jQuery jAM, Season 1
- September 1, 2011 · 12:00 AM
We are very excited to announce that the jQuery jAM self-study group for beginners is starting Season 1 on September 1. If you would like to learn jQuery from the ground up, consider joining us.
The format of a virtual self-study group is as follows:
- Each participant purchases the same textbook (JavaScript: The Missing Manual).
- Each participant commits to read one chapter per week, complete the exercises and post a link to the completed work.
- Each participant obtains assistance by posting questions to a discussion area set up on the Boston PHP Message Board for each chapter.
- Each participant receives a Boston PHP Certificate of Completion upon finishing all chapters and all assignments.
Note: There is no classroom instruction. However, hands-on assistance is available in the following two formats:
- PHP Percolate Coffee Club (alternate Saturday mornings at a Starbucks, check the meetup site for dates)
- Developer Dorm Room (occasional all-day Saturdays at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge, MA)
To register simply RSVP: Yes
To purchase a book (the only program cost) simply visit the Boston PHP store and order " JavaScript: The Missing Manual" in one of two formats.
Note: jQuery is a JavaScript library. Basic knowledge of JavaScript is vital in understanding jQuery. This book is an introduction to both JavaScript and jQuery.
Special thanks to Heather O'Neil and Above the Fold for the grubalicious jQuery jAM logo!
Gene Babon
Assistant Organizer
Boston PHP
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Bill Bennett
@Mark -- planning to do the same once I get to the end of the HTML5 thing. So if you guys are around when I get to it in a week or two I'll see you here!
1 · February 9, 2012
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Gene Babon
@Mark @Jonathan -- The discussion boards remain open and I do monitor them. So, feel free to jump in. http://bit.ly/w90C7T
February 9, 2012
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Mark Donaghue
@Jonathan, I'm working through the book on my own in anticipation of the April jQuery Mobile. We can swap notes if you like. I've kind of stalled out and need some motivation (I've finished chapter 6).
1 · February 9, 2012
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Gene Babon
@Jonathon -- Season 1 ended on December 31. Look for Season 2 to begin April 1 (tentative) with a focus on jQuery Mobile.
February 9, 2012
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Mike Williams
Hi there. I'm another latecomer. Bought the book in September, read it, but just got around to working on the tutorials. I've done the first eight chapters of tutorials. I'll post a link in the chapter 8 thread.
October 29, 2011
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Tom Flis
Thanks, Gene. I just received 2nd ed. and will try to get to the finish line by the end of the session.
October 28, 2011
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Gene Babon
Thanks, Tom. You're in. I'll send you a separate e-mail to confirm and offer suggestions before your proceed.
October 28, 2011
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Tom Flis
Gene:
Wondering if it is too late to join the group. I'm finishing up the PHP Percolate materials and would like to begin working on JS and jQuery without waiting for another session to start later. I think I can catch up to the group quickly.
Best regards,
TomOctober 28, 2011
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Gene Babon
Thanks, Alexander. Please use the Master Discussion list when posting an update to a specific chapter. ~~ http://bit.ly/qot8UX
September 15, 2011
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Alexander Zaitsev
Just uploaded Chapter4 solution http://vesovoe.netau.net/JavaSc...
September 15, 2011
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A former member
Going great ..! Awaiting the fun and excitement in discussions for the later chapters... :)
September 3, 2011
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Gene Babon
@Brian -- There is nothing to attend. There is no scheduled time to attend any session, real or virtual. Here is an e-mail that was just sent to all jQuery jAMmers ~~ http://bit.ly/nwQNl0
September 1, 2011
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Brian Vaughan
I tried to attend but I didn't see any instructions on what to do to get hooked in. I don't know if there was audio/video or just a white board. Whatever happened I didn't see it.
September 1, 2011
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Gene Babon
jQuery jAMmers -- Season 1 has begun. The goal for this week is to read Chapter 1. I am currently adding new participants to the e-mail distribution list. I will send out an e-mail with additional details later today. Thanks. ~ Gene
September 1, 2011
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A former member
Has the jamming formally started ..?
