In this article, I’ll be introducing and laying the groundwork for advanced JavaScript development with one of the most popular JavaScript libraries available: jQuery.

Although there are many beginning tutorials online that can provide a great starting point for jQuery development, in this article I’m hoping to go beyond just quick-start syntax and instead provide a solid overview of jQuery and discuss the benefits of using such a library. Of course, much of this information–outside of the syntax and other jQuery-specific details–will be applicable to any JavaScript library.

Why a JavaScript library?

To quote the official jQuery slogan: “Write less, do more.” The role of a web developer is to create code that determines what will result from a user’s interaction with a web page. Web developers should not have to spend hours debugging browser quirks. Instead, they should be free to deal solely with the actions and the results. This is where a JavaScript library comes into play.

Overcoming browser differences

Different browsers handle DOM manipulation, transparency effects, and animation in different ways, requiring, in some cases, reams of code just to create a simple effect. Using a JavaScript library allows you to completely bypass all of those challenges, giving you access to an API (Application Programming Interface) that deals directly with the tasks you actually want to accomplish. All the challenges and issues common to JavaScript are dealt with behind the scenes, allowing you to integrate functionality without wondering whether or not it will work in a particular browser.

Unobtrusive JavaScript

Another impelling reason to use a JavaScript library is that all libraries allow you to include JavaScript in your pages unobtrusively, thus keeping your behavior layer (the JavaScript) separate from the content and presentation layers (the XHTML and CSS).

Accomplishing complex tasks with ease

Finally, a very powerful feature of any JavaScript library is its ability to manipulate any element or set of elements on a web page with just one line of code. Take, for example, the following HTML:

Text Here
Text Here
Text Here
Text Here
Text Here

Let’s say you wanted to use JavaScript to change the background color of the first list item element (

var myListCollection = document.getElementsByTagName("ul");
  for (var i = 0; i < myListCollection.length; i++) {
    if (myListCollection[i].className === "list") {
      myListCollection[i].childNodes[0].style.backgroundColor = "blue";
    }
  }

$("ul.list li:first-child").css("background-color, "blue");

$("li a");

jQuery("li a");

$("li a").fadeOut();

tags. If we want to fade the anchors back in again, we just use the fadeIn() method:

$("li a").fadeIn();

Chaining commands

jQuery also allows developers to chain commands, stringing one after another. So, we could combine the previous two examples, as follows:

$("li a").fadeOut().fadeIn();

The above code will fade out all anchor tags nested within list items, then immediately fade them back in. The number of chained items is infinite (or within reasonably set limits), allowing for numerous commands to work on the same group of elements, each happening in succession.

That’s just a small sampling of what’s possible with jQuery, and how easy it is to accomplish tasks that would normally take many lines of code, and a lot of browser testing. Although you’ll still do browser testing when running jQuery code, the results will virtually always be the same: cross-browser, unobtrusive JavaScript that’s easy to write and easy to maintain.

Running code when the DOM is ready

Earlier we touched on the concept of unobtrusive JavaScript, and how jQuery is written to allow your scripts to remain separate from content and presentation. So far, the code examples we’ve discussed would run fine as long as they were included at the bottom of an HTML page. If, on the other hand, they were included in the head of the document, they would fail to work because, at that point, the document tree has not yet rendered.

jQuery allows us to run our code only when the DOM is ready. This is done by means of the $(document).ready handler. The beauty of this handler is that it doesn’t make the code wait until the entire page finishes loading, as would be the case with a typical window.onload event. With the (document).ready handler, your code will run as soon as the DOM tree is finished rendering, before all images and other media have finished loading, thus minimizing load time.

Let’s try running our previous code example when the DOM is ready:

$(document).ready(function(){
  $("li a").fadeOut().fadeIn();
});

The above code tells jQuery to run an anonymous function when the document tree is done rendering. The anonymous function contains the code we saw previously, which faded our anchors out, then immediately faded them back in again. This code could be included in the of the document, near the bottom of the page, or anywhere else, and it would run exactly the same way.

The “ready” event is just one of the many events available through jQuery’s API. Others include click, dblclick, load, blur, keydown, submit, and more.

Further reading

• jQuery Documentation
• Event-Related Functions in the jQuery API
• The jQuery Ready Event

Conclusion

jQuery is capable of so much more, and I’ve only just begun demonstrating its power and simplicity. But I think this suffices to provide a good overview, with some syntax basics, thus preparing beginning jQuery developers for easy-to-write and practical JavaScript code.

Further reading

• jQuery General Tutorials
• 51+ jQuery Tutorials
• 30 jQuery Tutorials for Complete Beginners

Related Content

• Create a Slick and Accessible Slideshow Using jQuery
• 14 jQuery Plugins for Working with Images
• 40 Exceptional jQuery Interface Techniques and Tutorials
• Related categories: JavaScript and Web Development

About the Author

Louis Lazaris is a writer and freelance web developer based in Toronto, Canada. He has 9 years of experience in the web development industry and posts web design articles and tutorials on his blog, Impressive Webs. Follow Louis on Twitter or contact him through this form.

Read more here:
Getting Started with jQuery

With Christmas only a week and a half away, I thought it would be a great idea to roundup some fantastic Christmas Desktop Wallpapers, to bring the festive season to your desktop. Compiled here are 15 Christmas Desktop Wallpapers that are free to download in many different screen resolutions.

Let me know what Desktop Wallpaper you like the best. I will have to say my favorite is probably number 5 of number 13. Also, if you have found any other amazing Christmas Desktop Wallpapers, then please feel free to share them with us and the readers of WebDesignDev by leaving a comment. Thanks and enjoy the collection!

