Jquery & matrix

Squiz Matrix General Discussion
1

I'm currently looking at jquery for something on our website and have not touched it ever before.


I was hoping some experts in here could answer some simple questions, and possibly point me in the direction of some instructions if required!



[list=1]


  • Does jquery need to be installed into Matrix or is it on the servers? How does it work?
    [*]Does anyone know of any topics on here that I can look at to help get it set up?
    [*]Can anyone advise any good books or websites on jquery and learning it?


    Any help would be great!
    • 2

    First question, are you familiar with javascript?


    No, jQuery does not come installed on Matrix. It is not really something that you install, rather just a script that you include in the head of your page.



    If you are not familiar with javascript, I would highly recommend you learning some of those basics first before you dive into jQuery. Much of the power of jQuery uses basic javascript knowledge, because, it is javascript!



    For learning jQuery, I would just use the main jquery site, and read the documentation. What are you looking for jQuery to do for you?

    3

    Thanks for replying!


    I am familiar with Javascript, but not an expert on it. I must be a little confused because when I went to the jquery site, it showed the library files to download. This made me think I need to install these somewhere and source the files in the header to where I've installed them.



    I'm looking at jQuery to complete a news type slideshow item on our front page, similar to the theage.com.au. I would normally use flash with XML but I've noticed that a lot of users don't have flash installed and whilst I can get away with our ad banners not appearing, main pieces of content need to work. Knowing that jquery does not require any players to be installed, I thought this could be a great option and found a great piece of code to give me a good start.



    The other reason I'm bypassing flash is because of the whole issue around iphones and ipad, yet to come out, which won't handle flash.



    Edited: Upon looking at your site, I'm actually after something similar to what you've done in your id for "features_contentleft"

    4

    No, there is nothing different about jQuery, it is just a normal .js file that you include in script tags in the head of your page. I would recommend using the google api version of jquery, as they host it: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js


    Also, the rotating news section on the PUC site is a great jQuery plugin called Cycle. Take a look at: http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/



    Good luck!