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Head First Series
Head First jQuery: A Brain-Friendly Guide
Want to add more interactivity and polish to your websites? Discover how jQuery can help you build complex scripting functionality in just a few lines of code. With Head First jQuery , you'll quickly get up to speed on this amazing JavaScript library by learning how to navigate HTML documents while handling events, effects, callbacks, and animations. By the time you've completed the book, you'll be incorporating Ajax apps, working seamlessly with HTML and CSS, and handling data with PHP, MySQL and JSON. If you want to learn―and understand―how to create interactive web pages, unobtrusive script, and cool animations that don't kill your browser, this book is for you.
536 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
19 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 19, 2012
Another excellent book from the Head First series. This is a really nice add-on to the Head First Javascript book. Actually, I think you should learn (pure) Javascript before you dive into jQuery. If you know the limitations and quirks of Javascript, you'll really appreciate how transparent and condensed (and fun!) coding with jQuery is.
Until about 6 months ago I knew about Javascript and jQuery as the language of interactive web applications. And although I am not a fluent javascript coder by far, I do feel comfortable now writing javascript applications, I understand the use and place of the many javascript frameworks and libraries and I am ready for HTML5.
For me, I learned that acquiring a new skill works best by:
1. start doing it (I have been writing javascript / jQuery the past 6 months (hello Stackoverflow!))
2. read a book like this on the side
3. read / browse the usual hackernews / blogosphere articles so you know what's hot and booming (and why!)
Until about 6 months ago I knew about Javascript and jQuery as the language of interactive web applications. And although I am not a fluent javascript coder by far, I do feel comfortable now writing javascript applications, I understand the use and place of the many javascript frameworks and libraries and I am ready for HTML5.
For me, I learned that acquiring a new skill works best by:
1. start doing it (I have been writing javascript / jQuery the past 6 months (hello Stackoverflow!))
2. read a book like this on the side
3. read / browse the usual hackernews / blogosphere articles so you know what's hot and booming (and why!)
May 7, 2017
A simple but effective introduction to jQuery, with some very useful coding examples.
November 6, 2019
Good book
Read
July 9, 2025=]
November 25, 2011
O’Reilly Publishing provided me access to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
A basic introduction to jQuery and scripting
jQuery is fast becoming one of the most useful and popular JavaScript frameworks being used and being developed for future markets with jQuery mobile (see book review/blog post here.) One of the best features of jQuery, in my opinion, is that it allows you to learn and use a scripting language that doesn't depend upon the browser develops to update their JavaScript libraries with each release of the browser---which often means that some of the selectors don't work right with all of the browsers (IE in particular.) Instead jQuery is file that lives on a server somewhere that the webpage calls upon, much like how PHP works. It's still a client side scripting language, but in some ways acts like a server side. In this massive book (over 450 pages) and over 11 chapters the reader will learn how to download and setup jQuery and introduce the basics of jQuery. The later chapters briefly introduce AJAX, PHP, MySQL, JSON, and XML and how they work with jQuery to build a more interactive webpage. There also a couple of apendecies to help you get a test environment set up on your local computer. One thing to note about this book is that you do need experience with webdesign and it does help to have some experience with scripting languages.
One of the first things that stands out about this book (and the Head First series in general) is the bright, colorful, and plentiful images used to help illustrate concepts and how jQuery works. They also provide illustrations on how to walk through the specific problem at hand, which is often nice to see in a visual format...even if it is just notes on a pad of paper. The other highlight of the Head First series (and this book is no exception) is that it's written in a clear easy to understand language, it's written for the novice programmer--one that's still learning how programming works and for someone that's looking for an overview of the language. In this book the authors give you a specific situation--a client wants work done on their website-- walk you through how to solve the problem step by step, and with illustrations to help you solve the problem. This method can be a very helpful way to introduce aspects of jQuery as it walks through problems that you might encounter when building/developing your website and ways that jQuery can over come that problem.
But like every "Head First" title the illustrations won't work for everyone. I find it helps if you're coming from a nontraditional background or from a more creative bent (left brain.) And even then sometimes the images and graphics can be overwhelming, which is a problem that I find sometimes in this book. I found that thT images, while helpful in the beginning, often start to become overwhelming as you get more and more into the problem being solved and make it a bit difficult at times to concentrate on following the step by step instructions.
