Can anyone recommend some resources for learning jQuery (not just about using other people's jQuery code, but how to say, add some effects to a grid of images etc)
I've been looking through a few books but the examples seem way more simple than anything that's online...
i find that diving right in is good. Their IRC channel has some helpful characters on it.
learningjquery.com is pretty good. Also, there's lots of good info on jQuery.com
I would suggest Googling for jQuery image galleries. Then look through the code line by line for the image galleries you like.
If you don't understand something refer to the jQuery documentation.
For example take a look at the code for Galleria on Github.
To test out little bits of code, or even whole pages, jsFiddle is a great resource.
As an example of how to use jsFiddle to play with jQuery and help you understand it, here is a jsFiddle page that creates an image gallery using Galleria. To understand that page, look at the source for this page. Which shows that you should read the Galleria source and then the theme's source.
Notice how the above takes a grid (well list) of images and adds all sorts of effects. So basically you can use a server side language to generate a list of images in raw HTML, and then you can use jQuery to play with that.
Also, try to build up from the simplest cases, for example here's a quick and simple image slider.
I think both methods will really help you. Reading other people's more complicated code will give you a lot of ideas, and it'll let you see what's possible and how.
Building little test cases will let you apply what you've learned.
I taught myself using jQuery in Action. I knew little to nothing about Javascript, and nothing about jQuery. Within a week (about how long it took to read the book cover to cover) I was up and running, and I've never looked back. Once you know the basics, you can learn about jQuery in depth by looking at the documentation.
Frankly though, the best resource I've found for jQuery is StackOverflow. Once you get a handle on it, start browsing through questions and read both questions and answers. There are certain users that really know their stuff (Nick Craver comes to mind), and following/reading their answers will help a lot. When you're comfortable with it, tackle questions yourself, even if you don't know the answer right away. You'll learn a ton.
For quick practice, or to help solve a problem, you can tinker with code on jsFiddle. It'll help you get into the code quickly, and allow you to see results immediately, so you can get a clearer understanding of what you're doing.
The last suggestion I have is to do projects in jQuery. Come up with an idea for a plug-in (even if someone has already done it) and just give it a shot. I guess what I'm saying is that the best way to learn jQuery is to write it.
Take a look at this:
http://jqfundamentals.com/book/
It's a free online book on JavaScript and JQuery, under free-distribution license. Very good work.
Good reasons to learn jQuery are abundant, its easy to learn lightweight and the end result is amazing animation and effects of all kinds:
You can start with this excellent video tutorials:
http://blog.themeforest.net/screencasts/jquery-for-absolute-beginners-video-series/
It´s a "15 day program" FREE tutorial that will give you a good landscape to (almost) in detail "view" of jQuery almost without any effort!
Good luck!
Trufa