Murach’s JavaScript and jQuery (1st Edition)

This book is divided into five sections. After your students complete the first two sections, you can proceed with any of the other sections.

Section 1: The least you need to know about JavaScript to get the most from jQuery

To get your students off to the right start, section 1 presents a crash course in the JavaScript skills that are needed for using jQuery. Although you can’t use jQuery without these JavaScript skills, most jQuery books don’t include them.

What’s more, even if your students have already taken a JavaScript course, some of these skills may have been overlooked. In that case, this section can be a good refresher to make sure all your students have the same set of core skills.

Section 2: The core jQuery skills for every web developer

In this section, your students will learn how to use jQuery to create JavaScript applications like image swaps, collapsible panels, slide shows, carousels, user-friendly forms…and more…with far less coding than you’d have to do in native JavaScript.

To begin, chapter 7 presents the jQuery selectors, methods, and event methods that are used the most. Then, the next four chapters build on that base as they focus on effects and animations, DOM manipulation and traversal, forms and data validation, the many plugins that are available for jQuery, and how to create your own plugins. When your students complete this section, they can go on to any of the three sections that follow.

Section 3: Enhance your web pages by using jQuery UI

The jQuery UI (User Interface) library helps you build common but useful features into a website...with just a few lines of code. So this section shows how to use jQuery UI to create widgets like tabs, accordions, and datepickers...interactions like draggable, droppable, and sortable...and effects like color and class transitions.

Section 4: Speed up response times and add content feeds with Ajax and JSON

Ajax and JSON are hot topics today. They can be used to get data from a server and add it to a web page without reloading the entire page, which can significantly improve response times for users. Although the JavaScript coding for this can be mind-bending, jQuery provides methods that make it far more manageable.

So in this section, your students will learn how to use jQuery with Ajax and JSON to deliver data to your websites. First, they’ll learn the basics. Then, they’ll learn how to work with the APIs for websites like Blogger, YouTube, Flickr, and Google Maps to add popular content to their pages. This is a major use of Ajax and JSON…yet no other jQuery book that we’ve seen shows you how to do it.

Section 5: Mobile websites made easier with jQuery Mobile

This section shows you how to use another JavaScript library, jQuery Mobile, to develop web pages for mobile devices with the look-and-feel of native applications. In fact, there’s no better way to develop mobile websites, and it’s much easier than rebuilding a website so that it uses responsive web design.

Like all Murach books, this book has the didactic features that help students learn faster and more thoroughly. Beyond that, though, are some features that are specific to this book:

• It includes the JavaScript skills that are needed for using jQuery. This ensures that the book will work whether or not the students have taken a JavaScript course that has prepared them for jQuery.
• It doesn’t show how to use JavaScript for skills that are better done with jQuery, which is a common shortcoming and time-waster in many JavaScript books.
• It not only shows how to use jQuery UI but also how to use JavaScript plugins, which can do some functions better than jQuery UI.
• It shows how to use jQuery for Ajax and JSON. That takes your students to another level.
• It shows how to use jQuery with common APIs like Blogger, YouTube, and Flickr. This is sure to add interest to a course...and interest is a great motivator.
• It shows how to use jQuery Mobile for building mobile websites.

If you offer a jQuery course in your curriculum, this book is for you. But we’re also finding that instructors are using this book as either a required or a recommended text in their JavaScript courses, as well as in other web design and development courses. From our point of view, the book will work well in any of the following courses.

jQuery programming

If you review the features and content of this book, you’ll see why we believe it is clearly the best book for a jQuery course. It covers all of the most-used features of jQuery…and much more. And it presents jQuery in a way that’s designed to make learning quick and interesting for students.

JavaScript programming

Because jQuery is what’s used in industry these days, we’ve found that a combined JavaScript and jQuery course makes more sense for most curricula than a traditional JavaScript course.

But our JavaScript and jQuery book can be the right book for a JavaScript course, too, if you think of JavaScript as a subject that includes the JavaScript libraries. That way, the focus is on the best way to get the results that you want instead of on the JavaScript language…and yet you can still start off with 200 pages on coding JavaScript. Using our book for a JavaScript course makes particular sense if you don’t also offer a jQuery course.

Web design with JavaScript and jQuery

If the focus of the course is web design, there’s no reason to go extensively into JavaScript, especially for applications that are better done with jQuery. In that case, our book may be the right one for the course.

To develop JavaScript applications, your students need:

• any text editor (this book recommends Aptana Studio 3, which is available for free)
• Mozilla Firefox along with the default browser for their computer: Internet Explorer for Windows or Safari for Mac OS

Although your students can use any text editor with this book, a text editor that includes syntax coloring and auto-formatting will help them develop applications more quickly and with fewer errors. That’s why we recommend Aptana Studio 3. It’s available for free, it can be used for entering JavaScript and jQuery code (as well as HTML and CSS code), and it runs on both Windows and Mac OS.

