How to include jQuery in ASP.Net project?

Question

I've read that Microsoft now bundles jQuery with Visual Studio. How then do I "include" the jQuery source in my ASP.Net project?

Answer 1

You can include the script file directly in your page/master page, etc using:

 <script type="text/javascript" src="/scripts/jquery.min.js"></script>  

Us use a Content Delivery network like Google or Microsoft:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>  

or:

<script src="http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery/jquery-1.4.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>      

Answer 2

There are actually a few ways this can be done:

1: Download

You can download the latest version of jQuery and then include it in your page with a standard HTML script tag. This can be done within the master or an individual page.

HTML5

<script src="/scripts/jquery-2.1.0.min.js"></script> 

HTML4

<script src="/scripts/jquery-2.1.0.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> 

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2: Content Delivery Network

You can include jQuery to your site using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) such as Google's. This should help reduce page load times if the user has already visited a site using the same version from the same CDN.

<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.0/jquery.min.js"></script> 

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3: NuGet Package Manager

Lastly, (my preferred) use NuGet which is shipped with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Express. This is accessed from right-clicking on your project and clicking Manage NuGet Packages.

NuGet is an open source Library Package Manager that comes as a Visual Studio extension and that makes it very easy to add, remove, and update external libraries in your Visual Studio projects and websites. Beginning ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB.NET, WROX, 2013

Once installed, a new Folder group will appear in your Solution Explorer called Scripts. Simply drag and drop the file you wish to include onto your page of choice.

This method is ideal for larger projects because if you choose to remove the files, or change versions later (though the package manager) if will automatically remove/update any reference to that file within your project.

The only downside to this approach is it does not use a CDN to host the file so page load time may be slightly slower the first time the user visits your site.