jQuery: Novice to Ninja is a compilation of best-practice jQuery solutions to meet the most challenging JavaScript problems. In this question-and-answer book on jQuery, you'll find a cookbook of ready-to-go solutions to help breathe life into your web page.
Topics covered include: - Scrolling, Resizing and Animating Webpage elements - Backgrounds, Slideshows, and Crossfaders - Menus, Tabs, and Panels - Buttons, Fields, and Controls - Lists, Trees, and Tables - Frames, Windows, and Dialogs - Adding interactivity with Ajax - Using the jQuery User Interface Themeroller - Writing your own jQuery plug-ins
All code used to create each solution is available for download and guaranteed to be simple, efficient and cross-browser compatible.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Sporting a Masters in Information Technology and a lifetime of experience on the "web of hard knocks", Earle Castledine (Mr Speaker) holds an interest in everything to do with computers. A Senior Systems Analyst and JavaScript expert - he is equally happy in the muddy pits of .NET code as in the fluffy fields of client-side interaction development. Co-creator of the client-side opus TurnTubelis, Earle recognizes the Internet not as a lubricant for social change, but as a vehicle for unleashing frivolous ECMAScript gadgets and interesting time-wasting technologies.
Craig Sharkie's intricate knowledge of best-practice JavaScript is apparent in his writing. He began his jQuery journey as a Fine Arts graduate turned programmer, and has successfully worked with some of the Web's biggest names. Craig discovered JavaScript in 1995 and has been an evangelist for the "good parts" since then. This is your chance to benefit from Craig's extensive experience.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
57 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to agree with other reviews, this is an excellent book to start learning jQuery. Not that there aren't other excellent jQuery books, but the best ones out there are getting a little dated. If you are just starting, not only is this book easy to read and understand, with lots of great examples, but it's also up to date with jQuery version 1.4.
They start with an already functional html site, and then add jQuery to it to spice it up. For all new web developers out there, this is the way to do it! JavaScript/jQuery should be put in last only after you have a functional site, for those people without JavaScript support (especially screen readers for the blind). This book follows best-practices and I commend them for it. It's the book I wish I had when I first tried to learn jQuery. Get it. You won't be disappointed.
It's so easy to 'write' (i.e. copy/paste) bad JavaScript, as the web has been plagued with for so many years. But, as frameworks like jQuery start to gain tremendous popularity, that trend is changing. There really is no sense in 'reinventing the wheel'. Use jQuery, or another framework. What I like about jQuery is that it makes so many things easy, and leverages CSS syntax so you have less to learn.
It seems that this book is selling fast, as of this writing it says 1 to 4 months shipping time! Also, I'm not sure why Sitepoint books tend to have such a small discount on Amazon. Sitepoint likes to get people to buy books direct from them. Not sure why. It seems to be available faster on their web site. I have an eBook version. As of this writing, they are running a 5-for-1 eBook promotion on the Sitepoint web site. But, I got mine through my subscription to Safari Books Online, which I highly recommend.
If you are just starting, or even just want a reference for the jQuery basics, this book is the one to have.
They start with an already functional html site, and then add jQuery to it to spice it up. For all new web developers out there, this is the way to do it! JavaScript/jQuery should be put in last only after you have a functional site, for those people without JavaScript support (especially screen readers for the blind). This book follows best-practices and I commend them for it. It's the book I wish I had when I first tried to learn jQuery. Get it. You won't be disappointed.
It's so easy to 'write' (i.e. copy/paste) bad JavaScript, as the web has been plagued with for so many years. But, as frameworks like jQuery start to gain tremendous popularity, that trend is changing. There really is no sense in 'reinventing the wheel'. Use jQuery, or another framework. What I like about jQuery is that it makes so many things easy, and leverages CSS syntax so you have less to learn.
It seems that this book is selling fast, as of this writing it says 1 to 4 months shipping time! Also, I'm not sure why Sitepoint books tend to have such a small discount on Amazon. Sitepoint likes to get people to buy books direct from them. Not sure why. It seems to be available faster on their web site. I have an eBook version. As of this writing, they are running a 5-for-1 eBook promotion on the Sitepoint web site. But, I got mine through my subscription to Safari Books Online, which I highly recommend.
If you are just starting, or even just want a reference for the jQuery basics, this book is the one to have.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have several jQuery books, but this is the one that truly helped me understand how everything works.
Extremely readable, with excellent samples that are clearly explained.
There is no comparison between this and, for example, Learning jQuery 1.3 (after reading, I still didn't get it).
Note: to get the source code, go to sitepoint ([...]) and enter your email address as if you'd ordered from their site. They won't find a match so will ask you to type in the last word from one of the chapters, then they'll email you a link to download the source.
Extremely readable, with excellent samples that are clearly explained.
There is no comparison between this and, for example, Learning jQuery 1.3 (after reading, I still didn't get it).
Note: to get the source code, go to sitepoint ([...]) and enter your email address as if you'd ordered from their site. They won't find a match so will ask you to type in the last word from one of the chapters, then they'll email you a link to download the source.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you are a total rank beginner to jQuery and do not understand CSS that well this book is like a ride that starts out smoothly gets but is missing a few safety straps, so you flop around in confusion, but if you can endure the confusion you will finally GET it, and the ride will be worth it. Persevere and you will end up being a ninja.
The book gets you excited over all the great things you can do with jQuery but the title contains a bit of truth that should serve as a warning.
The minimum skill level is you must be a novice NOT a rank beginner with jQuery. Some minimum skill, knowledge is expected. You should also know something about CSS. If you are and old CSS hand, that alone should get you by just fine.
