I am designing a website utilizing CI and jquery.
I have today been working on a registration script.
I was playing with jquery, and realized it could do a lot of cool stuff.
For example, I want the script to check username availability for example on the fly. Then i want it to check that the users password is secure on the fly..
I wrote the jquery for the former, then attempted to to implement the functionality for the password.
The thing is.. as they both use different models, and return different results, and return different text responses, it simply seemed easy to copy the code, and simply change the variables, file calls, and text for each.
It works perfectly.. I have around 70 lines of code ... a lot of it very repetitive. I was just wondering what the footprint of jquery within an app is.
On top of this.. Im doing stuff, then realizing i can do something else pretty cool.. as such I am doing things with jquery which i dont need, but am doing simply because they are cool..
Could someone put into a little perspective the footprint of jquery, and to what extent i should use it 'just because its cool'?
Well considering jQuery is Javascript (as it was written in javascript) than it isn't going away any time soon. But you have to weigh the pros and cons of what exactly you are trying to accomplish. jQuery doesn't have to be the entire solution to a problem domain. What it can be is part of the solution to a problem.
What I mean by this is jQuery is a nice small robust library that helps solve particular issues, it will never replace server side processing as it works on the client side. What it helps with is the user experience. If the "cool" things you have done have improved your UI then +1 to ya. If you're just making things animate and disappear because it's cool BUT at the same time affects the UI in a negative manner get rid of it. I'd rather see a message div stay on my screen rather then see it flicker and then come fully into effect. Sure the flickering is cool but you have to play the role of the end user and weigh the pros and cons of the "cool" things.
Good luck.