Table of Contents Preface jQuery semantics How the book is structured More code, less words Why Oh Why did I use alert() for code examples? Color coding Completely grok jQuery text() before reading this book What is JS Bin and why do code examples use it? Chapter 1 - Core jQuery Base concept behind jQuery The concept, behind the concept, behind jQuery How to check the current jQuery version jQuery requires HTML run in standards mode or almost standards mode Include all CSS files before including jQuery Using a hosted version of jQuery Executing code when the DOM is ready, but before window.onload Executing jQuery code when the browser window is completely loaded Execute jQuery code when DOM is parsed, without using ready() Use the $ alias without fear of conflicts Grokking jQuery chaining Breaking the chain with destructive methods Using destructive jQuery methods and exiting destruction using end() The jQuery function is multifaceted Grokking when the keyword this refers to DOM elements Extract elements from a wrapper set use them directly without jQuery Checking to see if the wrapper set is empty Creating an alias by renaming the jQuery object itself Using .each() when implicit iteration is not enough Elements in jQuery wrapper set returned in document order Determining context used by the jQuery function Create an entire DOM structure, including DOM events, in a single chain Chapter 2 - Selecting Custom jQuery filters can select elements, when used alone Grokking the :hidden and :visible filter Using the is() method to return a boolean value You can pass jQuery more than one selector expression Determining anything is selected by checking wrapper set .length Create your own custom filters for selecting elements Differences between filtering by numeric order vs. DOM relationships Selecting elements by id when the value contains meta-characters Stacking selector filters Nesting selector filters Grokking the :nth-child() filter Selecting elements by searching attribute values using regular expressions Difference between selecting direct children vs. all desendants Selecting direct child elements when a context is already set Chapter 3 - Traversing Difference between find() and filter() methods Passing filter() a function instead of an expression Traversing up the DOM Traversing methods accept CSS expressions as optional arguments Chapter 4 - Manipulation Creating, operating, and adding HTML on the fly Grokking the index() method Grokking the text() method Update or remove characters using a regular expression Grokking the .contents() method Using remove() does not remove elements from wrapper set Chapter 5 - HTML Forms Disable/enable form elements How to determine if a form element is disabled or enabled Check/uncheck a single checkbox or radio button Check/uncheck multiple checkboxs or radio inputs Determining if a checkbox or radio button is checked or unchecked How to determine if a form element is hidden Setting/getting the value of an input element Setting/getting the selected option of a select element Setting/getting the selected options of a multi-select element Setting/getting text contained within a textarea Setting/getting the value attribute of a button element Editing select elements Selecting form elements by their type Selecting all form elements Chapter 6 - Events Not limited to a single ready() event Attaching/removing events using bind() and unbind() Programmatically invoke a specific handler via short event methods jQuery normalizes the event object Grokking event namespacing Grokking event delegation Applying event handlers to DOM elements regardless of DOM updates using live() Adding a function to several event handlers Cancel default browser behavior with preventDefault() Cancel event propagation with stopPropagation() Cancel default browser behavior and event propagation via return false Create custom events and trigger them via trigger() Cloning events as well as DOM elements Using Firebug to reveal/inspect events attached to DOM elements Getting X and Y coordinates of the mouse in the viewport Getting X and Y coordinates of the mouse relative to another element Chapter 7 - jQuery and the web browser Disable right-click contextual menu Scrolling the browser window Chapter 8 - Plugins Use the $ alias when constructing a plugin New plugins attach to jQuery.fn object to become jQuery methods Inside a plugin, this is a reference to the current jQuery object each() is used to iterate over the jQuery object and provide a reference to each element in the object using the this keyword Typically a plugin returns the jQuery object so jQuery methods or other plugins can still be chained after using a plugin Default plugin options Custom plugin options Overwrite default options without altering original plugin code Create elements on the fly, invoke plugins programmatically Providing callbacks and passing context Chapter 9 - Performance best practices Use the latest and greatest version of jQuery Passing the jQuery function a context can improve query performance Grokking selector performance Cache sets of selected elements that are used more than once Keep DOM changes to a minimum Optimize by passing jQuery methods a key/value object Optimize by passing multiple selectors to the jQuery function Optimize by leveraging chaining Use the native for loop when dealing with big loops Apply visual changes via ID and Class vs. manipulating style properties Chapter 10 - Effects Disable all jQuery effect methods Grokking the stop() animation method Determine if an element is animating using :animated Using show(), hide(), and toggle(), without animation Grokking sequential and non-sequential animations Animate() is the base low-level abstraction Grokking the jQuery fading methods Chapter 11- AJAX The jQuery ajax() function is the lowest-level abstraction jQuery supports cross-domain JSONP Stop a browser from caching XHR requests Chaper 12 - Miscellaneous concepts Storing data on DOM elements Adding new functions to the jQuery namespace Computing an element's attribute value Should I use CSS properties or JavaScript references? Accessing an iframe's content Leverage a jQuery plugin for Flash embedding Pre-loading images Pre-loading assets using XHR Add a class to as a CSS hook for JavaScript enabled browsers