If you understand CSS your journey through this book will be much easier.
Omissions and a few errors produced a lot of head scratching. These omissions would probably not be noticed by someone who is used to CSS. The book builds on previous concepts so if you do not understand something it is necessary to stop and do research until you do, or at least feel you sort of get it, or the confusion will only grow.
Snippets were the biggest problem. It was not clear were to put the snippets, new code was not well differentiated from code that was already there previously.
I myself, like to go out to lunch, nursing a cup and sit somewhere away from home distractions to read and learn but the learning curve became very steep due to omissions and some errors. I found it necessary to go home and look at the downloaded code or reported errata to find the missing info. Sometimes it was not clear where to put a code snippet, sometimes there were errors. In the chapter on animation queue - A difficult chapter for me - there was this comment that said a particular animation would NOT run but I could not see why it would not run and finally had to concede that this comment was in error, and sure enough the author confirmed it when I submitted it as a possible error.
Normally I read through a book at about 100-200 pages an hour, but this book had me re-reading to make sense of things so much that I would say my average reading rate was down to six pages an hour.
The good thing is that the book IS WORTH THE CONFUSION. Once I started actually USING the book for doing sites everything started falling into place in my mind. This also paved the way for me when I started out with applying CSS to my site. I found out how fun and cool CSS was because jQuery selectors uses CSS style selector syntax. Selectors is a fundamental part of both and by learning one will greatly help you in learning the other. %90 of it is identical.
This book remains on my shelf as a frequent reference, and I am in the process of reading it again, this time being able to understand it a lot more.
So, when reading this book as your first exposure to jQuery and are only a novice to CSS I recommend that you do your reading with a computer handy. Do NOT give up!
And by all means, practice these things.
The book gets you excited over all the great things you can do with jQuery but the title contains a bit of truth that should serve as a warning.
The minimum skill level is you must be a novice NOT a rank beginner with jQuery. Some minimum skill, knowledge is expected. You should also know something about CSS. If you are and old CSS hand, that alone should get you by just fine.
If you understand CSS your journey through this book will be much easier.
Omissions and a few errors produced a lot of head scratching. These omissions would probably not be noticed by someone who is used to CSS. The book builds on previous concepts so if you do not understand something it is necessary to stop and do research until you do, or at least feel you sort of get it, or the confusion will only grow.
Snippets were the biggest problem. It was not clear were to put the snippets, new code was not well differentiated from code that was already there previously.
I myself, like to go out to lunch, nursing a cup and sit somewhere away from home distractions to read and learn but the learning curve became very steep due to omissions and some errors. I found it necessary to go home and look at the downloaded code or reported errata to find the missing info. Sometimes it was not clear where to put a code snippet, sometimes there were errors. In the chapter on animation queue - A difficult chapter for me - there was this comment that said a particular animation would NOT run but I could not see why it would not run and finally had to concede that this comment was in error, and sure enough the author confirmed it when I submitted it as a possible error.
Normally I read through a book at about 100-200 pages an hour, but this book had me re-reading to make sense of things so much that I would say my average reading rate was down to six pages an hour.
The good thing is that the book IS WORTH THE CONFUSION. Once I started actually USING the book for doing sites everything started falling into place in my mind. This also paved the way for me when I started out with applying CSS to my site. I found out how fun and cool CSS was because jQuery selectors uses CSS style selector syntax. Selectors is a fundamental part of both and by learning one will greatly help you in learning the other. %90 of it is identical.
This book remains on my shelf as a frequent reference, and I am in the process of reading it again, this time being able to understand it a lot more.
So, when reading this book as your first exposure to jQuery and are only a novice to CSS I recommend that you do your reading with a computer handy. Do NOT give up!
And by all means, practice these things.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent resource
I was completely new to Javascript and jQuery, and this book has been an excellent resource.
It walks you through various tools, building in complexity with each new... Read more
It walks you through various tools, building in complexity with each new... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tyler
Very good start for beginners
But once you get past chapter 2 the coding gets very complicated, and VERY fast. And by the time you get to chapter 5 (Menus, Tabs, Tooltips, and Panels) you will have to go back... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Stinger51
Probably the Best Technical Manual I've Ever Read
I've read this book cover to cover twice. The first read through, I was a complete newb to jQuery and Javascript. Read more
Published 3 months ago by webdev
Great book
Great book! fun reading .covers wide range of the language possibilities, and gives the right balance between
program your on code vs using a common plug-in. Read more
program your on code vs using a common plug-in. Read more
Published 4 months ago by yoav b
Ask Felgall - Book Review
Perhaps the biggest problem with this book is the audience it is written for. The book assumes little or no prior knowledge of JavaScript and introduces you to JQuery on that... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Stephen Chapman
Fine if you are just developing for Firefox
This book was in the library at work and I used this to pick up the basics of jQuery. It seems to cover the basic features well enough, but about half the examples used do not... Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Birzer
No illustrations
The book is easy to read but the chapters are organized to be read from beginning to end. The book has very few illustrations. This makes it tedious to use as a reference. Read more
Published 7 months ago by John smith
great book to get to know jQuery
This has been my first introduction to jQuery although I had some experience before. So this book gave me a pretty good overview on jQuery's capabilities. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Arun Mahendrakar
excellent introduction to JQuery
I purchased this book to teach myself JQuery and I'm very impressed with it. I highly recommend it to anyone new to JQuery. The pace, chapter selection and examples are excellent.
Published 8 months ago by Kenneth M Schwartz
Highly recommend
The writing style of jQuery Novice to Ninja is very good and the evolution of the code examples are even better. For me, money well spent.
Published 10 months ago by bryan jones
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