Review of the jQuery UI 1.6 Book
What Is jQuery and jQuery UI?
jQuery is a modern Javascript framework. It helps you, the web developer, to write client-side interactive code without worrying about cross-browser issues and a lot of the boring elements of DOM manipulation and animation. Moreover, as a Ruby on Rails developer (and a PHP developer before that) jQuery makes javascript easy! Packt’s other book Learning jQuery 1.3 might be a better starting point if you don’t know jQuery.
The jQuery UI library is a collection of small UI elements and widgets for building richer interactive interfaces.
About The Book
I received a copy of the jQuery UI 1.6 – The User Interface Library for jQuery book from Packt Publishing along with the Learning jQuery 1.3 book. After reading the Learning jQuery book, this seemed an excellent follow on to see what else you can do with jQuery easily.
The book takes you through all the standard elements of the jQuery UI library in detail and then through some of the features visitors expect to see on modern web sites such as sorting, customisable placement of elements, drag and drop, etc. The examples are clear and easy to follow.
Personally, having had no experience of jQuery UI before, I expected a little more from the framework – the components/widgets seem quite basic – but this can be a blessing, keeping to a core set and doing them very well (which the jQuery UI library does) is better than providing a bunch of ropey, half-thought out components.
Regardless of my thoughts of the current version of the jQuery UI library, the book is excellent at showing you how to use what is there.
Packt Publishing has kindly provided me with a sample chapter for you to download and read and see the sort of information you get.
Is It Worth Buying?
If you are writing Web Apps or Web 2.0 websites then your visitors now expect more in terms of interactivity. Once you have a basic grasp of jQuery this book will help add both the gloss to your look and feel and some interaction that may help give you a boost above your competitors.
This book isn’t aimed at the general public, you’re expected to have experience with HTML, CSS and Javascript and be comfortable (but not necessarily an expert) in jQuery. Providing you fit that mould, then it’s an excellent book on the topic of the jQuery UI framework.
5 Stars.
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