Overall this is a fairly good introduction book and easy to read if you're coming from a nontraditional programming background (and are left brain) then this might just be the book for you to learn more about scripting languages. If you're more right brain then you might want to look for a more traditional book on jQuery, such as "Learning jQuery, Third Edition" from Pact.
A basic introduction to jQuery and scripting
jQuery is fast becoming one of the most useful and popular JavaScript frameworks being used and being developed for future markets with jQuery mobile (see book review/blog post here.) One of the best features of jQuery, in my opinion, is that it allows you to learn and use a scripting language that doesn't depend upon the browser develops to update their JavaScript libraries with each release of the browser---which often means that some of the selectors don't work right with all of the browsers (IE in particular.) Instead jQuery is file that lives on a server somewhere that the webpage calls upon, much like how PHP works. It's still a client side scripting language, but in some ways acts like a server side. In this massive book (over 450 pages) and over 11 chapters the reader will learn how to download and setup jQuery and introduce the basics of jQuery. The later chapters briefly introduce AJAX, PHP, MySQL, JSON, and XML and how they work with jQuery to build a more interactive webpage. There also a couple of apendecies to help you get a test environment set up on your local computer. One thing to note about this book is that you do need experience with webdesign and it does help to have some experience with scripting languages.
One of the first things that stands out about this book (and the Head First series in general) is the bright, colorful, and plentiful images used to help illustrate concepts and how jQuery works. They also provide illustrations on how to walk through the specific problem at hand, which is often nice to see in a visual format...even if it is just notes on a pad of paper. The other highlight of the Head First series (and this book is no exception) is that it's written in a clear easy to understand language, it's written for the novice programmer--one that's still learning how programming works and for someone that's looking for an overview of the language. In this book the authors give you a specific situation--a client wants work done on their website-- walk you through how to solve the problem step by step, and with illustrations to help you solve the problem. This method can be a very helpful way to introduce aspects of jQuery as it walks through problems that you might encounter when building/developing your website and ways that jQuery can over come that problem.
But like every "Head First" title the illustrations won't work for everyone. I find it helps if you're coming from a nontraditional background or from a more creative bent (left brain.) And even then sometimes the images and graphics can be overwhelming, which is a problem that I find sometimes in this book. I found that thT images, while helpful in the beginning, often start to become overwhelming as you get more and more into the problem being solved and make it a bit difficult at times to concentrate on following the step by step instructions.
Overall this is a fairly good introduction book and easy to read if you're coming from a nontraditional programming background (and are left brain) then this might just be the book for you to learn more about scripting languages. If you're more right brain then you might want to look for a more traditional book on jQuery, such as "Learning jQuery, Third Edition" from Pact.
February 6, 2014
I've had mixed luck w/ Head First books before, but I've wanted to learn modern JavaScript for a while now, I'm a huge fan of Kathy Sierra (creator of the Head First series), and Derek Sivers recommended this book, so it was mostly inevitable.
I didn't bother w/ most of the exercises in the book beyond reading and anticipating the answers. Rather than list what the book purports to teach (jQuery, obviously), let me list what I got out of the book.
--
After chapter 01 (getting started w/ jQuery), I refactored the way my website loaded JavaScript. Not too exciting but, remember, I wanted to learn modern JavaScript; my ancient understanding was clearly inaccurate.
After ch02 (selectors and methods), I refactored the way my code bound events to handlers. Yes, that's the point of ch03 (events and functions), but it was so clearly implied my way was wrong, that I jumped the gun a bit.
ch04 (web page manipulation) recommended using $ as a prefix for variables that store results from jQuery functions. This is a coding convention to make things easier for others to read.
ch05 (effects and animation) explained method chains, or why the way JavaScript object initialization looks so goddamn weird.
ch06 (jQuery and JavaScript) explained (among other things) $.inArray(needle,haystack). Don't laugh, but that's just one more embarrassing bit of "clever" code I can finally do away with.
ch07 (custom functions for custom effects) explained the difference between jQuery blur and focus methods, also setInterval (js) vs setTimeout (js) vs delay (jQuery). I typically eschew animation but, if I ever need it, I'll be ready.
ch08 (jQuery and AJAX) discussed using find() and each() to parse XML. I'm grateful that JSON exists, so I never have to deal w/ XML in my code, but I'm sure this will come in handy in the future.
ch09 (handling JSON data) impressed the utility of $("#my_form").serialize() and serializeArray(), but when I looked at the server-side code, I blanched because it was spectacularly bad SQL injection bait. I'll stick to my shitty hand-rolled code for now, thanks.
ch10 (jQuery UI) gave me some ideas on how to implement an app I've been contemplating.
