# JavaScript Libraries

« Previous
Next Chapter »

JavaScript libraries - jQuery, Prototype, MooTools.

## JavaScript Frameworks (Libraries)

Advanced JavaScript programming (especially the complex handling of browser differences), can often be very difficult and time-consuming to work with.

To deal with these difficulties, a lot of JavaScript (helper) libraries have been developed.

These JavaScript libraries are often called JavaScript frameworks.

In this tutorial, we will take a look at some of the most popular JavaScript frameworks:

- jQuery
- Prototype
- MooTools

All of these frameworks have functions for common JavaScript tasks like animations, DOM manipulation, and Ajax handling.

In this tutorial we will teach you how start using them, to make JavaScript programming easier, safer, and much more exciting.

## jQuery

jQuery is the most popular JavaScript framework on the Internet today.

It uses CSS selectors to access and manipulate HTML elements (DOM Objects) on a web page.

jQuery also provides a companion UI (user interface) framework and numerous other plug-ins.

Many of the largest companies on the Web use jQuery:

- Google
- Microsoft
- IBM
- Netflix

You will find an excellent jQuery Tutorial here at W3Schools.

## Prototype

Prototype is a JavaScript library that provides a simple API to perform common web tasks.

API is short for Application Programming Interface. It is a library of properties and methods for manipulating the HTML DOM.

Prototype enhances JavaScript by providing classes and inheritance.

## MooTools

MooTools is also a framework that offers an API to make common JavaScript programming easier.

MooTools also includes some lightweight effects and animation functions.

## Other Frameworks

Here are some other frameworks not covered in this short overview:

YUI - The Yahoo! User Interface Framework is a large library that covers a lot of functions, from simple JavaScript utilities to complete internet widgets.

Ext JS - Customizable widgets for building rich Internet applications.

Dojo - A toolkit designed around packages for DOM manipulation, events, widgets, and more.

script.aculo.us - Open-source JavaScript framework for visual effects and interface behaviors.

UIZE - Widgets, AJAX, DOM, templates, and more.

## CDN - Content Delivery Networks

You always want your web pages to be as fast as possible. You want to keep the size of your pages as small as possible, and you want the browser to cache as much as possible.

If many different web sites use the same JavaScript framework, it makes sense to host the framework library in a common location for every web page to share.

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) solves this. A CDN is a network of servers containing shared code libraries.
Google provides a free CDN for a number of JavaScript libraries, including:

- jQuery
- Prototype
- MooTools
- Dojo
- Yahoo! YUI

To use a JavaScript framework library in your web pages, just include the library in a <script> tag:

## Including jQuery

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

## Using Frameworks

Before you decide to use a JavaScript framework for your web pages, it might be a good idea to test the framework first.

JavaScript frameworks are very easy to test. You don't have to install them on your computer, and there are no setup programs.

Normally you just have to reference a library file from your web page.

In the next chapter of this tutorial we will walk you through a test process for jQuery.

« Previous
Next Chapter »

### WEB HOSTING

UK Reseller Hosting

### WEB BUILDING

FREE Website BUILDER Free HTML5 Templates

### W3SCHOOLS EXAMS

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, jQuery, XML, and ASP Certifications

### SHARE THIS PAGE

### Color Picker

### HTML/CSS

HTML Tutorial HTML5 Tutorial CSS Tutorial CSS3 Tutorial Bootstrap Tutorial

### JavaScript

JavaScript Tutorial jQuery Tutorial jQuery Mobile Tutorial AngularJS Tutorial AJAX Tutorial JSON Tutorial

### Graphics

Canvas Tutorial SVG Tutorial Google Maps Tutorial

### Server Side

SQL Tutorial PHP Tutorial ASP Tutorial ASP.NET Tutorial VBScript Tutorial AppML Tutorial

### Web

Web Building Web Statistics Web Certification

### XML

XML Tutorial DTD Tutorial Schema Tutorial XML DOM Tutorial XPath Tutorial XSLT Tutorial XQuery Tutorial XSL-FO Tutorial RSS Tutorial WSDL Tutorial

### HTML/CSS

HTML Tag Reference HTML Event Reference HTML Color Reference CSS 1,2,3 Reference Bootstrap Reference

### JavaScript

JavaScript Reference HTML DOM Reference jQuery Reference jQuery Mobile Reference Google Maps Reference

### Server Side

PHP Reference SQL Reference ASP Reference VBScript Reference Razor Reference ASP.NET Reference

### XML

XML DOM Reference XSLT Reference XSL-FO Reference XPath Reference XQuery Reference Schema Reference RSS Reference SVG Reference

### HTML Charsets

HTML Character Sets HTML ASCII HTML ANSI HTML Windows-1252 HTML ISO-8859-1 HTML Symbols HTML UTF-8

### HTML/CSS

HTML Examples CSS Examples

### Browser Scripting

JavaScript Examples HTML DOM Examples jQuery Examples jQuery Mobile Examples AngularJS Examples AJAX Examples

### Server Scripting

PHP Examples ASP Examples VBScript Examples Razor Examples .NET Examples

### XML Languages

XML Examples DTD Examples XML DOM Examples XSL Examples XSLT Examples XPath Examples XQuery Examples Schema Examples RSS Examples SVG Examples