Grab the code:

• jQuery UI 1.8rc1 Zip: http://jquery-ui.googlecode.com/files/jquery-ui-1.8rc1.zip

NOTE: If you’re using jQuery UI 1.8rc1 and you run into an error please make sure that you’re using the regular version (not the minified 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 UI 1.8rc1 into a live application that you’re running. Although, before doing so, make sure you look at the changelogs up to this release to make sure there are no potential conflicts with your code. If you hit an exception or some weirdness occurs immediately post on the Developing jQuery UI forum. Be sure to mention that you hit the bug in jQuery UI 1.8rc1!

We talked with a number of people behind existing jQuery meetup groups and asked them what resources they wanted. Overwhelmingly we heard that they wanted a way to centralize all the planning and discussion around their meetup groups and have a way to get more attention to their groups.

After some research and work we’ve come up with something that should suit the community well:

We looked at a number of potential solutions and eventually went with Ning. Ning provides an easy way to get social communities up and running all while putting very little burden on the jQuery team as maintainers. The Ning team was very gracious and provided us with all the resources that we needed to get it up and running. There exist capabilities for creating meetup groups, having centralized group discussions, and planning out future meetups.

For example, here’s a sample meetup:

As a project we want to try and help local jQuery meetup groups grow and flourish: Being able to talk and network with fellow jQuery users can be a huge boon to development. For now we want to watch and see how the groups take off and eventually try to provide more resources to them (either in the way of more web resources or physical items like pizza, books, t-shirts, etc.). We’d love to get your feedback on this so if you have any questions or suggestions please let us know over in the forums.

In the last installment of Hawtness, Paul covers the things that could potentially break, and walks through each item in detail. If you’re trepidatious about upgrading your 1.3 to 1.4.1, never fear. In addition to this overview, a compatibility plugin is available to those who want a transition as smooth as Jif Creamy™. The code discussed in ep #6 is viewable and forkable on github

Paul is an active member of the jQuery community participating in, and administrating, the jQuery IRC channels and frequently blogging about jQuery and its functionality. He is also the co-creator of the yayQuery podcast. Paul joined the jQuery team to help produce videos for the 14 Days of jQuery and to move the API documentation to its new home for the 1.4 release. As a member of the developer relations team he will work to make sure that the expectations of developers are being met in jQuery itself, helping the core team to communicate clearly and effectively.

Dave is a long-time contributor to jQuery, providing extensive help on the jQuery bug tracker and in the jQuery discussion forums. As a member of the jQuery team he works to provide test cases, triage bugs, and commit to jQuery core.

Join us in welcoming both of them to the team!

I would like to thank the following people that provided patches for this release: Ben Alman, Mike Alsup, Irae Brasil, Matt Curry, Robert Katić, Michael Monteleone, and Karl Swedberg.

Downloading

As usual, we provide two copies of jQuery, one minified (we now use the Google Closure Compiler as the default minifier) and one uncompressed (for debugging or reading).

• jQuery Minified (23kb Gzipped)
• jQuery Regular (157kb)

You can feel free to include the above URLs directly into your site and you will get the full performance benefits of a quickly-loading jQuery.

New Features

A full list of the API changes can be found in the 1.4.1 category on the jQuery API site.

Bug Fixes

• Stop live click from triggering on right click

In Hawtness #5, Paul covers the new hawt element creation syntax, and detach(), data(), toggleClass(), contains(), the Zen-ness of jQuery.noop, and why index() has so much more awesome now. The code discussed in ep #5 is viewable and forkable on github

The team met in Washington, D.C. on January 13th to record all the videos and podcasts for the 14 Days of jQuery, and push out the jQuery 1.4 release. We were graciously hosted by AOL at their headquarters, where we met many happy users of jQuery.

The jQuery Team and Community Members: From Left to Right: Paul Irish, John Resig, Karl Swedberg, Scott González, Jonathan Sharp, Yehuda Katz, Richard Worth, Elijah Manor, Mike Hostetler, and Ralph Whitbeck. Not pictured: Leah Silber.

Behind the Scenes

Ralph Whitbeck recorded a series of videos from when the team was together in Washington D.C. to record all the videos and podcasts for the 14 Days of jQuery.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 1 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

The team that came early is testing the video equipment at Richard D. Worth’s house.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 2 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

The team is finally together and waiting to head out to dinner.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the scenes – Eric Passmore from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

We sat down with Eric Passmore, Aol’s Senior Vice President, Global Publishing Systems and talked about Aol. use of jQuery and thank him for the use of the facility.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 3 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

The team is finallizing the 1.4 release blog post. Heads are down and working feverishly to get it out.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 4 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

Richard D. Worth and Jonathan Sharp are setting up the room for our live uStream with John Resig and other members of the jQuery team

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Keynote from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

This is a look at the production team behind the keynote.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 5 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

John Resig, Jonathan Sharp and Richard Worth are doing final sound checks. Here’s a look at the set up.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 6 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

Ralph and Elijah are recording 6 podcasts while everyone is together. Here we are talking with Mike Hostetler and Jonathan Sharp about appendTo for a future episode.

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – Part 7 from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

The team feverishly works to get the Day 2 blog out before the stroke of midnight, everyone that is except…

14 Days of jQuery – Behind the Scenes – yayQuery from Ralph Whitbeck on Vimeo.

yayQuery’s Paul Irish steals my flip and records some video while we were out eating after day two of video recording.

In Hawtness #4, Paul covers has(), traversing magic, and the ajax- and json-related updates. The code discussed in ep #4 is viewable and forkable on github

First off, they will be giving away a free ticket for their “Advanced jQuery” one-day workshop with jQuery team member Paul Bakaus. The workshop will be held in Wiesbaden, Germany. The winner can choose whether he wants to attend the German workshop on February 22nd or the English one on March 29th.

In order to participate, simply sign up at the Dextrose AG web site. The winner will then be drawn at the end of the 14 days!

If you’d rather not wait until you win, you can also make use of their other special offer: All of Dextrose’s jQuery and
JavaScript related workshops are 50% off the normal price during the 14 Days of jQuery.