jQuery Enlightenment: Book Review and Giveaway (Winners Announced!)
Winners Announced
I was really happy to see so much participation in this giveaway! After seeing how many people entered, I was feeling really bad that only one of them would leave with a copy of the book. I talked to Cody, and he graciously provided two more free copies so we can award a total of three books! I randomly picked three winners (using Random.org) and am happy to announce the following winners:
- Brad Rhine (truetech.org)
- Mila
- Geoff Woodburn (woodburndesigns.com)
Book Review
Late in 2009, Cody Lindley published a PDF book on jQuery titled jQuery Enlightenment. Today we are presenting our view of the book as well as offering a free copy to one lucky reader.
About The Author
Cody Lindley is a core team member of the jQuery project, and the original developer of the well known Thickbox plugin for jQuery. I had the pleasure of meeting and listening to Cody present at the jQuery Conference last year in Boston. He describes himself on his website:
Today I am a Christian, husband, son, brother, professional Web developer, and outdoor enthusiast. I spend a majority of my time sleeping and working, but who doesn’t? In between the daily routines of the average American, I desire an existence that entails a relationship with God, my family, and nature. I would like to consider myself a bookworm (a novice theologian at best), but truth be told, I simply enjoy watching movies and playing xBox way too much. I guess I also have the luxury of pursuing my profession as a personal passion. Yes, I often work even when I am not at work.
Overview
jQuery Enlightenment is a different type of book than I am used to seeing in the tech field. A list of what it is not might help shed light on what I mean. It is not documentation, a tutorial/walkthrough, or just conceptual material. jQuery Enlightenment is an amazingly clear montage of principals and code samples every jQuery developer needs to know grouped by topic. Cody covered topics both basic and profound throughout the pages of the book.
I consider myself quite adept at using jQuery, but found myself constantly amazed at the things I was learning while reading this book. Cody says it picks up where the jQuery documentation leaves off. I can see his point, but I think this book would be a better starting place for a new jQuery developer than even reading through the jQuery API site.
Pros
Code Samples
Code samples make up over 70% of the book (rough estimation). The book is not written in an editorial way at all. It is about presenting what you need to know, demonstrating it with an example, and moving on. For this reason the book is an extremely fast read and perfect for reference on a day to day basis.
Possibly one of the neatest features of the book itself is that (almost) every code sample provided in the book has a link to the same code on JSBin.com. JSBin is an online playground for testing and demonstrating JavaScript, HTML, and CSS technologies. jQuery Enlightenment isn’t a flat reading experience, it allows you to immediately jump in and play with the code samples until everything makes sense.
Additional Notes
Many of the topics are followed by a little box titled ‘Notes’. I am glad Cody didn’t choose some cheesy title for these boxes, but ‘Notes’ really does not sum up what they provide. You will find many undocumented (or hard to find) tips and tricks about the finer points of jQuery in these boxes. Skip over them at your own peril!
No Fluff Quality
Cody doesn’t waste any time on any of the topics presented in the book. The pattern used is simple: explain, demonstrate, move on. I personally will be using this book not just for reference, but for a quick read-through every few weeks to keep my jQuery senses sharp.
Cons
You will be hard pressed to find something negative to say about this book, and it wasn’t until I reached the end that I had one complaint about the content. The chapter on Ajax (Chapter 11) was far too short. Perhaps this is because the documentation is very clear, but I still wanted to learn more and have more examples to glean from. Perhaps the second edition of the book (which will cover jQuery 1.4) will provide more detail on jQuery’s AJAX implementation and associated methods.
Conclusion
I am confident new users and seasoned users alike will find much to learn in jQuery Enlightenment. After reading the book, my only concern is that I won’t remember all of the cool things I learned while reading it!
Win a FREE Copy!
Next Wednesday we will be selecting a winner to receive a free copy of jQuery Enlightenment. Entering the competition is easy!
