jQuery

For those who dont know what jQuery is, this page will explain some of the basics. For specific examples, look at the sub-pages in the menu.

We can start by look at what the developers of jQuery use af a fast teaser.

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

jQuery can do so many things, and it's impossible for me to cover it all, and there's no need to. It's jQuery.com's job to cover it all. For me, jQuery has two major strengths, or sides if you like. There is the visual/eyecandy part and the communication/interaction (ajax) part.

Visual

jQuery can give you some visual effects, that are already supported in 'normal' javascript, but here it's alot easier. Some simple examples are hiding and showing elements with animations.

Communication

jQuery also support ajax. This means you can send and recieve data without reloading the website. This is useful for e.g. shoutboxes. In that case you have a use post using ajax and get the new shoutbox content returned and updated, without reloading all the other elements.

This also takes some load off your server if there are alot of database calls and other stuff like that. If you do ajax the right way it very useful.