Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
jQuery vs jQuery UI: What are the differences?
Introduction
This Markdown code provides a comparison between jQuery and jQuery UI, highlighting the key differences between the two.
-
DOM Manipulation vs. User Interface (UI) Enhancements:
- jQuery focuses primarily on DOM manipulation, allowing developers to easily access, manipulate, and traverse the HTML document. It provides a simplified syntax for handling common tasks like event handling, animation, and AJAX requests.
- jQuery UI, on the other hand, is a library built on top of jQuery that specifically targets user interface enhancements. It provides a set of ready-to-use UI components, such as widgets, effects, and interactions, which can be easily added to websites for improved visual and interactive experiences.
-
Core vs. Extended Functionality:
- jQuery is the core library that focuses on providing the essential functionality for manipulating and interacting with the DOM. It is lightweight and can be quickly loaded and deployed.
- jQuery UI extends the core jQuery functionality by adding additional UI-specific features. It includes a larger footprint as it provides a wide range of UI components and effects. Consequently, it may require extra time to load and may impact performance if not used selectively.
-
Customization vs. Preset Styles:
- jQuery allows developers to create custom styles and behaviors for their websites. Developers have more freedom and flexibility in terms of customization options.
- jQuery UI offers a set of pre-built styles and visual themes for UI components. These styles follow a consistent design language and can be easily applied to achieve a unified look and feel across different components. However, customization options are limited to some extent and may require overriding the default styles.
-
Official vs. Third-party Plugins:
- jQuery provides an extensive ecosystem of both official and third-party plugins. These plugins enhance the core functionality by offering additional features and utilities. Developers have a wide range of options to choose from, making it easier to extend the capabilities of their websites.
- jQuery UI includes a set of official plugins that are specifically designed to integrate seamlessly with the UI components. These plugins further enhance the UI experience by offering additional functionality or interactions that are not available in the core library. However, the range of available third-party plugins for jQuery UI may be comparatively smaller.
-
Simplicity vs. Complexity:
- jQuery aims to provide a simple and intuitive API for common tasks. It focuses on a concise, "write less, do more" approach, allowing developers to achieve desired results with minimal code.
- jQuery UI, being an extension of jQuery, introduces a bit more complexity as it provides a broader range of components, options, and configurations. It offers a comprehensive API and requires more effort to master all the available features and customization options.
-
Target Audience:
- jQuery is suitable for a wide range of web developers, including beginners and those with basic JavaScript knowledge. It is widely used and has excellent community support, making it easier to find resources and solutions.
- jQuery UI is more suitable for developers who specifically focus on building rich and interactive user interfaces. It requires a deeper understanding of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, along with the knowledge of jQuery, to effectively utilize and customize the UI components it offers.
In summary, jQuery is a lightweight library focused on DOM manipulation, while jQuery UI extends jQuery with a wide range of UI-specific components and effects, providing a ready-to-use solution for enhancing user interfaces.
I use jQuery at the moment because I use it for a lot of years already, but now Bootstrap 5 decided to switch to JavaScript, I am thinking of switching to an alternative.
I use jQuery only for the DOM integration, animations and ajax calls because JavaScript calls to a class looks such a long call. I like the way of jQuery with $(document).on('click','.something',function() {});
By the way, I like to keep using HTML, PHP and Bootstrap as I do now.
Hi Adan,
Javascript has changed quite a bit in the recent years and lot of it was inspired from jquery. Now almost all modern browsers support javascript syntax everything that jquery does with few elaborate / sometimes better alternatives. So, if you like to switch, find the equivalents of what portions of jquery you use and replace those parts. Btw, jquery is still nicer sometimes with its method chaining and a lot simpler syntax - the equivalent in js may not be that sugary syntactically.
I was like you two years ago, used to jquery and didn't want to switch, but if you're willing to use js frameworks in your projects(React, Vuejs...), I advise you to switch asap, and get used to normal javascript, because in the end, it's the core language, but there are some new ways in it (especially in ES6) that will make your life easier, like you can replace the document.querySelector() with $() and document.querySelectorAll() with $$(), using this line of code:
const $ = e => document.querySelector(e), $$ = e => document.querySelectorAll(e);
then you can select a p element just by writing: $('p'), and multiple p elements like that: $$('p').
I hope my advice helped you in any way.
I have made an extended effort to drop frameworks completely if they are not actually needed. While I still use JS Frameworks like Vue, Angular and React ( if I have too ), I see far too often devs / teams deciding to build a single page site entirely in a framework, rather than just using HTML, CSS and a little JS.
I personally feel it's important to know when a framework is a good solution, and maybe when it's overkill.
The project is a web gadget previously made using vanilla script and JQuery, It is a part of the "Quicktext" platform and offers an in-app live & customizable messaging widget. We made that remake with React eco-system and Typescript and we're so far happy with results. We gained tons of TS features, React scaling & re-usabilities capabilities and much more!
What do you think?
I've an eCommerce platform building using Laravel, MySQL and jQuery. It's working good and if anyone become interested, I just deploy the entire source cod e in environment / Hosting. This is not a good model of course. Because everyone ask for small or large amount of change and I had to do this. Imagine when there will be 100 separate deploy and I had to manage 100 separate source. So How do I make my system architecture so that I'll have a core / base source code. To make any any change / update on specific deployment, it will be theme / plugin / extension based . Also if I introduce an API layer then I could handle the Web, Mobile App and POS as well ? Is the API should be part of source code or a individual single API and all the deployment will use that API ?
When I started TipMe, I thought about using React frontend. At the end, plain, simple jQuery won.
I had to build this iteration of the site fast and by using jQuery I could keep using Django as a full stack development tool. One important point is Django form (combined with Django Bootstrap3) means that I don't have to reinvent form rendering again, which will be the case with React.
Over time, more interactivity seeped into the site and React components start making its way into the codebase.
I now wish the site is built using React so that I could add more user friendly interfaces easier (no more fuddling with server states) but I would still say jQuery helped me get past those early days.
Pros of jQuery
- Cross-browser1.3K
- Dom manipulation957
- Power809
- Open source660
- Plugins610
- Easy459
- Popular395
- Feature-rich350
- Html5281
- Light weight227
- Simple93
- Great community84
- CSS3 Compliant79
- Mobile friendly69
- Fast67
- Intuitive43
- Swiss Army knife for webdev42
- Huge Community35
- Easy to learn11
- Clean code4
- Because of Ajax request :)3
- Powerful2
- Nice2
- Just awesome2
- Used everywhere2
- Improves productivity1
- Javascript1
- Easy Setup1
- Open Source, Simple, Easy Setup1
- It Just Works1
- Industry acceptance1
- Allows great manipulation of HTML and CSS1
- Widely Used1
- I love jQuery1
Pros of jQuery UI
- Ui components215
- Cross-browser156
- Easy121
- It's jquery100
- Open source81
- Widgets57
- Plugins48
- Popular46
- Datepicker39
- Great community23
- DOM Manipulation7
- Themes6
- Some good ui components0
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of jQuery
- Large size6
- Sometimes inconsistent API5
- Encourages DOM as primary data source5
- Live events is overly complex feature2
Cons of jQuery UI
- Does not contain charts or graphs1
Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions
What is jQuery?
What is jQuery UI?
Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
What companies use jQuery UI?
Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions
What tools integrate with jQuery?
What tools integrate with jQuery UI?
Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions
Blog Posts
+43
+26+29