Head over to jQuery Enlightenment and quickly look through table of contents. Then, leave a comment below telling us what chapter you think you would learn the most from if you were to win the book. Only comments referencing one of the actual chapters in the book will be eligible to win. We will randomly select a winner next Wednesday and announce it here on the site.. Sorry, but the contest is over!
Doug Neiner is an Editor at Fuel Your Coding and an official member of the jQuery Team. He is addicted to new technology, and specifically loves spending time with WordPress, Ruby on Rails and jQuery. Learn more via twitter or his Google Profile.
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This is great.
I really want to learn jQuery more and have been having a difficult time.
I think I’d learn most from either Chapter 6 – Events or Chapter 8 – Plugins.
I ordered this book last saturday and am waiting for it to arrive. It’s certainly the kind of jQuery book I’ve been looking for.
I’ve been using jQuery for about a year and a half now, and I’ve always been able to do what I’ve needed to do with it, but I’ve been wanting to take it farther recently, really start perfecting my coding. The chapter I’m looking most forward to is Performance Best Practices. I think this is a key part to any javascript development, and it’s something I really have little clue on.
My only complaint, at the moment, is that ordering the hard copy (like I did) does not get you a copy of the PDF as well. With all the code samples and links to JSBin, the PDF is extremely helpful to have, but I also enjoy a physical book so I’m not chained to a computer while reading. I’ll just have to order the PDF additionally once I get the book in.
Interesting book. To be honest, I’m just now learning the basics of jQuery, so I’d probably learn a lot from every chapter. But I’d have to say I’d probably learn the most from the Effects Chapter (Chapter 10) simply because I’m completely new to web-based visual effects.
Interesting to see a book with just clear real life examples. Those notes would really help to understand jQuery’s inner workings.
“Performance best practices” would seem to be most interesting to me. While most modern browser have great JS performance, it could be snappier! ;-)
Chapter 8 – Plugins
Plugins is without question the Chapter that would most benefit me today. I have a solid idea of how to use jQuery to arrive at my ends, but modularizing my code has been tricky. I’ll admit that I’ve not really spent much time studying up the structure of plugins, but I ought to, especially considering the grand amount of repeated-work I find myself doing time and time again to achieve similar results in various projects.
Stoked to check this book out…
Personally chapters 9-10 appeal to me the most… especially the chapter about performance, and getting a better grip on the use of effects.
thanks for presenting the book.
~ Aaron I
Chapter 6 and 11 (Events and Ajax)
Chapter 6 and 9 look the most interesting to me out of the whole book. It would be nice to see a section, even if it’s small under chapter 12 about the use of jQuery in mobile web development.
I would love to say that the Events (6) chapter would have the most to offer me, but I may be hard pressed to give it its due. I have been spending quite a bit of time working with some prototype concepts that involve the vast majority of a page being generated client side so in reality, I would probably scrub the Manipulation (4) chapter for the most knowledge and then try to work it into some public domain projects with a few pointers from the Plugins (8) chapter.
I would says Chapter 9 – Performance best practices.
I think I would benefit the most by reading Chapter 6 Events. Recent versions of JQuery have made several changes to how events are attached to new objects.
I have to agree with Aaron about Chapters 9-10 – Performance and Best Practices followed up with Effects. One of the aspects that I think will make a big difference in development in 2010 is quickly writing the best code we can that really works and does what we and our clients need. Not the bells and whistles, but quickly referencing code that loads fast, and cache what is used multiple times to keep the load down. There are also so many wonderful tricks and additions that really make the user experience better, and once you have a few of those in your pocket, we bring forth richer end products.
Great review and I definitely would get this book (but of course would love to win a copy if so chosen) – ;p
i’d learn the most from Chapter 9 – Performance best practices
refining code and getting the best performance from my code
The thing I’ve worked least with is traversing so I would benefit from Chapter 3 but also chapter 6 and events.
Seems like a very nice book, covers alot of jQuery.
Personally i think i would learn a lot from chapter 6. Events, 8. Plugins and 9. Perfomance.
Actually, i think i can learn something from every chapter.
Cool I want to learn how it works with plugins. Thanks!
