HTML, XHTML, & CSS All-in-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Using the jQuery User Interface Toolkit

In This Chapter

• Exploring the jQuery UI

• Installing the UI and templates

• Adding datepickers, dialog boxes, and icons

• Dragging and dropping

• Working with scroll bars

• Building a sorting mechanism

• Creating an accordion page

• Building a tab-based interface

The jQuery library is an incredible tool for simplifying JavaScript programming. It's so popular and powerful that developers began adding new features to make it even more useful. Among the most important of these is a framework called jQuery UI (User Interface), sometimes also called the UI toolkit. That's what this chapter's all about.

What the jQuery User Interface Brings to the Table

This tool adds some very welcome features to Web development, including new visual elements (widgets), a uniform icon set, and a mechanism for easily generating attractive CSS styles:

• New user interface elements: As a modern user interface tool, HTML is missing some important tools. Most modern visual languages include built-in support for such devices as scroll bars, dedicated datepickers, and multiple tab tools. jQuery UI adds these features and more.

• Advanced user interaction: The jQuery widgets allow new and exciting ways for the user to interact with your page. With the UI toolkit, you can easily let users make selections by dragging and dropping elements, and expand and contract parts of the page.

• Flexible theme templates: jQuery UI includes a template mechanism that controls the visual look and feel of your ...