DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model [Paperback]

Jeremy Keith (Author), Jeffrey Sambells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430233893 | ISBN-13: 978-1430233893 | Edition: 2

With this second edition of the popular DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model comes a modern revision to update best practices and guidelines. It includes full coverage of HTML5 in a new, dedicated chapter, and details on JavaScript libraries and how they can help your scripting.

The book provides everything you'll need to start using JavaScript and the Document Object Model to enhance your web pages with client-side dynamic effects and user-controlled animation. It shows how JavaScript, HTML5, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) work together to create usable, standards-compliant web designs. We'll also cover cross-browser compatibility with DOM scripts and how to make sure they degrade gracefully when JavaScript isn't available.

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model focuses on JavaScript for adding dynamic effects and manipulating page structure on the fly using the Document Object Model. You'll start with a crash course in JavaScript and the DOM, then move on to several real-world examples that you'll build from scratch, including dynamic image galleries and dynamic menus. You'll also learn how to manipulate web page styles using the CSS DOM, and create markup on the fly.

If you want to create websites that are beautiful, dynamic, accessible, and standards-compliant, this is the book for you!

What you’ll learn

• Apply dynamic behavior to your pages without inserting JavaScript in your markup
• Write scripts that degrade gracefully when JavaScript isn’t available
• Use web standards to ensure cross-browser compatibility
• Harness the power of the DOM to create user-controlled animation
• Also includes an introduction to Ajax

Who this book is for

This book is for web developers wanting to expand their knowledge of the DOM to add interactivity and functionality to their web pages.

Table of Contents

1. A Brief History of JavaScript
2. JavaScript Syntax
3. The Document Object Model
4. A JavaScript Image Gallery
5. Best Practices
6. The Image Gallery Revisited
7. Creating Markup on the Fly
8. Enhancing Content
9. CSS-DOM
10. An Animated Slideshow
11. HTML5
12. Putting It All Together
13. DOM Scripting Libraries

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeremy Keith is a web developer living and working in Brighton, England. Working with the web consultancy firm Clearleft (Clearleft.com), he enjoys building accessible, elegant websites using the troika of web standards: XHTML, CSS, and the DOM. His online home is Adactio.com. Jeremy is also a member of the WebStandards.org, where he serves as joint leader of the DOM Scripting Task Force. When he's not building websites, Jeremy plays bouzouki in the alt.country band Salter Cane (SalterCane.com). He is also the creator and curator of one of the web's largest online communities dedicated to Irish traditional music, TheSession.org.

Jeffrey Sambells is a graphic designer and self-taught web applications developer best known for his unique ability to merge the visual world of graphics with the mental realm of code. With a bachelor of technology degree in graphic communications management along with a minor in multimedia, Jeffrey was originally trained for the traditional paper-and-ink printing industry, but he soon realized the world of pixels and code was where his ideas would prosper. In late 1999, he cofounded We-Create, Inc., an Internet software company based in Waterloo, Ontario, which began many long nights of challenging and creative innovation. Currently, as director of research and development for We-Create, Jeffrey is responsible for investigating new and emerging Internet technologies and integrating them using web standards-compliant methods. In late 2005, he also became a Zend Certified Engineer. When not playing at the office, Jeffrey enjoys a variety of hobbies from photography to woodworking. When the opportunity arises, he also enjoys floating in a canoe on the lakes of Algonquin Provincial Park or going on an adventurous, map-free, drive with his wife. Jeffrey also maintains a personal website at JeffreySambells.com, where he shares thoughts, ideas, and opinions about web technologies, photography, design, and more. He lives in Ontario, Canada, eh, with his wife, Stephanie, his daughter, Addison, and their little dog, Milo.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: friendsofED; 2 edition (December 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430233893
• ISBN-13: 978-1430233893
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Programming > JavaScript

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Learned a lot from this book January 25, 2011

By Lydia Carlsson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Why I bought this book: Building dynamic websites looks like fun. The first edition got great reviews. I decided to buy the second edition because it contains some info about HTML5.

My review: I thoroughly enjoyed the book and finished it in a few days. It is a friendly introduction to the DOM, CSS, and Javascript. It was helpful that I already went through the quick W3C online tutorials on HTML, DOM, CSS, and Javascript. That's all you really need as prerequisites. The book explains many issues clearly and in a step-by-step fashion. There are several typos but they were pretty obvious and did not hinder my learning. The code examples are fun.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction February 6, 2011

By Ty

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book because I'm pretty comfortable using html and css to build static web-pages, and wanted to learn what I could add with Javascript. The book delivered on this front, providing a series of examples that walk you through the process of adding javascript enhancements to your html.

The coverage of javascript itself is relatively minimal - just what you need to do to complete the examples. I'll definitely be spending some time with a more thorough reference (book or website) to get a deeper understanding of the language. That said, this is still a very valuable book. Many of the javascript reference books I've seen cover the language in great depth, but leave me wondering "where do I start? how do I actually use this stuff on a webpage?". Dom Scripting takes the opposite approach - you can dig up language details pretty easily on the web, so here are some best practices for tying it all together.

The examples are built up in small increments, starting with the basic behaviour, rounding out the rough edges, and making sure your code follows standard practices and degrades gracefully in older browsers.

Four stars. It's a good, but not perfect book. A little more variety in the examples, and perhaps a quick-reference/glossary/appendix for basic language constructs would extend the value of the book for newcomers.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Web Designers - THE ONLY REVIEW YOU NEED TO READ February 16, 2011

By Duque

Format:Paperback

HTML 5 is here, okay... but wait, to understand the power of html5 and actually use it, you need to know javascript.
While searching for a good book and reading reviews on HTML5, one comment struck my attention: "You better get into javascript before... and I recommend DOM Scripting by..."
After searching for this book I decided to go with it. It is simply amazing and does teach you the basics of javascript for any beginner entry level.

The book is well explained and above all, it doesn't only tells you to copy paste the code, but it actually explains step by step why you use this and why you use that and the thumb rules and shows you not one way to do it, but two ways and it's up to you to choose which way you want to code javascript.
Without any prior knowledge of javascript, this has definitely opened a new door.

This is really the book that anyone who is starting to learn Javascript from scratch needs. I have been avoiding it for very long and also intimated by taking this step, but if you look into the future, if you don't know javascript, you can't use HTML5 and its rich features. HTML5 will be the new standard, also as browser manufacturers are racing into implementing new standards and features. NOT learning javascript is no longer an option, but a MUST if you want to survive in the Web Industry as HTML5 is here to stay!

You can't go wrong with this book. You just can't.