Installing jQuery

So you’d like to use jQuery in your project. Well, to get started, you’ll have to install jQuery to your project.

First up, we’ll go over the project structure we’ll be using throughout this podcast. The same project structure gets used for all the exercises throughout the jQuery for Designers book as well.

Then we have to decide which branch, or version, of jQuery we’ll use. We’ve got two choices – jQuery 1.x and jQuery 2.x. The difference between them is that the 2.x branch has dropped support for Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8. If you’re working on a project where you need your site to work in one of these older versions of IE, then you’ll need to stick to the 1.x branch of jQuery. Otherwise, you can use the 2.x branch of jQuery.

Then we have to decide do we want the compressed, production version of jQuery? Or the uncompressed, development version. You’ll almost always want to use the compressed, production version. The uncompressed version is handy for learning – when you get far enough along with your JavaScript skills you can read through it to understand how the library works. It’s all nicely commented and well-organized.

Once we’ve got the right file downloaded, we’ll step through including jQuery in our project and getting it attached to our HTML page.

Then we’ll take a look at an alternative to downloading jQuery, which is using a CDN, or Content Delivery Network. We’ll take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a CDN-hosted copy of jQuery