The Joy of jQuery: A Beginner's Guide to the World's Most Popular Javascript Library 1st Edition

Finished this book today. This is an ok introduction, but after reading it carefully I don't feel that I am prepared to use the library effectively and I need to seek out other resources just to get started. It taught me enough to have some idea what I need to (but don't yet) know to be productive with jQuery.The book is only 151 pages and the intro chapter starts at 11. Real jQuery discussion doesn't actually start until 49, and there are numerous pages that are half empty, a few are totally empty. Add to that the VERY LARGE font that could have been typeset with a crayon. The content is just sparse.An example of a deficiency that really bothers me is a table of 18 jQuery custom selectors in chapter 5. Nowhere is it mentioned that the table provides only a partial list; I understood only that I was reading a list of the available selectors. But right after the table, is a set of 8 examples (generally a positive feature of the book). The second example shows use of a selector that is not listed in the table, which of course leads me to immediately question what else is missing. I now wonder how vast is the set of things that the book omits. Fortunately there are ways to investigate this online, but of course that is not why one buys a book (at least not me).Further there are enough editorial errors (extra or missing words) to distract, as well as a few code problems that can lead the reader astray. Maybe the code has been fixed in the online distribution, I have not yet checked. Being familiar with javascript helped me to recover from confusion in a couple of places, but the intended audience here appears to be the novice, and I feel sorry for those who study this carefully with the aim or learning from scratch.I did get an orientation and learn some useful things with this, which is why I am not rating one star. But if I am going to pay money for a book, it needs to better fulfill its purpose. Sorry, but this did not meet my expectations, no joy here.

The Joy of JQuery finally helped me make sense of JQuery in a meaningful way, through useful examples. In fact, this was a rare book that benefited me most through taking the examples one at a time, in order.In order to ease the student into JQuery, however, easily available UI Templates are leaned on very heavily. The templates get the job done, but are often large and unsightly when applied to an existing website. That's not entirely the book's fault. It does free the reader/student up to learn the basics and get prepared for a deeper excursion into JQuery.Overall, I need to repeat that this was the first resource to make JQuery accessible to me in any meaningful way. I am incredibly glad to have found this book and worked through the exercise. I'd recommend it gladly to anyone else who is trying to make the mental shift between Javascript and JQuery.

So far this is the best jQuery book for beginners that I've ever read. Contents in this books are well organized and so easy to understand. The author also provided many useful resources outside this book for readers to dig further. For so long, I like to buy books, especially those "1000 page" books (so-called xxx bible), but the length of over 1000 pages really kept me from finishing any of them. But with 152 pages like this one, I can easily focus on the topics and keeps reading from the beginning to the end. And since there is only 152 pages, you can gain the total picture of what jQuery is about and how it works in a quite short time. And when you did, then you can move forward to either other online resources the author provided in the book or to read another advance book for further study. Therefore, I think the author did a very good job on helping people focusing on things they're learning. This book not just brought joy to me, but also helps me love what I'm learning and keeps going further without hesitation.

WOW!"The Joy of jQuery" was such a great book!It thoroughly discussed everything you need to know to use and understand jQuery.Alan Forbes has a fun and unique way of taking a difficult or technical subject and breaking it down in an easy to understand manner.If you want to get started with jQuery, you NEED this book.It will make things so much easier and faster for you.Highly recommended!

Alan Forbes has been programming for twenty years, so you'd think by now he'd have learned to write dry, unapproachable prose that makes you decide to hire a programmer instead of learning to do it yourself. But he's one of those rare experts who know how to get the subject across to those who have no expertise at all, and he does it in a way that makes you want to keep reading. The book is as close to being a page-turner as you're likely to find in the programming category.This should be your first jQuery book, but you won't fully appreciate what Forbes has done here unless you've tried some of the other books on the subject, as I have. The writing is Simon-simple. The definitions and explanations are clear. The book is packed with examples and illustrations. Most important, Forbes always puts things in context. He doesn't just tell you how to do something. He tells you why you'd want to do it.As you progress through the book, you'll be building a site for a friend. Well, actually, not a friend, but a used car salesman. But by the time you finish this on-the-job training, the salesman will be your friend, and you'll know a heck of a lot of jQuery. As your friend the used car salesman would say, how can you turn down a deal like that?Roughly the first half of the book teaches you the nuts and bolts of jQuery. The second half is like a candy store for website creators. You learn how easy it is, using jQuery and its add-ons, to easily install predefined custom themes, validate forms, create a date-picker, auto-complete like Google, improve on HTML buttons, create beautiful menus, quickly create web pages that are optimized for mobile devices, and more.Forbes promises that "this book will change the way you write your web applications." It's definitely going to change the way I write mine.

good , delivered well in time. product as described.

Poor structure on the topics

I have been working in IT for over 30 years, from programming to Business Analysis. On retiring I am learnng the Web technologies and this was a great introduction to JQuery

Explains jQuery in a very simple and concise way. I found this book easier to understand than previous books i've purchased.

A good starting point for jQuery