#1 Christmas Snowman

#2 Festive Christmas

#3 Merry Christmas

#4 Merry Christmas

#5 Colourful Christmas Lights

#6 Christmas Village

#7 Wonderful Christmas

#8 Grey Christmas

#9 Gold Christmas Tree

#10 Vector Christmas Tree

#11 Snowman Vector

#12 Merry Christmas

#13 Festive Christmas

#14 Merry Christmas

#15 Blue Christmas Tree

Read the rest here:
15 Free Christmas Desktop Wallpapers

Have you ever looked at a newspaper and thought I wonder what that would look like in a web design, or I wonder how I would go about coding that out? Well I have put together showcase of the top 10 Free newspaper and magazine WordPress Themes to transform your blog.

These themes all look fairly nice and you can customize them exactly the way you like. Some of them you will need to download certain plugins that run alongside the theme. Let me know what theme you like best, and if you have found or are using any other newspaper and magazine styled WordPress themes on your site im sure we would love to hear it.

Chronicle

* * * * *

Hamasaki

* * * * *

Magazeen

* * * * *

Small Magazine Theme

* * * * *

ZinePress

* * * * *

Old News Theme

* * * * *

Arras Theme

* * * * *

Newspaper WordPress Theme

* * * * *

The Stars

* * * * *

The BlogTimes

Original post:
10 Free Newspaper & Magazine WordPress Themes

The end of 2009 marked WDL’s first full year in existence, and what a great year it was. We feel that we’ve put out a lot of valuable content that has been helpful to our readers who we greatly appreciate. So before we start publishing new content for 2010, we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the year that was for WDL by listing some of our most popular articles from 2009.

These popular articles are not listed in order of popularity, but rather date of publication.

30 Most Incredible Textures for Vintage Style Design

One of the most important aspects of a good vintage style design is the use of authentic looking textures. Since most of you probably don’t have time to browse the local antique shop, and your grandmother’s attic is miles away, we’ve put together a list of some of the best vintage textures we have ever seen.

40 Super Sleek Fonts for Clean Web Design

Creating grungy designs can be fun, but sometimes a site requires a cleaner approach, one where artsy design elements take a back seat to clear presentation of content. Typography plays a big role in this type of design.

The Best Social Media Icons All In One Place

The ability to easily bookmark or share content on popular social media platforms is now a must have feature for web sites. It’s also important that this feature isn’t over looked by web site visitors. So it’s always a good idea to use icons when linking to social media sites. They get peoples attention and the logos are immediately recognizable.

All the Small Icons You’ll Ever Need

Big highly detailed icons make great eye candy, but small icons can be very useful when designing websites. They are great for styling lists and giving links visual flair that is eye catching and meaningful. It’s amazing what can be said visually in a 16 x 16 pixel area. In this post, you will find a large collection of small icons that should fit most of your design needs.

10 Best Content Management Systems for Designers

There are a lot of content management systems out there, but many of them are overly complicated and require a certain level of technical expertise. However, there are a select few that focus on simplicity and ease-of-use, but still give the designer flexibility in templating features and customization. In this article, we have listed ten of these CMS’s. Some of them are well known, while others you may have never heard of, but deserve a look.

20 Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Web Design

When you are creating a website (or hiring a web/blog designer to create one for you), there are specific items you need to be aware of. Things that normally wouldn’t cross your mind. For the average person who wants a website or blog for their business, they are after one very important thing – sales. Now, they may tell you that they want the big flashy logos, or the overdone textures/gradients, but it is the job of a well skilled web designer to steer their clients in the right direction.

404 Error Pages for Your Viewing Pleasure

Error pages are easy to create, so there’s no excuse to avoid them. Even with the most solid website, you never know when someone might mis-spell a URL link and hit a page that doesn’t exist. Be prepared when that happens to you, even if by no fault of your own. Let these great error pages be your inspiration to creating your own.

Most Used and Abused Web Design Trends of All Time

The year is 1999. You’ve just watched the Matrix, and it’s blown your mind. You sit down in front of your computer to work on a web design and then create or download an animated Matrix background for your Geocities website. You’re so cool. Fast forward 10 years, and you say to yourself, yikes, what was I thinking?! We’ve all been there. As a matter of fact, I’m personally guilty of copying many of following trends.

The Definitive Guide to About Me Pages

One of the most important and least used aspects of any website is the “About Me” page. It’s not enough to have an interesting site and great product if your visitor can’t find a way to relate to you.

Web Design Trends for 2010

Although this list isn’t a drastic departure from what was popular in 2009, it marks different trends that will be expanded upon and made better as a result. As you think of how you will incorporate new trends into your designs, focus on the main idea of each trend. Be encouraged to dabble into these trends so that you become part of the movement.

The Four Key Components of a Great Web Design

There’s a lot that goes into creating a web design, but I believe it can be broken down into four main components. If you’re able to execute on all four, you will have a hit web design on your hands. However, if you come up short on one, the entire design will suffer.

33 Creative and Beautiful Logos

Logo design, like any other design process, sometimes requires some inspiration to spark creativity. If you’re in need of some logo design inspiration, here is a collection of 33 creative and beautiful logos. These all have varying styles, but possess the same high quality.

30 Website Navigations that Make You Wanna Click It

The navigation might be the single most important aspect of a web design’s usability. Without a navigation, you would be stuck on the home page for a very long time. I believe a navigation or menu must be easy to use, but this doesn’t mean it has to be boring. In fact, it helps to add a little flair to your navigation. It entices visitors to click and hang around your site a little longer.

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The Most Popular Articles of 2009