What Is jQuery?

jQuery is a JavaScript library that comes with code you can easily reuse to add interaction to your site, which saves you time because you don’t need to implement the functionality yourself. Instead of writing code for boilerplate functionalities, you can simply call a jQuery method with one line of code.

Unlike some other JS libraries such as React.js, jQuery is not that big in comparison; all the code is in a single long JavaScript file.

jQuery vs. JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language while jQuery is a library that consists of JavaScript code. The jQuery code library comes with ready-made JavaScript code implementations, which you can use to build websites more quickly.

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Why Use jQuery?

jQuery helps developers add useful functionality and interaction to a website. For example, the library comes with functionality that simplifies modifying the document object model (DOM) tree of a web page. The library makes event handling easier because it also allows for improved CSS animations and operability. What’s more, jQuery works well with Ajax.

Some of the notable pre-built functions in jQuery include ease-in and ease-out animations. Typically, you’d need to code these features but thanks to jQuery, you only need to call the pre-built functions.

Using jQuery can enhance a web page’s interactivity and visual appeal, while the additional interaction, animations and smooth flow improves the user experience.

Benefits of Using jQuery

jQuery has become a popular JavaScript library thanks to the versatile functionality it offers. The most useful features of jQuery include:

Effects and Animations

In jQuery, there are many pre-built effects and animations you can simply call to use. For example, you can add shadows, fade-in effects or slide transitions. You can also introduce parallax effects for scrolling pages to make them look more interesting.

Ajax

You can use jQuery to easily access external data with the built-in Ajax features. Note that Ajax is not as relevant as alternatives like the Fetch API or Axios, so you may not use it much. However, if you need to load data access using JavaScript, then Ajax and jQuery’s Ajax features will help.

CSS Support

CSS, which stylizes your website, works well with jQuery. CSS, HTML and JavaScript (including libraries like jQuery) form a strong combination that’s easy to manage, so you can build interactive and user-friendly websites.

Versatile Utilities

jQuery comes with built-in utilities that make JavaScript management easier. For instance, you can use the browser utility to access the browser version in your code.

Extensions and Open-Source Community

jQuery is just a file full of JavaScript code, which means you can write extensions to it. If you can’t do it alone, you have a large community of jQuery users that do. You can explore tutorials and GitHub repositories that add useful extensions to your jQuery routine.

Frequently Asked Questions