Adding jQuery to Your Web Pages
There are several ways to start using jQuery on your web site. You can:
- Download the jQuery library from jQuery.com
- Include jQuery from a CDN, like Google
Downloading jQuery
There are two versions of jQuery available for downloading:
- Production version – this is for your live website because it has been minified and compressed
- Development version – this is for testing and development (uncompressed and readable code)
Both versions can be downloaded from jQuery.com.
The jQuery library is a single JavaScript file, and you reference it with the HTML <script> tag (notice that the <script> tag should be inside the <head> section):
<head>
<script src=”jquery-1.11.0.min.js”></script>
</head>
<script src=”jquery-1.11.0.min.js”></script>
</head>
Tip: Place the downloaded file in the same directory as the pages where you wish to use it.
Alternatives to Downloading
If you don’t want to download and host jQuery yourself, you can include it from a CDN (Content Delivery Network).
Both Google and Microsoft host jQuery.
To use jQuery from Google or Microsoft, use one of the following:
Google CDN:
<head>
<script src=”http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.0/jquery.min.js”></script>
</head>
<script src=”http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.0/jquery.min.js”></script>
</head>
Microsoft CDN:
<head>
<script src=”http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.11.0.min.js”></script>
</head>
<script src=”http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.11.0.min.js”></script>
</head>