Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual

Chapter 13. Adding Interactivity with jQuery

JavaScript has grown from the simple language behind pop-up windows and image rollovers to a full-blown programming tool that can change the content on a web page even as you look at it. It’s the key to interactivity on the Web today. It can even download new data behind the scenes and update a page (that’s why you can scroll to new sections of a Google map without loading new pages—your browser’s already downloaded the rest of the map). JavaScript is the key to today’s interactive websites.

Dreamweaver, which always tries to provide features that meet web designers’ needs, includes a set of JavaScript tools that let you add interactive elements, like content sections that expand and collapse, tabbed panels, and pop-up calendars, to a page. That’s what this chapter is all about.

The first section discusses the relationship between JavaScript, jQuery, and the jQuery UI library of widgets. The sections that follow describe the features of the other jQuery UI widgets along with tips on how to use them effectively. At the end of the chapter, you learn about Dreamweaver behaviors. Behaviors have been part of Dreamweaver for some time, but with Dreamweaver CC, Adobe trimmed those that were out of date. You’re likely to find uses for the ones that remain.

JavaScript, jQuery, and jQuery UI

JavaScript is a programming language (technically, it’s a “scripting” language because it doesn’t create standalone applications.) When a browser opens a web page ...