jQuery effects

One of the lastest tasks (in addition to some OSS work) I've been working on has been a framework to show asynchronous messages to a logged user. These messages usually are loaded in a placeholder that is then presented on the screen using some kind of effect (like fading or sliding). They range from very intrusive to mildly annoying (heck..I'm being payed!). Examples include the simplest pre-positioned banner, the modal lightbox, the interstitial or the inline popup among others.

As many know, I'm a big fan of the dojo toolkit and I promote it as much as I can. I have to admit that one of the things I like most is the widget library (named dijit). Unfortunately, this time around I didn't need one and dojo's effects (dojo.fx) are less than stellar. Add some troubles related to the number of files to deploy (I'm just talking about the dojo core) and I was quickly looking for an alternative.

The first one I inspected was jQuery as it's packaged in a single (tiny) file, has gathered a supportive community and it's always been tagged as really simple to use. By haphazard, the UI team ahd just released a new version so I started there. Let's start by saying that jQuery UI is not a fully featured component library but, good for me, it does pack a number of effects (ala scriptaculous). There's a demo page available that I recommend visiting. And can be extended with plugins easily (I used for example thickbox and liScroll). I didn't bothered to look beyond :-)

So, here's my stance on the library:

• It works. And that's a lot to say when testing with IE6, FF3RC & Safari. In fact, it works from the start and without ugly hacks (and, my God, I'm used to those!)
• I came thinking it was easy to use and I wasn't disappointed. As long as you are proficient with JS/CSS (functions, callbacks, selectors) it's very intuitive. For example, I found rather easier to make a container movable using jQuery's $("id").draggable() than dojo's new dojo.dnd.Moveable("id") (although both are actually quite straightforward)
• Chaining is a bless though it's used without measure in the framework! Please, be sure to understand fluent interfaces beforehand.
• The API is clear yet very powerful. The UI effects are awesome. The people in my project were amazed when I demoed the prototype. Nobody could believe a single line of code could generate that results.
• Of course, all this goodies are of no use if you need widgets though..The UI team has a daunting task there.

All in all, a completely different approach to JS than dojo where there's a function/package/module for (nearly) everything. jQuery is concise but with its simplicity it also brings efficiency and saves time and troubles. Even more so if the developer is not that well versed in the intricacies of javascript (and I reckon there are many).

In short, I expect to use it again soon, without doubts.