jQuery's popularity in the Ruby on Rails community has been growing in recent months. jQuery, with its unobtrusive nature, has got developers thinking in ways that they haven't done before. jQuery is doing for the implementation of JavaScript what CSS did for the old school table layouts. Ruby on Rails, with its convention over configuration and full stack, makes it extremely simple (and secure) to get a professional web application up and running. Practical Rails with jQuery Projects by Andrew Chalkley aims to bring these two technologies together, the unobtrusive jQuery and the DRY RESTful Rails, in order to make better, faster, lighter Rails applications with jQuery. Using 13 real-world sample application projects, this book empowers today's Rails Web 2.0 developer with the latest and best that jQuery has to offer in terms of JavaScript and more. Projects include a Flickr gallery, RSS feed mashups, iTunes music download charting, your own iGoogle-like custom home page, and more. What you'll learn Maximize Rails by using jQuery. Use jQuery's powerful Ajax applications. Manipulate user events to create rich desktop-like applications. Create super-light and agile professional Web 2.0 applications. Use JavaScript unobtrusively to still allow your application to be accessible by all. Use components of jQuery UI to make simple advanced projects. Who is this book for? The book is aimed at those who are interested in web development or those who are currently in the industry who want to increase their knowledge by learning through a project-by-project approach. It primarily targets members of the loyal Rails community due to their increasing interest in jQuery, and secondly members of the jQuery community who want to expand their knowledge on the server side of things. jQuery can be used to its full potential with Rails. About the Apress Practical Series The Practical series from Apress is your best choice for getting the job done, period. From professional to expert, this series lets you apply project-motivated templates (or frameworks) step by step in a very direct, practical, and efficient manner toward current real-world projects that may be sitting on your desk. So whatever your career goal, Apress can be your trusted guide to take you where you want to go on your IT career empowerment path.