JQuery UI: Pros and Cons?

Question

I've recently been working on streamlining my website and leaning up my HTML and Javascript. I've already begun replacing the MS Ajax.Net JavaScript on my site with jQuery JavaScript, and now I'm looking at some of the html I'm using for things like popups, tab controls, and buttons.

JQuery UI was brought to my attention a few weeks ago and I've been studying it for a while but I'm afraid to jump right into it. I like the theming and I like that it uses "sprite" like CSS magic for icons. But I've noticed the CSS rounded corners don't work in IE.

So I'm wondering, have/do any of you currently use jQuery UI? If so, what parts are you using? Have you customized it any? What are some pros and cons you've run into?

Thank you for your answers in advance.

Answer 1

Incidentally, I started using jQuery today for the first time :) I am only new to jQuery, but I've dealt with enough JavaScript and other frameworks (prototype, scriptaculous, etc..) to know whats going on.

jQuery is extremely easy to use. Built-in functions are very comprehensive. Compatibility is good. They support most things even in IE6, with the help of plugins.

I've experimented with most of the common UI elements - dialog, accordion, tabs, and some UI effects, animation, fading and stuff. The fact that it took me less than 1 working day to find out about all these and play with them and also implement them in my current website speaks for the very small/short learning curve. (also see this)

Theming is easier than any framework I've seen. They have a nice and easy-to-use theme-builder called ThemeRoller. Changing CSS by hand is almost unnecessary. You can simply change everything using the WYSIWYG editor and download your edited theme. That is going close to professional ($$$) apps!

Very light-weight - ~19KB. Unlike some other monstrous frameworks I've come across.

Haven't run into any problems, yet... obviously. Been using it only for a day. But from experience (first day with a new framework never went this smoothly for me :)), I am not expecting many problems.

Answer 2

I've only used UI Dialog from the group. It works great in all browsers expect of IE8. It consumed 100% CPU when using modal:true. After outcommenting the following line it works like a charm:

$(window).bind('resize.dialog-overlay', $.ui.dialog.overlay.resize);

You can if necessary add an if (!($.browser.msie && $.browser.version >= 8)) to the particular line. The bugfix seems to be targeted on 1.8.

From the remaining of the UI components I didn't have any need to use any of them. I also didn't have a strong feeling of a robust library after checking the bugs. The guys are certainly working well on that, it will certainly improve in the future, but as far now it isn't well-polished enough to me yet to use in production.

Answer 3

First of all, congratulations on switching to jQuery. It's an incredible javascript library and if you're like me you'll love it.

I'm using the UI on several sites, which I mostly like for just grabbing a customized UI build to suite my need.

I predominantly use it for the datepicker and sortables and haven't run into any issues. I find them to be very easily customized if you understand how to use jQuery.

Hope that helps a little bit - enjoy!

Answer 4

I have used JQuery Datepicker and some of the other UI modules along with using JQuery for the most parts of my project.

• It is completely customizable, which makes it easy to modify according to your convenience.

• Basically jQuery is light weight and is also programmer friendly to write scripts in an elegant way.

• I tweaked more on the styling part rather than on functionality to achieve the desired look and feel.

I didn't find anything negative about it till now, may be in future when I use some more of JQuery UI modules

Thanks

Answer 5

If you're starting from scratch, I suggest you take a peek at ExtJS also.

I like JQuery, but I found one too many UI plugins to be buggy. Since ExtJS has fewer third party plugins - and I typically find what ExtJS provides is adequate - I have fewer problems with ExtJS. Since I like the low level DOM manipulation capabilities of JQuery, I usually use it "underneath" ExtJS.

Answer 6

One of the nicest things from jQuery.UI I think is the widget factory, which gives you a quick way of creating your own plug-ins.

check it out : UI_Developer_Guide

Answer 7

I used it a year ago. If one of the widgets fits your needs, that's great. I like the Themeroller.

But, overall, I wasn't thrilled with jQueryUI and I wouldn't use it again. Several small things bugged me until the cumulative feeling was displeasure. I had to fight the model dialog. The accordion animation is jumpy in some browsers. In at least a few of the widgets, there is no difference between the UI's hover state and its depressed state.

Example: http://jqueryui.com/demos/accordion/ At least in the Chrome browser I'm running now, the animation problems with this demo actually cause scroll bars to appear during the animation.

I don't understand why there haven't been any widgets added in at least a year.

I think a lot of my disappoint with jQueryUI comes from how much I like jQuery and what I expect from an official widget library associated with it.