What Is ". El" in Relationship to Javascript/Html/jQuery?

I couldn't find much from Googling, but I'm probably Googling the wrong terms.

I'm trying to understand what the "el" in "$.el" is from here:

$.el.table(
  $.el.tr(
    $.el.th('first name'),
    $.el.th('last name')),
  $.el.tr(
    $.el.td('Joe'),
    $.el.td('Stelmach'))
).appendTo(document.body);

Thanks in advance!

4 Answers

el is just an identifier and it refers to an element, a DOM element, which is a convention in that library.

1

You can obtain the explanation seeing the source of the project in the github:

// If we're in a CommonJS environment, we export our laconic methods
  if(typeof module !== 'undefined' && module.exports) {
    module.exports = laconic;
  } 

  // otherwise, we attach them to the top level $.el namespace
  else {
    var dollar = context.$ || {};
    dollar.el = laconic;
    context.$ = dollar;
  }

The code means that $.el namespace will have the function laconic() and this function create elements using document.createElement and append to the body.

1

It creates a tree of elements and appends them to body

el is a function that's been placed on the $ object, and can be invoked to generate DOM elements:

$.el('table')

el also acts as a placeholder for other objects, like the table function:

$.el.table()

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James H. Sterling

James H. Sterling

Environmental Science & Climate Journalist

James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.

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