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Learning jQuery, Third Edition
Learning jQuery, Third Edition

Learning jQuery, Third Edition: Create better interaction, design, and web development with simple JavaScript techniques

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Learning jQuery, Third Edition

Chapter 2. Selecting Elements

The jQuery library harnesses the power of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) selectors to let us quickly and easily access elements or groups of elements in the Document Object Model (DOM). In this chapter, we will explore a few of these selectors, as well as jQuery's own custom selectors . We'll also look at jQuery's DOM traversal methods that provide even greater flexibility for getting what we want.

The Document Object Model


One of the most powerful aspects of jQuery is its ability to make selecting elements in the DOM easy. The Document Object Model serves as the interface between JavaScript and a web page; it provides a representation of the source HTML as a network of objects rather than as plain text.

This network takes the form of a "family tree" of elements on the page. When we refer to the relationships that elements have with one another, we use the same terminology that we use when referring to family relationships: parents, children, and so on. A simple example can help us understand how the family tree metaphor applies to a document, as follows:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>the title</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
      <p>This is a paragraph.</p>
      <p>This is another paragraph.</p>
      <p>This is yet another paragraph.</p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Here, <html&gt...

The $() function


No matter which type of selector we want to use in jQuery, we always start with the same function: $(). This function typically accepts a CSS selector as its sole parameter, and serves as a factory, returning a new jQuery object pointing to the corresponding elements on the page. Just about anything that can be used in a stylesheet can also be passed as a string to this function, allowing us to apply jQuery methods to the matched set of elements.

Tip

Making jQuery play well with other JavaScript libraries

In jQuery, the dollar sign $ is simply an "alias" for jQuery. As a $() function is very common in JavaScript libraries, conflicts could arise if more than one of these libraries were being used in a given page. We can avoid such conflicts by replacing every instance of $ with jQuery in our custom jQuery code. Additional solutions to this problem are addressed in Chapter 10, Advanced Events.

The three primary building blocks of selectors are tag name , ID , and class . They...

CSS selectors


The jQuery library supports nearly all of the selectors included in CSS specifications 1 through 3, as outlined on the World Wide Web Consortium's site: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/specs. This support allows developers to enhance their websites without worrying about which browsers (particularly Internet Explorer 6) might not understand advanced selectors, as long as the browsers have JavaScript enabled.

Tip

Progressive enhancement

Responsible jQuery developers should always apply the concepts of progressive enhancement and graceful degradation to their code, ensuring that a page will render as accurately, even if not as beautifully, with JavaScript disabled as it does with JavaScript turned on. We will continue to explore these concepts throughout the book.

To begin learning how jQuery works with CSS selectors, we'll use a structure that appears on many websites, often for navigation: the nested, unordered list:

<ul id="selected-plays">
  <li>Comedies
    <ul...

Custom selectors


To the wide variety of CSS selectors, jQuery adds its own custom selectors. These custom selectors enhance the already impressive capabilities of CSS selectors to locate page elements in new ways.

Tip

Performance note

When possible, jQuery uses the native DOM selector engine of the browser to find elements. This extremely fast approach is not possible when custom jQuery selectors are used. For this reason, it is recommended to avoid frequent use of custom selectors when a native option is available and performance is very important.

Most of the custom selectors allow us to pick certain elements out of a line-up, so to speak. Typically used following a CSS selector, this kind of custom selector identifies elements based on their positions within the previously-selected group. The syntax is the same as the CSS pseudo-class syntax, where the selector starts with a colon (:). For example, to select the second item from a set of <div> elements with a class of horizontal,...

DOM traversal methods


The jQuery selectors that we have explored so far allow us to select a set of elements as we navigate across and down the DOM tree and filter the results. If this were the only way to select elements, then our options would be quite limited (although, frankly, the selector expressions are robust in their own right, especially when compared to the regular DOM scripting options). There are many occasions when selecting a parent or ancestor element is essential; that is where jQuery's DOM traversal methods come into play. With these methods at our disposal, we can go up, down, and all around the DOM tree with ease.

Some of the methods have a nearly identical counterpart among the selector expressions. For example, the line we first used to add the alt class, $('tr:even').addClass('alt'), could be rewritten with the .filter() method as follows:

$('tr').filter(':even').addClass('alt');

For the most part, however, the two ways of selecting elements complement each other. Furthermore...

Accessing DOM elements


Every selector expression and most jQuery methods return a jQuery object. This is almost always what we want, because of the implicit iteration and chaining capabilities that it affords.

Still, there may be points in our code when we need to access a DOM element directly. For example, we may need to make a resulting set of elements available to another JavaScript library. Additionally, we might need to access an element's tag name, which is available as a property of the DOM element. For these admittedly rare situations, jQuery provides the .get() method. To access the first DOM element referred to by a jQuery object, we would use .get(0). If the DOM element is needed within a loop, then we would use .get(index). So, if we want to know the tag name of an element with id="my-element", we would write the following code snippet:

var myTag = $('#my-element').get(0).tagName;

For even greater convenience, jQuery provides a shorthand for .get(). Instead of writing the preceding...