Where do we upload the codes ..?September 1, 2011
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A former member
Indeed it's still eminently usable, just a very slap dash conversion to Kindle.
September 1, 2011
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Adam Fisher
The PHP book for PHP Percolate wasn't perfect for Kindle but was still very usable.
August 31, 2011
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Jeanne
Ugh, wish I'd read that before I bought it. Hopefully it will be usable anyhow.
August 31, 2011
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A former member
Just a note for Kindle owners: I'm a bit disappointed at the Kindle version of this book. If I were you I'd go buy it from O'Reilly. The PDF is very likely a much better conversion of the original. Specific issues I've seen include lines of text jammed together, and everything that was originally meant to be inside a box or sidebar appears in a slightly different font with vertical bars to delineate the borders. It's like they fed the PDF through Calibre and published the result as-is.
August 29, 2011
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Gene Babon
@Claire -- This course covers both JavaScript and jQuery. Since jQuery is build on top of JavaScript, it is important to have a basic understanding of JavaScript before jumping into jQuery. The first three chapters of our book covers JavaScript before introducing jQuery. Most other jQuery books I've read assumes you already have a basic understanding of JavaScript. This is the best book I have read that covers both topics from a beginner's perspective.
August 29, 2011
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Gene Babon
@John -- We've been running at a rate of one season per four months with starts on January 1, May 1 and September 1. With two programs (jQuery jAM and PHP Percolate!) starting on September 1 we do not anticipate another start before January 1 and will be looking to expand our offerings into related technology areas like we are doing this time around with jQuery.
August 29, 2011
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Gene Babon
Thanks everyone for pitching in to answer questions. This is the type of teamwork that will enhance this learning experience. @Mike -- Yes, this will be a 14-week course (14 chapters) that will take us into early December. @Chris -- Thanks for your awesome vote of support for our efforts. ~ Gene
August 29, 2011
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John G Sutherland
How often are the jQuery and PHP Percolate seasons? I'm debating taking both unless the next season isn't too far off.
August 29, 2011
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A former member
Enjoying the book so far. Jumped ahead a bit and did the exercises for Chapter 1. I think a new edition makes sense because a few of the author's assertions are slightly out of date (e.g. Javascript doesn't stand alone - no longer true in the node.js era :)
Thanks for putting on this awesome course!
August 28, 2011
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A former member
@Mike Ilsey
:-) Happy learning !August 28, 2011
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Mike Ilsley
@Nikhil
Nice, thanks.. I just found this class so I don't have the book yet. I'll probably grab the ebook version.August 28, 2011
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A former member
@Mike Ilsley
The writeup above says that we'll read one chapter per week... So, I guess as many weeks as the number of chapters i.e. 14 weeks... :-)August 28, 2011
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Mike Ilsley
Hi everyone, how many weeks long is this course? (sorry if I missed that info above)..
August 28, 2011
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Farnaz Bakhtari
Thanks @Gene.
@Mike I'm a big fan. Went through most of your lessens. ThanksAugust 25, 2011
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Gene Babon
@Farnaz -- The weekly projects are entirely driven by the assignments from the book. The author provides HTML and CSS code to download, then walks us through adding JavaScript and jQuery code to enhance the static web page and learn the basics of these technologies along the way. For example, everyone's completed project for Chapter 8 (Navigation) will look identical. ~~ http://bit.ly/n7nSvK
~~ Once we understand how jQuery navigation works, we can easily incorporate into our own projects.August 25, 2011
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A former member
Hi BostonPHP jQuery Jammers! I'm the CEO of appendTo, the team behind http://learn.appendto.com
.The site is a "beta", as you've seen. The next version will be launching soon that fixes all of the issues mentioned. If you'd like to help affect change there, please communicate ideas/features/bugs via http://getsatisfaction.com/appe...
If you'd like to reach out personally, please feel free to email me directly with feedback, we really value it! mike[AT]appendto[DOT]com
August 25, 2011
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Tony Brown
Thanks for the link Gene, I will be able to participate more this semester, summers are always busy for me, looking forward to this.
