title: jQuery - Features you couldn't live without
body: <p>I was conversing with a fellow coder last night and jQuery came up - he had never come across <strong>jTemplates</strong> or ever considered something like it may exist... </p>
  
  <p>It got me thinking - <em>how many other incredibly useful features exist in jQuery that aren't being used because perfectly serviceable alternatives exist</em>?</p>
  
  <p>I am hoping this question doesn't get closed - I'm aware it doesn't follow the modern Stack-Overflow QA paradigm, but I think it could form a useful resource and questions like this used to be common, so <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9033/hidden-features-of-c">C#</a>, <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61088/hidden-features-of-javascript">javascript</a> etc have similar offerings.</p>
  
  <p>I'll start with the obvious:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><strong>Selectors</strong> Need I say more?</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>Appearance Modifiers</strong> - Various visual <em>effects</em> that can easily be applied to DOM elements. See <a href="http://api.jquery.com/category/effects/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>jQuery UI</strong> particularly useful in conjunction with the <a href="http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ThemeRoller</a>. Also many widgets and interactions. So far, I've only used the <strong>Dialogue</strong> and <strong>Slider</strong> controls, both performing excellently. <a href="http://jqueryui.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">See here</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>.ajax</strong> and it's variants (.get(), .load() etc.) - Takes all the pain out of making ajax requests. <a href="http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">See here</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>.live</strong> Attach an event handler to all elements matching the selector now <em>and in the future</em>! Genius! <a href="http://api.jquery.com/live/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">See here</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>jTemplates</strong> - Alternative to the jQuery.tmpl() function, this plugin allows you to create powerful html templates for rendering data client-side. <a href="http://jtemplates.tpython.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">See here.</a> </p></li>
  <li><p><strong>qTip2</strong> - Still officially in beta, but this plugin is simply the best for creating tooltips and much much more. <a href="http://craigsworks.com/projects/qtip2/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">See here</a>.</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>Deferred</strong> - A clean and sensible way to manage asynchronous code. See <a href="http://intridea.com/2011/2/8/fun-with-jquery-deferred?blog=company" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> for basic info and further links.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Please add anything I've missed, and I will update my list accordingly.</p>