An Introduction to jQuery Plugin Writing

Having spent a significant amount of time with various JavaScript libraries over the years, I’ve found that our Webvanta JavaScript work has really accelerated the most with smart use of jQuery. Using just the base features alone, we gain significant benefits from its small, fast, and powerful core doing DOM selection and manipulation, CSS tweaking, special effects, and easy Ajax.

What I find particularly compelling is how easy it is to extend jQuery with our own functionality.

Recently, I had the honor of writing a couple of guest articles for our good friends over at Engine Yard discussing jQuery extensibility.

In the first article, “Reuse your JavaScript as jQuery Plugins”, I introduce the basics of the jQuery plugin architecture and how you can use it to wrap your own code into reusable modules.

In the second post, “Enhancing Client-Side Storage with HTML5”, I explore the newer, HTML5-spawned client-side storage features now available in reasonably current browsers. The article shows how easy it is to wrap some of the storage functionality into a simple jQuery utility plugin.

We’d love to hear about your jQuery (or other library) success stories. Is there a JavaScript tool that you just can’t live without?