Leave your answers in the comments.

1. Name (anonymous if you must)
2. Are you using jQuery corporately or for your personal use?
3. Describe how you are using jQuery.
4. Showcase! Link to any of your projects that use jQuery.

We would really like to get to know a lot of you better, not just the hardcore developers but the everyday users. So give us the scoop!

(Or, “let us know a little about you, and shamelessly plug your projects, too!”).

UPDATE: Thanks to all who have responded so far.

I have to say, I am astonished at how many of you are using jQuery for corporate sites. Many of you (or your companies) might consider donating to the jQuery project from the homepage. Of course, this is not required, but it does ensure jQuery stays strong by covering the costs of development and keeping the monthly server bill in check. :)

And to that I will add: bug reports, plugins, and other contributions to the community are equally valuable as donations. My point: Let’s remember to all give back in whatever ways we can.

All of your comments are invaluable, whether you’re a big-timer working on corporate sites or a small-timer building a webapp just for fun. Keep ’em coming!

The first issue of the brand-new Visual jQuery magazine has been released. It is available for download in PDF format.

The purpose of the Visual jQuery Magazine is to provide information about jQuery for beginners and advanced developers, interviews with interesting members of the jQuery community, and details on how to maximize your use of the framework through plugins and other tips.

The first issue includes:

• An editorial comment about the magazine
• Winning on Philosophy: Why jQuery’s Approach Works
• The Man Behind the Magic: An interview with John Resig
• jQuery Tutorial: An introduction to the jQuery object
• Plugins for rich application development.
• Meet Dave Cardwell, the developer of jqBrowser and jqMaxMin
• A cool back-page ad (trust me, you want to take a look)

Issue 2 will feature more of the same jQuery goodness:

• Meet Klaus Hartl, the developer of jQuery tabs who works on Plazes
• jQuery Tutorial: An introduction to jQuery’s AJAX functionality
• Plugins useful for visual effects
• Letters from our readers

So run, don’t walk, and download the magazine today!

Update: Please digg the magazine or add it to your other social bookmarking sites like delicious.

Excellent news today: Paul Bakaus has received sponsorship from his employer, New Identity AG, to contribute back to jQuery project. He’s being given a chunk of hours under which he is sponsored to develop jQuery-related code. All of this is going straight back in to the community.

This is in addition to the fact that New Identity AG is in the process of making some major switches over to using jQuery as their primary JavaScript library. They have a number of high profile clients that they develop for.

Paul is going to begin by undertaking a number of tasks that have been “in the works”, namely: A Prototype support plugin, Cross-browser utility methods, and improved functionality and bug fixes for Interface.

This is a clear sign of a couple things: That jQuery’s German user-base is growing quite well, that development will move at an even quicker pace now, and that Interface is becoming an integral part of the full “jQuery package.” Expect to see some important updates in the pipeline, soon.

If you’re new to jQuery, you might not know that it has a very extensible plugin architecture. That’s not to imply that it’s a complicated one; it’s not!

One of the popular features of jQuery is the built-in effects library. Using jQuery’s plugin architecture, a number of smart people have taken the built-in effects one step further, creating some very pleasing modules for image enhancement.

Three to check out:

jCarousel
http://sorgalla.com/pages/jcarousel.html

jCarousel by Jan Sorgalla displays image thumbnails in a horizontal or vertical component. Configuration is pretty straightforward, and sufficient documentation is available on the plugin page. jCarousel can tie into Flickr, load static images, or dynamically load via AJAX.

Interface
http://interface.eyecon.ro/ [main]
http://interface.eyecon.ro/demos/slideshow.html [slideshow demo]

Interface Elements by Stefan Petre has a slideshow component for displaying individual images. Fade-in/fade-out between numbered images with next and previous links. Very usable overall, sharp look and very professional feel.

Thickbox 2.0
http://jquery.com/demo/thickbox/

Cody Lindley recently updated Thickbox to version 2.0, so if you haven’t yet, give it another look.

