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8protons
8protons

Reputation: 3959

Is $( ) JavaScript or jQuery notation?

I'm trying to differentiate between the JavaScript and jQuery; to sculpt accurate models of what the two represent.

Originally, I had thought that jQuery was a collection of libraries, plug-ins, and tool kits. I came to this notion due to what a peer told me, from reading around on the Internet, and also because I've been using Slick (an image carousel) which I downloaded from jQuery.

Yet as I've been developing more and getting to know JavaScript, instead of doing specific calls to a library I downloaded (Slick):

$('.multiple-items').slick({...});

I've lately been doing calls like the following:

$('.mid-buttons').click(function(){...});

Which confuses me, because I never downloaded any jQuery library other than Slick, so is .click part of some automatically downloaded jQuery library or part of what comes with JavaScript?

Also, is $() used for any calls to an object in HTML/CSS or is the methods being called, .slick or .click, what dictates the usage of $( )?

I know that these are extremely amateur questions but it's been tough finding a resource that explicetely differentiates the distinction I am trying to make/understand. Thanks!

Upvotes: 4

Views: 3400

Answers (4)

Quentin
Quentin

Reputation: 943579

JavaScript is a programming language.

jQuery is a library written in JavaScript.

$ is a valid identifier name in JavaScript.

jQuery uses $ as the variable name for its main function (it also uses jQuery). This function is defined in the jQuery documentation.

When you call it as a function (generally with the syntax $(some arguments here)), the return value is a jQuery object. These usually wrap some DOM nodes.

Slick is a plugin. It is another library that expands the functionality of jQuery (using the jQuery plugins api). It provides a method that you can call on jQuery objects.

Upvotes: 10

Cymen
Cymen

Reputation: 14419

jQuery is typically exposed as both $ and jQuery. You can run see that they are the same by running $.fn.jquery and jQuery.fn.jquery which will give you the version. Or run $ == jQuery. So even though $ looks special, it's just a function like any other and by putting () after $ you are running the jQuery function.

Things like click are part of the core jQuery. It has a monolithic approach to plugins in that they augment the jQuery instance variable ($ or jQuery). If you try CommonJS, you'll see a non-monolithic approach to how different pieces of JavaScript code can be pulled together.

Upvotes: 1

Mike Cluck
Mike Cluck

Reputation: 32511

jQuery is a library. It's got it's own set of functionality. What you downloaded was a jQuery plugin, i.e., it extends jQuery.

jQuery itself is just Javascript. Nothing more, nothing less. You can even read an annotated version of the source code here.

$() is the jQuery function. It's the basic starting point for most things in jQuery. In it's simplest form, it's a way of grabbing DOM nodes and wrapping them in a special wrapper which has access to the rest of the jQuery API.

Upvotes: 1

Ryan
Ryan

Reputation: 14649

$() is valid JavaScript grammar. jQuery is a library and has defined the function$. In JavaScript you call a function with ().

Upvotes: 0

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