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I'm a backend programmer and I wonder about one thing. I know just a little about Javascript. I know the basics when I look at some Javascript code, I understand what code is trying to do. But I have never used it to create animations.
Then I heard about jQuery. Can I be an expert on jQuery without knowing a lot about Javascript?
And how about Ajax? Can I do Ajax animations (search suggestions) just with jQuery and don't have to learn Javascript?
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For using jQuery properly, Vanilla JavaScript knowledge is a prerequisite and you should not skip it at any cost. Also, after you are actually good with Vanilla JavaScript, you would either not need to use jQuery, or you would be able to learn the library in minimal time.
Having an education in JavaScript will allow you to understand the fundamentals, as well as when it's best to use jQuery, and when it's best to use JavaScript. So if you're looking to build something quickly, and it's not too complicated, you can get started right away using jQuery.
For example, if you're building a simple website that only needs to work with a few methods, jQuery is the way to go. But if you want to create a more complex website or if you want to use JavaScript for more advanced features, then using JavaScript might be the better choice.
We strongly encourage you to learn jQuery, and here's why: Many companies, including the big names listed above, have used jQuery in their code, meaning that they need developers who understand jQuery to maintain their apps. For this reason alone, it's important that web developers learn jQuery for now.
JQuery provides a framework that allows you to create a lot of great features relatively simply but it's still javascript and doesn't release you from the need to have at least a reasonable understanding of javascript to use it.
Javascript is one of those misunderstood languages because it's a scripting language, it's a very powerful and flexible language... learn it and you'll be grateful you did.
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Javascript is a language. All modern desktop web browsers support Javascript. But their support differs. That's where jQuery comes in. It's built on top of Javascript and its functions are written in a way so they work with most of these browsers in exactly the same way. So developers don't have to write all-browser-supported javascript code by themselves.
Nontheless, jQuery is still build on top of Javascript. jQuery is a Javascript library. And when you use jQuery, you still write Javascript code. Think of it as additional functions to the existing Javascript functionality. jQuery calls work the same on all browsers and you still use Javascript.
What about Ajax. There's no thing like Ajax animations. There are Javascript/DOM/jQuery animations. They may be triggered by Ajax calls/responses, but they are not Ajax animations. Ajax in itself is a communication facade between your client side (Javascript code) and server side (whatever platform and language is used there).
Animations are done by manipulating HTML DOM elements using Javascript + time. Libraries like jQuery provide the functionality to do this kind of stuff the easy way. Again to make it easier on you. So you don't have to do it by yourself.
So if you want to develop client apps using jQuery it's imperative you become familiar with Javascript. And HTML. And DOM. Ajax is not mandatory. To become really good with jQuery one has to become really profficient in Javascript. Because it's the client language you'll build your app. Using upgrades in the form of jQuery library. jQuery itself uses rather complex parts of Javascript that you'll have to understand to some extent to be able to debug problematic situations in your app.
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