August 25, 2011
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Farnaz Bakhtari
Thanks for organizing this. Just a question about our homeworks. Are we going to work on the sample codes in the book or are you defining the problems?
I need to take a couple of weeks of in the middle and thought of getting a head start. Thanks.August 24, 2011
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Gene Babon
jQuery jAMmers -- If you would like a preview of some of the exercises you will be working on, feel free to visit my beta site ~~ http://bit.ly/oyrKP3
1 · August 24, 2011
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A former member
Thanks for the final info, Sir... Looking forward to the event. Happy learning all..!
August 23, 2011
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Gene Babon
jQuery jAMmers -- Anyone concerned about ordering the first edition before the second edition becomes available in October can opt to access the first edition for free at Google Books -- http://bit.ly/oRxPkT
August 23, 2011
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Gene Babon
jQuery jAMmers -- Thank you all for your comments and patience. Decision time. Based on the feedback provided, appendTo appears to be a nice, if not quite ready for prime time, companion. We will use "JavaScript: The Missing Manual" as our primary resource. Michael has approved this book for use in this course and placed it in our bookstore for ordering in one of two formats. ~~ http://store.bostonphp.org/
~~ Let's start jAMmin' ~ GeneAugust 23, 2011
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A former member
What's the final decision friends..? Should I get that Missing Manual book for the event or are we moving to appendTo ?
August 23, 2011
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James Burns
I too initially had problems understanding the use of fiddle unil I noticed that it was opening another browser window which didn't always function with IE. I switched to FireFox and had more success. The DOM Manipulation segment was okay, but the exercise blew me away. I could not make it work like the answer - I got something similar but certainly not the same. There is no code to compare that you're working with the same code.
August 22, 2011
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Jeff Tash
@Alex, thanks for your feedback. My main complaint about learn.appendto.com is that I can't see the output of the Console.log in the video because the author zooms-in which hides the console.log output from the viewer. Also, as a color-blind viewer, I found some of the colors of displayed text hard to read.
August 22, 2011
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Alex Tsepkov
@Jeff, console.log() appears in the browser's debugger, the video uses Safari/Chrome where the debugger can be invoked using ctrl+shift+i (similar to the mac-specific shortcut he mentions in one of the early videos, I think it's command+option+i). If you're using a different browser, you invoke the debugger differently (Firefox needs Firebug -not sure if it still does with latest version, IE9 has inbuilt debugger similar to Chrome, earlier versions of IE do not have a debugger).
August 21, 2011
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Jeff Tash
I must be missing something. I've gone through the first few videos. I cannot see the Console.log output that the speaker is referring. I feel as if there was a lot of magic hand waving describing the environment where the commands are being executed. Granted, I'm running Windows and not a Mac.
I'm really glad I purchased the book.
I love what learn.appendto.com is trying to achieve, but the current set of videos feel more like an "alpha" version of the product. It needs editing.
August 21, 2011
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Ori
Just bought the book, can't wait to get my hands on it and start moving away from old school Javascript. It's getting to the point where I'm embarrassed to show my JS code to other people these days :)
August 21, 2011
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Andrew
I went off on my own and started the head first javascript book. I think ill start jquery afterwards...
August 21, 2011
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Amy Grogan
I agree with @Scott comments. I sat through the first 7 videos in the JS101 section and then did the exercises afterwards. But I got somewhat confused with the jsFiddle app at first. I think using both a written manual and this site in conjunction would beneficial.
August 21, 2011
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Scott Epple
Having gone through a couple chapters in the book and several of the appendTo videos, I'd say the book certainly provides a more in-depth, contextual explanation around each lesson.
I wouldn't mind supplementing the book with the appendTo exercises, but would would vote to keep the book as the centerpiece of the course.
August 21, 2011
189 attended
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Robin
Long time member, Friend of Boston PHP
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Brian K. Johnson
Friend of Boston PHP
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Nan Harbison
Longtime member
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Amy Grogan
Friend of BostonPHP
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Tom Pettingill
Senior Percolator
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Bob Leigh
Alumni of the PHP Percolate Virtual Study Group
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Ori
Friend of Boston PHP
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Peter Loshin
Friend of Boston PHP
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