Essential jQuery Web Development Tools for 2024 and Beyond

The influence jQuery has on web development when the open-source JavaScript library was made available more than 15 years ago cannot be overstated.

The toolkit jQuery, which invented a novel shortcut for otherwise sophisticated JavaScript programming, continues to uphold the creed of its creators, "Write less, and accomplish more."

Although some people with little to no programming knowledge may use the framework to add sophisticated functionality to their websites, jQuery remains a favorite among seasoned developers. What led to one of the largest success stories in web development?

How Well-Known is jQuery?

Just over 29% of the more than 45,000 respondents to StackOverflow's 2022 poll of web technologies used by professional developers reported using jQuery. JQuery was the second-most popular JavaScript library, behind only React.js, which was created at Facebook (now Meta) in 2011 and is currently used by more than 44% of those developers.

Nevertheless, the stories being told by web developers' present projects are not complete. According to BuiltWith's analysis of Internet technology trends, more than 80 million websites were using jQuery in 2022. This is a significant advantage over the over 11 million websites that use React.

A Synopsis of jQuery's History

From the start of the internet, browser wars have been raging, and developers have always suffered the consequences. Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser was the uncontested market leader in 2006 until web developer John Resig introduced jQuery, reversing Netscape's superiority from less than a decade before.

At the time, Apple's Safari had just entered the market, and Mozilla's new Firefox had a 10% market share (compared to Microsoft's 84%). The market leader of today, Google Chrome, didn't exist. Resig and other JavaScript programmers often battled to create code that would function in every browser.

His new jQuery library was created to account for the variations in JavaScript implementation across different browsers and assist developers in writing less code while doing tasks like the following:

Manipulating a web page's HTML components

Dynamic CSS alterations

Reacted to events like key inputs and mouse clicks

Handling Ajax queries to update content on a page without refreshing

Several programmers created applications on top of jQuery after Resig released the framework, often distributing their work as plugins to make additional functionality accessible to everyone.

What is jQuery UI?

A well-known set of plugins created to improve user interfaces is called jQuery UI. It offers a variety of extra effects and widgets including date pickers, progress bars, sliders, spinners, and tabbed or collapsible panels. It is regarded as an "official" complement to the main jQuery library.

Employ jQuery Properly on Your Website

By connecting the library's code from the site's pages, you may add jQuery to your website. Your website server or a publicly available content delivery network may host the jQuery library (CDN). You may get the most recent versions of the library from the official jQuery website.

The jQuery library may be used uncompressed for reading and debugging or minified (compressed) for quick loading in production.

Also, you will create at least a little amount of JavaScript to use jQuery and do tasks particular to your web application. You can connect to the jQuery library in the HTML of the pages of your website.

Using jQuery to Choose DOM Elements

The ability to navigate a web page's structure as an object (the document object model, or DOM) and target different HTML components form the basis of the majority of jQuery applications. Before acting on an element (or collection of components), such as altering its look or updating neighboring material, the element must first be selected. There are several ways that jQuery selectors may target DOM properties. The most typical ones are:

By name of an HTML element

Using CSS attributes (including IDs and class names)

Using an element's relative location inside the DOM

Based on the significance of the text in form fields

Based on an element's status right now

Using jQuery to modify the DOM

Now that you understand how to pick different web page components, you may change them using jQuery techniques. As was already noted, you can often chain these operations to accomplish a lot with minimal code.

JQuery Events Handling

If all DOM alteration took place as soon as a page loaded, it would go undetected by website users. To provide a genuinely responsive experience, your jQuery application can recognize and react to events like mouse clicks, mouse movements, keystrokes, and more.

How to use jQuery in WordPress

WordPress includes the jQuery library, which is essential to many WordPress themes. You may use the registration of JavaScript dependencies inside WordPress to get all of your jQuery code up and running even if your current theme does not currently use it.

This may be done by making changes to the functions.php file included with your theme. Creating a child theme first and altering the functions.php file there is a recommended practice to protect your modifications from being overwritten by a theme update. Make a manual WordPress backup at the very least before continuing.