jQuery for Beginners: Add Interactivity and Effects to Your Website

Ladies Learning Code (@learningcode) is a Canada wide not-for-profit organization providing women, men and youth the opportunity to learn beginner-friendly technical skills in a social and collaborative way.

Why jQuery?

You’ve started to learn how to make web pages with HTML and CSS and now you’re ready for the next step. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to take a static web page and give it that little extra sumthin’ sumthin’.

JavaScript or jQuery, what’s the difference?

JavaScript is a wildly popular programming language that is used on almost every website. Photo slideshows, Twitter timeline updates and Google auto-complete search terms are just a few examples of JavaScript! jQuery is a library that makes writing JavaScript a breeze. Not sure what a JavaScript library is? No worries, you’ll get plenty of information about what it is, how to write your own jQuery code and use plugins like this snazzy photo slider: http://flexslider.woothemes.com/thumbnail-slider.html.

What will you learn?

jQuery is JavaScript so we’ll start with fundamental JavaScript concepts such as variables and functions. Also, learn how to use the handy tools like the console, right in your browser. Then we’ll jump into jQuery and learn how to manipulate various elements of a web page and add fancy effects based on different user actions like click and hover. You can even change the CSS and update how your web page looks based on these interactions. We’ll also dive into how to use the Flexslider photo gallery plugin to make your web page even more dynamic.

By the end of the day, your web page will no longer just sit there and look pretty, it’ll also be full of fun interactions!