Web Developer.com(r) Guide to Building Intelligent Web Sites with JavaScript [Paperback]

Nigel Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0471242748 | ISBN-13: 978-0471242741 | Edition: 1

A quick, easy guide to building cutting-edge intelligence into your website

Without "smart," interactive content, your website just won't cut it with today's savvy Web surfers. Fortunately, with JavaScript, it's now incredibly easy to build intelligent sites, and this book shows you how.

Featuring a rapid skill-building format, this book is organized around goals you want to accomplish with JavaScript rather than the language's technical aspects. Even if you've never programmed a line of code in your life, you'll quickly learn how to enliven your site with the smarts it needs to automatically tailor its content to an individual user's needs, solve problems, make decisions, create new pages on the fly, and even close sales!

Nigel Ford eases you into the basics of JavaScript and then, with the help of dozens of vivid examples, teaches you:
* Basic and advanced techniques for adding intelligence to your Web pages
* How to store different types of knowledge in your Web pages
* Techniques for handling requests, accessing files, and using databases in server-side JavaScript
* Programming for language processing, searching, problem solving, and game playing
* How to program for both the client side and server side with JavaScript.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Ford's book is aimed at folks who want to add interactivity to web sites with JavaScript. The first half of the book consists of three chapters: obtaining information from users, processing information to add value, and communicating results. Providing good reference value, Ford uses a structure of a desired "action" followed by "how-to-do-it" instructions. His general actions, for which most people will have some use, include prompting the reader for information and using a text box. The second half of the book discusses problem-solving, storing knowledge, pattern matching, game playing, dynamic HTML, and JavaScript. This is an excellent book for beginners, who can advance into very complex design considerations in the later chapters.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

This book shows developers without programming experience the easy way to create intelligent applications and increase interactivity. Covering both the client and server aspects of JavaScript, it focuses on providing interactive communication, decision making skills, and other intelligent techniques.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471242748
• ISBN-13: 978-0471242741
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent into to JavaScript, April 23, 1998

By 

Gary M. Gudinkas (Hartford, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Developer.com(r) Guide to Building Intelligent Web Sites with JavaScript (Paperback)

Very good book as in introduction to JavaScript. Clear and concise descriptions and examples, that actually work! This isn't a good book for the experienced programmer looking for a desk reference (though it's not too bad in that regards), but is a great book for someone wanting to get started with JavaScript.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AI via JavaScript!, November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Developer.com(r) Guide to Building Intelligent Web Sites with JavaScript (Paperback)

This is a neat book. First, it is one of the best intros with useful examples. Part way through, Mr. Ford starts to show us 'Intelligent' apps like simple rule-based expert systems, search, and problem-solving. You can start the book knowing nothing about JS, and end up doing some quite sophisticated programming when you finish the book.

I looked at 10-15 books, and bought this one... it works! LISP and Prolog hackers take a look!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful introduction to JavaScript and programming techniques, July 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Developer.com(r) Guide to Building Intelligent Web Sites with JavaScript (Paperback)

Ford begins with useful code samples to illustrate the basic grammar and syntax of JavaScript. In the second half of the book he provides an interesting introduction to programming techniques that could be adopted for use in any language. I teach a JavaScript course and this will be the text.