jQuery
New Wave Javascript


Docs » base


This is the core module for the entire jQuery library. It handles the loading of all plugins, basic funtionality, and all selectors - supporting CSS 1-3 and basic XPath.

If you're looking for more information on how to use jQuery, I'd recommend beginning with the Tutorial and going from there.

Base Methods

All of the available methods are broken up by functionality.

  • DOM Traversing - Includes: find, end, filter, not, and add.
  • Iteration - Includes: size, get, and each.
  • Events - Includes: bind and unbind.
  • DOM Modifiation - Includes: html, remove, append, prepend, before, after, and wrap.
  • Style - Incudes: css, addClass, and removeClass.
  • Effects - Includes: hide, show, and toggle.

The $() Function

$(Expression)

The functionality of jQuery centers around one central function: $(). Everything in jQuery is based upon this, or uses this in some way. The most basic use of this function is to pass in an expression (usually consisting of CSS or XPath), which then finds all matching elements and remembers them for later use. For example: 

$("p")

finds all the p elements. From here, the $() function can be chained upon, adding more and more functionality. For a list of all methods included in the base package, please see the bottom of this page.

By default, $() looks for DOM elements with the current HTML document (which is what 99% of developers will need). If you need to change this, please see below.

$(DOMElement)

If you pass in a DOM element to the $() function, jQuery will wrap itself around it and provide all the additional functionality that you need. For example, all of these are valid (using the advanced events module): 

$(document.getElementById("test")).onclick(...)

$(document).onready(...)

$(window).onload(...)

$(xml.responseXML) // For working with XMLHTTPRequest

$(...,Context)

The second argument to the $() function is an optional DOM Element, specifying the context within which all DOM Elements will be found. This is, effectively, a shorthand for doing: 

$(Context).find(...)

For example, all of these are valid: 

$("p",document)

$("title",xml.reponseXML)

$("div",document.getElementById("test"))

From here, you will want to start looking at the different types of methods that are available, to be used. Also, don't forget to look at the other modules available for download.