further you wanted to push it, the more complex it seemed to get. It felt like you wished you had studied it more.
So that is when we all got up … and went to the library!
“jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.”jQuery.com
There were several JavaScript libraries available, they all made JavaScript unleash its true potential and brought great interaction to websites but jQuery was the one that we just knew was going to make a difference. jQuery embraced languages we were already familiar with and let us talk so easily with JavaScript it became a pleasure. It works so effortlessly and when delivered well is so subtle yet powerful.
So the next time you are on one of our websites and it interacts, updates or even animates for you then you will probably just have had a conversation with our friend jQuery.