Summary


With the techniques that we have covered in this chapter, we should now be able to locate sets of elements on the page in a variety of ways. In particular, we learned how to style top-level and sub-level items in a nested list by using basic CSS selectors, apply different styles to different types of links by using attribute selectors, add rudimentary striping to a table by using either the custom jQuery selectors :odd and :even or the advanced CSS selector :nth-child(), and highlight text within certain table cells by chaining jQuery methods.

So far, we have been using the $(document).ready() method to add a class to a matched set of elements. In the next chapter, we'll explore ways in which to add a class in response to a variety of user-initiated events.

Further reading

The topic of selectors and traversal methods will be explored in more detail in Chapter 9. A complete list of jQuery's selectors and traversal methods is available in Appendix C of this book, in jQuery Reference Guide...

Exercises


To complete these exercises, you will need the index.html file for this chapter, as well as the finished JavaScript code as found in complete.j s. These files can be downloaded from the Packt Publishing web site at http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Challenge exercises may require use of the official jQuery documentation at http://api.jquery.com/.

  1. Add a class of special to all of the <li> elements at the second level of the nested list.

  2. Add a class of year to all of the table cells in the third column of a table.

  3. Add the class special to the first table row that has the word Tragedy in it.

  4. Challenge: Select all of the list items (<li>s) containing a link (<a>). Add the class afterlink to the sibling list items that follow the ones selected.

  5. Challenge: Add the class tragedy to the closest ancestor <ul> of any .pdf link.

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Key benefits

  • An introduction to jQuery that requires minimal programming experience
  • Detailed solutions to specific client-side problems
  • Revised and updated version of this popular jQuery book

Description

To build interesting, interactive sites, developers are turning to JavaScript libraries such as jQuery to automate common tasks and simplify complicated ones. Because many web developers have more experience with HTML and CSS than with JavaScript, the library's design lends itself to a quick start for designers with little programming experience. Experienced programmers will also be aided by its conceptual consistency.Learning jQuery Third Edition is revised and updated for version 1.6 of jQuery. You will learn the basics of jQuery for adding interactions and animations to your pages. Even if previous attempts at writing JavaScript have left you baffled, this book will guide you past the pitfalls associated with AJAX, events, effects, and advanced JavaScript language features.Starting with an introduction to jQuery, you will first be shown how to write a functioning jQuery program in just three lines of code. Learn how to add impact to your actions through a set of simple visual effects and to create, copy, reassemble, and embellish content using jQuery's DOM modification methods. The book will step you through many detailed, real-world examples, and even equip you to extend the jQuery library itself with your own plug-ins.

Who is this book for?

This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications. Basic JavaScript programming and knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries.

What you will learn

  • Create interactive elements for your web designs
  • Learn how to create the best user interface for your web applications
  • Use selectors in a variety of ways to get anything you want from a page
  • Make things happen on your webpages with events
  • Add flair to your actions with a variety of animation effects
  • Discover the new features available in jQuery 1.6 in this third update of this popular jQuery book
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Publication date : Sep 22, 2011
Length: 428 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849516549
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Table of Contents

13 Chapters
Getting Started Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Selecting Elements Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Handling Events Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Styling and Animating Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Manipulating the DOM Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Sending Data with Ajax Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Plugins Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Plugins Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Selectors and Traversing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Events Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Effects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced DOM Manipulation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Advanced Ajax Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4
(23 Ratings)
5 star 69.6%
4 star 13%
3 star 8.7%
2 star 8.7%
1 star 0%
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Thomas Bennett Jun 02, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Great book! A must have in the collection of any web developer
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Bethany Raymond Feb 04, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Great overview of jQuery. Presents the material clearly with good examples. Would recommend as a great intro book to jQuery.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Dick Dowdell Nov 23, 2012
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is the best JQuery tutorial I've read. It is clearly and concisely written and well organized. The book introduces each topic with appropriate descriptions, examples, and exercises. Later in the book these same topics are revisited in advanced mode, with clear descriptions of what else one can do with the technology or technique being described.Though I am not a JQuery beginner, I found the book to be an excellent refresher as well as a rich source of tools and techniques I had not yet used.I was particularly impressed with the author's ability to understand what my issues and questions might be. The book was obviously written by someone who's "been there, done that". I wish it had existed when I first began using JQuery.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
milo Mar 04, 2012
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I have purchased and read three or four jQuery books and this is hands down the most complete.Other books step through simple examples of jQuery selectors, method syntax and usage. The authors of "Learning jQuery" take a different approach by building example pages up from bare html and adding and refining jQuery functionality as they go. For the most part this approach works for me. I can always look up specific jQuery methods elsewhere if I need another viewpoint or additional information.I changed my mind and rated the book at five stars vs four. Originally I was going to ding it a star for not being as comprehensive as the website. But you can't pack it all into a finite set of pages, and that in my mind is the one weakness (minor) of the approach the authors took. The jQuery website is the go to resource for a complete listing of jQuery functions. The book is an excellent companion to the website.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Hiking Hacker Feb 02, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a good primer and go to reference for those who are both jQuery beginners to jQuery intermediates.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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