Being in the world of programming and development, I am sure that you would have surely heard about "jQuery". So now in this article I am going to provide you with a simple outline of jQuery Tools. I would let you know, what JQuery is all about, how it can help you and most important, how you can use jQuery.

What is jQuery Tools?

jQuery Tools is a collection of the most important user-interface components for today’s websites. This single JavaScript file weighs only 5.8 Kb. This library contains some useful JavaScript tools like tabs, tooltips, accordions, overlays, smooth navigation, great visual effects and all those “web 2.0? goodies that you have seen on your favourite websites.

You don’t need to be a programmer to use these tools. They have lots of Demos you can explore and you can copy their source code to your site and things will work. Each tool is used in a similar manner and by learning one tool you can easily learn the other tools.

And above all, the library is constantly maintained and updated. Expect to see new releases coming out on a regular basis. This library is dual licensed under MIT and GPL 2+ licenses.

What is in the jQuery Tools?

This library contains six of the most useful JavaScript tools available for today’s website. The beauty of this library is that all of these tools can be used together, extended, configured and styled. In the end, you can have hundreds of different widgets and new personal ways of using the library. This library is open source and dual licensed under MIT and GPL 2+ licenses.

The package contains a slew of demos including:
 
    * Tabs
    * Tooltips
    * Expose
    * Overlay
    * Scrollable
    * Flashembed

jQuery Tools Vs jQuery UI

There has been lot of specualtion over which API is good, jQuery UI or jQuery Tools. jQuery UI provides support for imtegrating drag-and-drop, resizables, selectables or sortable tables in your web applications. On the other hand, jQuery Tools provides support for integrating tabs, tooltips, accordions, overlays, smooth navigation, great visual effects and all those "web 2.0" goodies that you have seen on your favourite websites.But depending upon the functionality provided, it can be said that jQuery Tools flies solo.

Where Can I Get jQuery Tools? 

One can get their hands on this tiny piece of wonder at the official jQuery Tools Developers site