Beyond jQuery

Beyond jQuery gives you the confidence to abandon your jQuery crutches and walk freely with the power of the “web API” and JavaScript! Learn about the most important concepts surrounding web development as the mystic powers of jQuery are explained, allowing you to forgo this seemingly quintessential library in your software projects. Beyond jQuery doesn’t just throw code at you – everything is explained in detail from the perspective of a jQuery developer.

jQuery is often injected into web applications and libraries without any real thought, seemingly out of habit or fear. Many web developers don’t seem to know exactly when they need to use jQuery, and when they don’t – it has become a standard step for many when setting up a new library or web application. But relying solely on jQuery as your window to the web leaves large gaps in your knowledge. This in turn results in frustration when the abstraction that jQuery provides “leaks” and exposes you to the native aspects of the browser.

This book aims to educate you and help you solve common problems without depending on jQuery. It will give you more confidence to embrace the power of the web API and standardized JavaScript. Along the way, you’ll discover why it is so important to gain a solid understanding of the underpinnings of the web. This book includes chapters on DOM manipulation, data storage and retrieval, styling and CSS, AJAX requests, events, asynchronous operations, and much more. Cutting edge web and JavaScript specifications, such as the Fetch API, Promises, WeakMap, and Async Functions, are also discussed.
Check out the comprehensive web application at github.com/Beyond-jQuery/exercise which was developed for “Beyond jQuery” readers that covers many of the concepts discussed in this book.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Oppressive Magic of jQuery
Chapter 2: You Don’t Need jQuery (Anymore)
Chapter 3: Understanding the Web API and “Vanilla” JavaScript
Chapter 4: Finding HTML Elements
Chapter 5: Using and Understanding HTML Element Attributes
Chapter 6: HTML Element Data Storage and Retrieval
Chapter 7: Styling Elements
Chapter 8: DOM Manipulation
Chapter 9: AJAX Requests: Dynamic Data and Page Updates
Chapter 10: Browser Events
Chapter 11: Mastering Asynchronous Tasks
Chapter 12: Common JavaScript Utility Functions
Chapter 13: Going Forward