12.2. jQuery Overview

jQuery is a lightweight (18KB at time of writing) JavaScript library that was first released in 2006 by John Resig. jQuery provides the following:

  • Numerous ways to select, traverse, and manipulate elements on the page

  • "Chainability" of functions, which allows the results of one function to be fed into another

  • Functionality to separate code from design

  • Utilities for performing common tasks such as Ajax calls and browser capability checks

  • Special effects, such as fades and glides, and easy manipulation of CSS

  • Easy-to-extend plug-ins

Figure 12-1 shows a high-level view of the jQuery architecture. Antonio Lupetti has produced a much more detailed diagram that I would encourage you to take a look at here: wwww.box.net/shared/as4xkezd6a ...

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