To test their web pages, your students can use the default browser on their systems. But we recommend that they also test their pages in Mozilla Firefox, which includes a terrific debugging tool called Firebug. In practice, they should also test their pages in Chrome and maybe Opera, but that isn’t necessary when they’re learning.

To help your students install these products, Appendix A provides the procedures they’ll need. In addition, chapter 1 presents a short tutorial on using Aptana, and chapter 4 shows how to use Firebug for debugging pages that are rendered in Firefox.

After your students complete the first two sections of this book, you can continue with any of the other sections. In other words, sections 3, 4, and 5 are written as independent modules that require only sections 1 and 2 as prerequisites. That lets you choose the subjects that you want to teach as well as the sequence in which you teach them.

Beyond that, you have some options as to which chapters you assign for each section of the book. Those options are described in the topics that follow.

Section 1: JavaScript essentials

The six chapters of section 1 present the JavaScript that your students need to know for the effective use of jQuery. Note, however, that the last chapter shows how to script the DOM with JavaScript, which is easier to do with jQuery. As a result, you can just focus on the concepts of that chapter rather than asking your students to apply the skills that they learn.

If your students already know JavaScript, you can probably skip most of this section. But you should probably assign chapter 4 on debugging and chapter 6 on DOM scripting because your students aren’t likely to have all of those skills, even if they have already taken a JavaScript course.

Section 2: jQuery essentials

The five chapters of section 2 present the core jQuery concepts and skills. After chapter 7 presents a substantial subset of jQuery, the next four chapters expand upon those skills. Note, however, that you don’t have to teach all of those chapters and you don’t have to teach them in sequence.

If, for example, you want to teach the use of plugins right after chapter 7 and then go back to chapter 8, you can do that. Or, if you want to skip chapter 9 on DOM manipulation and traversal or chapter 10 on forms and data validation, you can do that. You should, however, teach chapters 7 (core skills), 8 (effects), and 11 (plugins) before you go on to another section.

Section 3: jQuery UI essentials

The two chapters of section 3 show how to use jQuery UI to enhance a web page. Although these chapters should be taught in sequence, remember that you can skip this section if you want to go to section 4 or 5 next. Another option is to assign chapter 12on jQuery UI themes and widgets and skip chapter 13 on interactions and effects.

Section 4: Ajax, JSON, and API essentials

The three chapters in this section show how to use Ajax and JSON to update a web page without reloading it. They also show how to use Ajax and JSON with the APIs for popular websites like Blogger, YouTube, Flickr, and Google Maps.

But here again, you have some options. In particular, you can teach just the first chapter in this section (chapter 14), just the first two chapters, or all three chapters.

Section 5: jQuery Mobile essentials

The two chapters in this section show how to use jQuery to build mobile websites. Since these chapters don’t directly use jQuery methods or event methods, these chapters are relatively easy. As a result, you may want to assign one or both of them when you think your students need a relaxing interlude.

"I finished up Murach’s Javascript and jQuery, and I am beyond impressed. This is a great book and will take you through not only the code of JavaScript and jQuery, but the reasons why."
- Jeremy Johnson; Review posted at DreamInCode.net

From Dr. Dobb’s Must-Have Books for JavaScript: "The aim of the book is to teach jQuery in an intensely hands-on way. It succeeds in this and probably provides that fastest way to learn and master the framework."
- Andrew Binstock, Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Dobb’s

"There are quite a few jQuery books out there, but most assume that you already know JavaScript. This one doesn’t. It begins with a crash course in JavaScript — a crash course which occupies almost 200 of the book’s 564 pages, and six of its 18 chapters. If you’re not up-to-speed on programming with JavaScript, you will be by the time you’re done."
- David Bolton, Software Developer and About.com host Review posted at Dice.com

"Several years ago, I was told that jQuery was worth learning. After wasting time and money on books and tutorials, I had not gotten very far. Murach’s JavaScript and jQuery is exactly what I needed.

“After reading Chapter 7, I skipped to Chapter 17. Within two hours I had rebuilt a mobile website using jQuery Mobile. A friend was interested in themes and widgets, so I did Chapter 12 next. Once again within a short time I had rebuilt some pages using jQuery UI with very satisfying results. Finally, I got back to Chapter 9 about DOM manipulation. The information here solved a problem that had me frustrated. This is an amazing book!"
- Andrew McConnell, Developer

"Your books are so good that I threw away my assigned JavaScript and jQuery book for my class and bought Murach’s JavaScript and jQuery (which has, by the way, helped restore my 4.0 GPA)."
- Blaine Simcox, Student, Michigan

"One of my favorite parts of the book is on using JavaScript and jQuery to consume popular public APIs. This makes the book all the more practical from the real-world perspective."
- Jason Ong, Site Editor, ASPNETWorld.com

"I use jQuery and JavaScript every day, and for more than 20 years of web application development, this is one of the best books I’ve used. I thought I knew a lot about jQuery and JavaScript, but this book taught me more. Thanks for a really well done book."
- Posted at an online bookseller