Yesterday we had an awesome time at Desert Code Camp learning from each other and sharing ideas with each other. I got to present 3 sessions during the day, and here are the slides to each:

• Thinking in JavaScript
• Intro to jQuery
• jQuery Deep Dive ** NOTE: For some strange reason, my server wants to gzip zip files when it downloads them, leading to a double-compressed file. If you’re downloading the zip files in IE, it’ll tell you the file is corrupt. The fault is totally mine, but

the file is not corrupt. If you download the file with FireFox, it will come down just fine. Since you’ll need FireFox to use FireBug, you’ll be just fine. **

Thinking in JavaScript

This is an awesome introduction to what makes JavaScript different from other C-Style languages such as C#, Java, C/C++, Perl, etc. There are a few differences you need to understand, and with those in mind, you can leverage your existing skills in this new world with ease.

Intro to jQuery

In this session, we look at the most common use of jQuery – picking something, then doing something with each item selected. For example: $("p").css("background-color","#cccccc"); In that single line, we’re able to search through the entire dom for all <p> tags, and set their background-color to gray. 1 line. That’s awesome. We also briefly summarize some of the other stuff you get for your 26k now only 19k library script inclusion: AJAX, Animation, Traversing and modifying the dom, etc.

jQuery Deep Dive

Here we briefly reviewed the “pick something, then do something with each” techniques. Then we dive right in with AJAX: using GET and POST to retrieve content, sending parameters in the query string or as post parameters, techniques to call ASP.NET AJAX web services and page methods – without a ScriptManager on the page, built-in jQuery animation, how use and build plugins, and how to interact with server-side controls and page life cycle. By the time we were done with all that, we were definitely ready for lunch.

Desert Code Camp is a great opportunity for coders of all skill levels and all technology backgrounds to share and learn.  I thank you for the opportunity to learn with you.  See you at the next Desert Code Camp.