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jQuery 1.4 Alpha 1 Released

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Hot off the presses: jQuery 1.4 Alpha 1 is released! This is the first alpha release of jQuery 1.4. The code is stable (passing all tests in all browsers we support), feature-complete (we’re no longer accepting new features for the release), and needs to be tested in live applications.

Grab the code:

NOTE: If you’re using jQuery 1.4a1 and you run into an error please make sure that you’re using the regular version of the code, it’ll make it easier to spot where the error is occurring.

How can I help?

To start, try dropping the above un-minified version of jQuery 1.4a1 into a live application that you’re running. If you hit an exception or some weirdness occurs immediately login to the bug tracker and file a bug. Be sure to mention that you hit the bug in jQuery 1.4a1!

We’ll be closely monitoring the bug reports that come in and will work hard to fix any inconsistencies between jQuery 1.3.2 and jQuery 1.4.

What to Watch For

There are a few areas in jQuery that have seen extensive changes since 1.3.2 was released:

  • live was drastically overhauled and now supports submit, change, mouseenter, mouseleave, focus, and blur events in all browsers. Also now supports context and data.
  • append, prepend, etc. have been heavily optimized.
  • add has been adjusted to always return elements in document order.
  • find, empty, remove, addClass, removeClass, hasClass, attr, and css have been heavily optimized.

Full details concerning the release are forthcoming – for now we just need your help in catch regressions. Some more details can be found in John Resig’s keynote at the 2009 jQuery Conference.

Note: There are still a few open bugs that we will be reviewing before jQuery 1.4 final is released.

With your input we should be able to produce a solid release. Right now we’re looking to push out at least one more alpha before the holiday season and a final release candidate early in January. Thanks for your help in reviewing jQuery 1.4a1!

Foundation

jQuery Joins the Software Freedom Conservancy

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You’ve been hearing for almost a year now that the jQuery Project was going to join the Software Freedom Conservancy.  As we stated on January 14th, 2009:

By joining The Software Freedom Conservancy, the jQuery projects and community immediately realize some important benefits:

  • It allows the current project members to continue to manage the projects and maintain ultimate responsibility for the direction of current and future efforts.
  • It allows the projects to be considered a true non-profit efforts allowing us to be able to accept donations and contributions without incurring tremendous personal financial liability.
  • The copyright of the code will be assigned to the conservancy thus ensuring that no single person will own contributions or assets of the project.
  • It may allow corporations to write off time when an employee contributes to a project.
  • Most importantly, it ensures that the jQuery projects will always be open and free software.

This is a big step in formalizing the jQuery projects and an important accomplishment in ensuring that the investment being made by the jQuery community is protected.

The Software Freedom Conservancy outlines the benefits of joining quite well:

One of the principal benefits of joining the Conservancy is that member projects get all the protections of being a corporate entity without actually having to form and maintain one. These benefits include, most notably, the ability to collect earmarked project donations and protection from personal liability for the developers of the project. Projects can continue to operate in the same way they did before joining the Conservancy without having to select a board of directors or any other layer of corporate management, without having to maintain corporate records and without having to do any of the other things required of incorporated entities. The Conservancy handles all of that burden on behalf of its projects.

The Conservancy is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, so member projects can receive tax-deductible donations to the extent permitted by law. The Conservancy files a single tax return that covers all of its member projects and handles other corporate and tax related issues on behalf of its members, who are, of course, always free to join and leave the Conservancy at any time. Additionally, by not having to form a new organization, projects avoid having to pay the fees and spend the time required by the state incorporation and federal tax exemption application processes.

On September 11th, 2009, at the jQuery DevDays in Boston, MA the whole team was together and the documents were signed to officially join the Conservancy.

jQuery Team Signs Documents to join Software Freedom Conservancy

Left to Right: Brandon Aaron, Rey Bango, John Resig, Paul Bakaus, Richard D. Worth and Cody Lindley look on as the documents are signed. (Photo by Jörn Zafferer)

Since then we’ve formed the jQuery Project and have formalized a voting process to vote on adding or removing voting members, financial spending, etc.  Voting is done in public, and you can monitor votes here.

jQuery’s financials have also been transferred to the Conservancy and all your great donations are now managed by the Conservancy based on the direction of the voting members of the jQuery team.

Late last month the final details required by the Conservancy were ironed out and on Tuesday this week the Conservancy welcomed the jQuery Project as its 19th member.

One final detail we are still working on is transferring the copyright of the code to the Foundation.  We are hoping to get that done in the near future.  Transferring the copyright to the Foundation will ensure that the code will live forever.

You can listen to John Resig talk more about joining the Software Freedom Conservancy in Episode 1 of the Official jQuery Podcast.

Uncategorized | Weekly News

Announcing the Official jQuery Podcast

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On Wednesday night, Ralph Whitbeck and Elijah Manor recorded the first of many weekly episodes that aim to interview key members of the jQuery Community while bringing you the top news from the past week.

We will be recording and streaming the audio live each Wednesday night at 10PM EST on uStream.  You can also subscribe to the show via iTunes or via the RSS Feed.
Our guest this week was jQuery creator, John Resig.

Future shows will have guests such as Richard D. Worth (jQuery UI Release Manager), Paul Irish (yayQuery podcast), Rey Bango (jQuery Evangelist), Ben Alman (jQuery Plugin Author) plus many more.

We will be posting the show notes on the blog each week below is the show note for episode 1.

Continue reading →
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jQuery Summit – Nov. 19th

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jQuery Summit

Environments for Humans is running a one-day, online conference focusing on jQuery. The conference will be on November 19th and will feature a number of prominent members of the jQuery community, including members of the jQuery team.

The following talks are slated for the jQuery Summit:

  • The State of jQuery – John Resig
  • Web Interface Essentials – Marc Grabanski
  • RIAs: Building for the Desktop with the Web – Jonathan Snook
  • Rich Interactivity, Simplified, with jQuery UI – Richard Worth
  • Refactoring jQuery – Jonathan Sharp
  • JavaScript for Designers – David McFarland
  • Building Robust jQuery Plugins – Jörn Zaefferer
  • jQuery Anti-Patterns for Performance & Compression – Paul Irish

While a number of these talks are reprisals from the recent jQuery conference, this event is not being run by the jQuery project. That being said, it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and we encourage those that missed the conference in September to check it out.

All attendees will be receiving a free copy of the upcoming jQuery Cookbook, from O’Reilly. Additionally a number of prizes will be given away to attendees (books, DVDs, etc.).

Register for the jQuery Summit

There is a ticket discount in effect until October 30th. Additionally, if you register and use the discount code JQRYRESIGJ you’ll save an extra 10% off the overall price. A portion of the proceeds will be coming back to help fund the project.

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code.jquery.com Redirected to Google Ajax APIs

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Starting at 10PM MT on August 20th, code.jquery.com will start redirecting (301) to ajax.googleapis.com [http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/documentation/index.html#jquery].

Immediate Impact:

Long Term:

Full documentation of Google’s Ajax API are available at http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/documentation/index.html#jquery. Continue reading →

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Fall 2009 jQuery Talks

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Reminder: While the upcoming jQuery Conference is already sold out, we’re still looking for some excellent talks. We’re accepting talk proposals until the 15th. If your talk is accepted your ticket fee will be waived.

Even if you can’t make the jQuery Conference, though, there are a number of opportunities to meet members of the jQuery team, hear talks about jQuery, or generally mingle with other jQuery users coming up in the next couple months. If you happen to know of any other talks or events please comment below and we’ll add them.