--
I strongly and safely recommend this book to any programmer who knows HTML/CSS but isn't confident w/ the JavaScript knowledge or wants to up their front-end web skills.
I didn't bother w/ most of the exercises in the book beyond reading and anticipating the answers. Rather than list what the book purports to teach (jQuery, obviously), let me list what I got out of the book.
--
After chapter 01 (getting started w/ jQuery), I refactored the way my website loaded JavaScript. Not too exciting but, remember, I wanted to learn modern JavaScript; my ancient understanding was clearly inaccurate.
After ch02 (selectors and methods), I refactored the way my code bound events to handlers. Yes, that's the point of ch03 (events and functions), but it was so clearly implied my way was wrong, that I jumped the gun a bit.
ch04 (web page manipulation) recommended using $ as a prefix for variables that store results from jQuery functions. This is a coding convention to make things easier for others to read.
ch05 (effects and animation) explained method chains, or why the way JavaScript object initialization looks so goddamn weird.
ch06 (jQuery and JavaScript) explained (among other things) $.inArray(needle,haystack). Don't laugh, but that's just one more embarrassing bit of "clever" code I can finally do away with.
ch07 (custom functions for custom effects) explained the difference between jQuery blur and focus methods, also setInterval (js) vs setTimeout (js) vs delay (jQuery). I typically eschew animation but, if I ever need it, I'll be ready.
ch08 (jQuery and AJAX) discussed using find() and each() to parse XML. I'm grateful that JSON exists, so I never have to deal w/ XML in my code, but I'm sure this will come in handy in the future.
ch09 (handling JSON data) impressed the utility of $("#my_form").serialize() and serializeArray(), but when I looked at the server-side code, I blanched because it was spectacularly bad SQL injection bait. I'll stick to my shitty hand-rolled code for now, thanks.
ch10 (jQuery UI) gave me some ideas on how to implement an app I've been contemplating.
--
I strongly and safely recommend this book to any programmer who knows HTML/CSS but isn't confident w/ the JavaScript knowledge or wants to up their front-end web skills.
March 30, 2013
I read this book to consider it as a training tool for the team I was coaching in jQuery. Unfortunately it suffers a common problem with many programming books... lack of review. Several times it seems no one read the book before it was published, with outright errors, and skipped explanations.
I found this dissapointing... as I've had great luck with other Head First Books.
I found this dissapointing... as I've had great luck with other Head First Books.
November 14, 2013
This was the first time I actually used a book to learn jQuery. I'd been using it as part of a legacy system for a while, but wanted to actually know what I was doing, rather than just "get it done."
Good book for a beginner. Examples are easy to follow, though a few are erroneous, but a quick search through forums will likely show you the corrections.
Good book for a beginner. Examples are easy to follow, though a few are erroneous, but a quick search through forums will likely show you the corrections.
January 19, 2017
I started Head First series with this book. An excellent unusual book in its concept and design. This is the best books for those who want to learn JQuery from the beginning.
Everytime when I wanted to learn something new or brush up my knowledge in any science related topics, I prefer to find a book from Head First series.
Everytime when I wanted to learn something new or brush up my knowledge in any science related topics, I prefer to find a book from Head First series.
December 31, 2011
This is not a bad book, but it side-tracks too much on non-related areas and spends time there - more than 1/3 of the book is focused on learning JS, PHP, SQL, Google Maps API and etc. While at same time on giving minimum effort to cover jQuery related topics as jQuery UI.
August 31, 2012
good book to understand basics of JQuery
November 26, 2014
this is a very simplified introduction. there is a lot of "fluff" in the text. I prefer more robust, code based and complete introductions to programming technologies.
October 5, 2015
Очень вводная вещь про сабж. Если иметь некоторое представление о пхп, мускул и жс, то избыточна изрядно. Читается быстро, упражнения сравнительно простые.
March 9, 2014
Good, but quite up the usual head first quality.
April 9, 2017
I love this series. It is so satisfying to work through these books, doing the projects as I go along and customizing them a bit. The only issue I had with my copy of this book is that it is a bit dated. That became an issue in the final projects, especially. I had to do research to find out how to update some of the code, which could be considered a good learning experience, actually.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews