I deal with jQuery a lot in my line of work and have a great amount of understanding how jQuery works as well as how jQuery UI is helping with its great widgets.
When I started reading this great book, I realized that there is plenty new things I can learn out of it.
On the very beginning of the book, there is a detailed introduction in jQuery and jQuery UI 1.8 set up. Everything is very well explained, from download to setting up a development environment, and is easily followed even by inexperienced developers.
Dan Wellman, the author, has been writing computer-related articles, tutorials, and reviews for around eight years and is rarely very far from a keyboard of some description. This is his fourth book.
The second chapter jumps into the explaining how jQuery UI works and is very detailed. The core css functionality is explained as well as theming, theme overriding, theme switching, widgets and how to create them, avoiding collisions etc.
After that book is explaining all the widgets in stunning details and great screenshots. Every single option for every widget is explained and show hot it affects the result. The detailed explaining and screenshots is what makes this book stand out.
In the last part, jQuery UI effects are explained with same amount of enthusiasm as in previous chapters. Even the advanced effects are shown like:
- Blind
- Clip
- Drop
- Explode
- Fold
- Puff
- Pulsate
- Scale
- Slide
What I really like about this book is that it gave me the big picture and then gently followed me to the tiniest details in jQuery UI. All examples used in a book can really be used in a real life scenarios, and that is really something.
If you are interested in jQuery UI this book is definitely a must read. Even advanced developers can learn something out of it.
You can buy this book at Amazon: jQuery UI 1.8: The User Interface Library for jQuery or Packt Publishing