Browse the full list of plugins to find more enhancements for your projects.

jQuery 1.0 solidified a lot of the framework, but it also introduced some neat structural changes.

First up, the framework now builds via make files, so anybody can check out jQuery from subversion and compile either the packed or unpacked jquery.js for use in their website.

Second of all, jQuery now includes built-in testing, and the make file can build the test suite, which the user can then run in his favorite browser to make sure that the latest checked in version is up to snuff. There aren’t a whole lot of test cases written so far, but that should change moving forward (primarily because it’s so easy to add them).

Most important for me, however, has been the inclusion of inline documentation. Beginning with version 1.0 of jQuery, the documentation of the framework is included in the source files themselves, and John Resig, jQuery’s maintainer, has written a parser that will spit out an XML version of the documentation as part of the makefile (a simple make docs will build the documentation).

Visual jQuery

In the run-up to 1.0, I converted the old Visual jQuery site from a Rails-based solution, that required manual entry of functions, into a site that loads the documentation on the fly as it’s committed to the trunk.

For the less-technical, that means that Visual jQuery will now be updated pretty much as soon as jQuery is updated. Lots of people have found the visual documentation convenient and easy to use, and the new version strives to continue that ease of use.

Thanks to John, the file that his parser spits out is very well optimized for sites like Visual jQuery. He has really made good documentation a priority this time around. And from my perspective, a major part of what sets jQuery apart from the competition is its emphasis on providing readable, good documentation. I’m happy to say that jQuery has made the right choice here. Within the next couple of days, John will have fully documented all jQuery functions (there are a few still to go), and the visual documentation will fully represent the jQuery API.

Visual jQuery Magazine

With that, I have a couple of announcements.

1. Visual jQuery is going to get a major new feature sometime in the next week of two. Specifically, users will have the ability to filter functions (by name and description) through a live-search box. That capability will make it easier to find specific functions.
2. Visual jQuery is launching a monthly online magazine. It will be released in PDF format, and will be available free of charge. The first issue will include an interview with John Resig, our first in a series of articles about the newest and greatest jQuery plugins, and a visual look at the jQuery Object, the centerpiece of the entire jQuery framework. The Magazine will be released the third Wednesday of every month, so Issue 1 of the Magazine, the September 2006 issue, will be released on September 20.

As always, check out VisualjQuery.com for the latest Visual jQuery Documentation and further announcements about the Magazine.

People are really starting to pick up on the “jQuery thing”! I’ve given a number of interviews and presentations lately concerning jQuery. Here are most of the interviews: One for a magazine, two for online articles, and one podcast. Enjoy!

eWeek: jQuery Eases JavaScript, AJAX Development

As more developers adopt the practice of AJAX-style development to create more interactive applications, they are looking for tools to make the job easier.

One such tool is jQuery, which some users say makes AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) development cleaner by making using JavaScript easier. JavaScript is notoriously difficult to work with, said a group of experts at Microsoft’s Lang.Net symposium in early August, in Redmond, Wash.

Drupal Podcast: jQuery Author John Resig

We’ve just posted the 21st episode of the Drupal Podcast! It is an interview with JQuery author, John Resig. We talk about what JQuery is, how it works, and how it will fit into Drupal.

.net Magazine: John Resig of jQuery

Most of the “big” updates to jQuery are going to be community related. I’m now working with a number of international jQuery users who will be translating the documentation and the site’s blog posts into other languages; most likely German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, and French to start with.

Additionally, since jQuery has an incredibly easy plugin architecture, I’m also working on improving the overall developer community and organization – think Sourceforge for jQuery.

InfoWorld: JavaScript, .Net developers aided in separate projects

In the JavaScript arena, the open source jQuery project provides developers with a JavaScript library to improve the quality of Web applications. JQuery makes it easier to write JavaScript and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), said John Resig, lead developer of jQuery and also an author.

“The big thing that makes it different form other JavaScript libraries is it doesn’t really try to impose itself on you,” Resig said. Developers should be able to write shorter code than before while still getting equal if not better functionality, he said.