jQuery is not a language but it is a well written JavaScript code. As quoted on official jQuery website, "It is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing & manipulating, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development". It was released in January 2006 by John Resig.It is a lot more easy to use compared to standard JavaScript and other JavaScript libraries. Apart from simple syntax, it also requires much less lines of code to achieve the same feature in comparison. In order to work with jQuery, you should be aware of the basics of JavaScript, HTML and CSS. jQuery also simplifies a lot of the complicated things from JavaScript, like AJAX calls and DOM manipulation.jQuery has a huge community and a low learning curve. This is a perfect storm for lots of poorly written open source plugins. jQuery has easy implementation for web developers in comparison to other applications, in this way it saves more time in the development. The JQuery website has a comprehensive documentation and tutorials for the supports to the developers and there are hundreds of pre-written plugins available for download to instantly speed up your development process. Another advantage behind this, is the efficiency and security of the script.In terms of functionality, there is no difference between the jquery-x.x.x.js & jquery-x.x.x-min.js (a.k.a. minified version).So, now we can see its pros as below:It is free, open source software Dual-licensed under the MIT License and the GNU General Public License.jQuery is a lightweight, 'write less and do more' JavaScript library.jQuery is very compact and well written JavaScript code that increases the productivity of the developer by enabling them to achieve critical UI functionality by writing very small amount of code.It helps to improve the performance of the application.jQuery is currently the most popular JavaScript library and works in mostly browsers.It is fast and supported by any mobile device whose web browser supports JavaScript. A lot of mobile devices like iPads and iPhones don't run Flash at all.It is extensible - jQuery can be extended to implement customized behaviour.No need to learn fresh new syntaxes to use jQuery, knowing simple JavaScript syntax is enough.It has simple and clean code, no need to write several lines of codes to achieve complex functionality.Faster page load as jQuery file need not be downloaded.It saves our bandwidth as jQuery file is not loaded from our server.JQuery lets you develop Ajax templates with ease. Ajax enables a sleeker interface where actions can be performed on pages without requiring the entire page to be reloaded.And also, it's search engine optimised - jQuery is set-up as text, this means it is completely readable to all the Search Engines, exposing all your keyword rich content.Apart from many pros mentioned above, there can be some minor cons too like- File required of jQuery JavaScript to run its functions/methods, Limited functionality etc.Blog image: Blog category: Web DevelopmentGeneral