A lot of it looks good for me. I’m guessing I would learn the most from Chapter 8 – Plugins.
I would definitely have to say chapter 8. Specifically: New plugins attach to jQuery.fn object to become jQuery methods
Didn’t knew this book, but since I’m starting on jQuery seems a good read.
At the moment, the chapters I’d learn the most would be Chapter 6 (Events) and Chapter 11 (Ajax).
Awesome , all chapters are useful for me .
learn more about Chapter 6 and 8 (Events and Plugins)
Honestly, I know nothing worth talking home about JQuery. So despite all the tall claims I would gain the most from Preface and the 1st Chapter.
I know that puts me out of any chances of winning a book but hey, I was honest. :)
Chapter 6 – Events looks like it would be the best for me. i have watched the peepcode video on jQuery and i am still left wanting on a few areas and would love to check out this book.
I think the chapter 8 about plugins will be my favourite one and will help a lot in my jQuery journey
Definitely Chapter 11 on AJAX. But Chapter 8 on plugins is probably a close second. There’s really a rich ecosystem out there.
By far, it would be “Chapter 6 – Events”, binding and custom events would be the one i’d learn the most from ..
Nice giveaway, Fuel !
I’d love to win this book. I’ve been using jQuery a while but still have alot to learn. I think i’d learnt he most from Chapter 9 – Performance best practices. :).
Thanks
William
It would have to be Chapter 6 – Events. I use Drupal and have been trying to slowly edge my way into using more event handling for lots of this, this book and particularly would be a great help in doing that.
Cheers.
This book looks awesome, I think I could pick up a lot from the whole thing but Chapter 9 – Performance best practices seems like it would be the most interesting topic for me.
I’d learn most from Chapter 8 – Plugins.
Chapter 9 – Performance best practices to help write faster cleaner code! Thus, go back and rework some of my initial projects
Toss up between Chapter’s 8 & 9,..I’ll choose 9! Looks like a good read.
I agree with other comments that this book looks great. Up to this point, most of my work with JQuery hasn’t inlcluded using events. So, I’d say Chapter 6 – Events would be the most helpful to me.
I think Chapter 9 – Performance best practices, would be the chapter with the most value to me. And perhaps Chapter 6. great book, would love a copy…
Looks like a very useful PDF. Have been using jQuery for a handful of months, but I think I could learn plenty from the “Grokking jQuery chaining” chapter.
Thanks!
Just saw that the person above me chose the same one I did: “Grokking jQuery chaining”. Probably cause who wouldn’t want to learn about “grokking”?
I’d love to read it all, of course.
Though I consider myself fairly adept at jQuery, I know I have a lot of room for improvement, especially in the area of Manipulation (Chapter 4). Now that almost every site I create requires a substantial amount of AJAX and manipulative trickery, I’d like to streamline and optimize my current practices and really strive for a higher level of professionalism in my code.
Thanks for the opportunity Fuel folks!
All Chapters seem very informative.
Such a cool article. Thank you for the time you put into this
Great review, in fact one that prompted me to buy the book, which I went on to thoroughly enjoy. I would highly recommend it primarily for the audience that I would classify as ‘informed amateurs’, someone with sufficient interest to continue to read even when it get’s tough going. I loved the different perspectives on a subject that could in a less able author’s hands become difficult to penetrate.
Learning jQuery with examples mentioned in the book was quite easy enough. I had tough times to co-ordinate the new coding methodology, but all in all everything ends up fine.
It was easier than thought.
Chapter 6 – Events looks like it would be the best for me. i have watched the peepcode video on jQuery and i am still left wanting on a few areas and would love to check out this book.
This book has helped me so much over the past year!
Even though I didn’t win a copy it was well worth the $$$ and has already paid for itself 1000x
This is an excellent book! I bought it last month after reading this review. Thanks for taking the time to do this. This book is a must for any designer.
wow this is amazing, but unlucky for me cause the contest is over, but anyways I will buy a copy for that. Thanks for sharing this article, hope soon you’ll do another contest and maybe I got lucky. :)