Customer Reviews

JavaScript Application Cookbook

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I must say I don't understand some of you saying this book isn't what you hoped for - you certainly didn't know what you were buying. As for being an "application cookbook" this book does what it's supposed to do and does it well.

The application examples include an online test system, a slideshow/image viewer and something I found very useful, a cookie based shopping cart. Even if there isn't really a wide variety of different examples, those provided are advanced enough to show the capabilities of JavaScript at a high level, and gave me ideas on other things I could program myself, using the examples as guidelines while moving along..

My impression of the code in the book is that it is clean and hi-qual, it works w/o glitches in 4.x gen browser, which really are what you should be developing for these days.

Only gripe is the price.. a little too much maybe.. but I guess I could live with that after saving alot of work cop.. *cough* .. learning from the code in the book :)

When I received my copy of the JavaScript Cookbook, I got exactly what I was looking for - a JAVASCRIPT resource. This is a solid piece of work that not only includes practical web ready applications & code, but also provides clear and concise explanations each step of the way. I found most of these explanations to hold considerable value beyond just the scope of the particular recipe; I had no problem using them to broaden my understanding in the bigger picture of JavaScript.

I found Bradenbaugh's book quite helpful and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in expanding their bag of JS tricks with immediate applicability. (I am currently using the client-side search engine application, and have dog-eared a handful of practical JS functions in Chapter 6). However, to all those reviewers below looking to learn Perl, you might want to first read this book's title before you pick it up.

I definately stress that you have some experience with Java script before diving into this book but it is by far one of the best intros I've read. This book guides you through semi-complicated to very complex application designs that would be useful for any web site. The coments on the code are clear and pretty much line by line explainations. This book will be exceptionally useful to the user wanting to refine his/her Java script skills in regards to the web. Its books like this that make O'Reilly what they are.

The title is 'JavaScript Application Cookbook'. The author says he aimed to provide complete applications in JavaScript to demonstrate its power and in my opinion, he has done this extremely well.

If you don't quite have the time to try and build entire applications, or would like to use cross-browser JavaScript to its fullest extent, then this book is highly recommended - kudos to the author. If you're looking for a JScript reference, stick with JavaScript : The Definitive Reference by David Flanagan or the JavaScript Bible by Danny Goodman.

I, too, would have preferred a 'Perl Cookbook' or 'Numerical Recipes' style book. Granted, this would have put it out of reach of beginners, but it would have filled a hole in the current selection of advanced Javascript texts. The book covers a number of sample applications with snippets of general explaination sprinkled throughout. Most of the commentary is specific to the applications, though. And it concentrates on how the code works not why particular choices were made in the coding. The general explainations are kinda basic - how nested loops work, how to use eval(), avoiding multiple document.write() calls using variables. And they avoid important issues related to those topics - that the eval() function requires a lot of overhead so using array notation to access members of collections should be used whenever possible and single document.write() calls aren't only pretty but can prevent applications from crashing in particular circumstances.

Chapter 6 covers javascript source files (external .js files). I would have liked to see more coverage because they allow code to be cached and reused and they allow greater maintainability of existing applications. The presented libraries themselves leave a bit to be desired. cookies.js is a standard but others such as frames.js and arrays.js are a bit skimpy - I've seen better on the web at places like WebMonkey.com. The dhtml.js library is almost useless - show() and hide() functions only. And using the images.js library would result in the same bloated pages created by using the builtin image functions in authoring environments like Dreamweaver or GoLive. At least they could have provided a scalable, portable, easily customizable and maintainable image rollover function.

Another concern is that there is no mention of the Mozilla project (the long-awaited Netscape 5) or even of Document Object Model support in IE5. The one DHTML application sticks to 4.x functionality.

If you find the leap between a beginner book like 'Visual QuickStart: JavaScript 1.2 for the World Wide Web' and a robust reference like 'JavaScript: The Definitive Guide' too much, this book might be helpful but the few lessons in it will be quickly learned and you will soon be looking for more.

The text is focused on providing ready built constructs that can be applied to any website. In summary this book contains 11 application constructs. 3 are possibly applicable in todays world, albeit their relevancy is questioned, the other 9 topics such as text ciphers in JavaScript and Shopping Carts in JavaScript, etc. are completely unacceptable in today's world. Adding text cipher or Shopping cart logic in the browser completely exposes that logic to the hacking public leaving your site completely vulnerable to attack. Even in 1999, when this book was written, this would have been a ridiculous way of implementing these things. I must say I gathered no useful information from this text. And as for the author, anyone who had their site implemented by this person should hire a professional to correct the security holes he has most likely left behind.

Let me preface this by saying that I know squat (a little less than squat, actually) about Perl. Period. As a matter of fact, I'm a Java newbie. BUT, Jerry's book HAS given me the ability to quickly integrate Java Script into websites, while explaining me the basic / essential underlying functionality. It's a great tutorial for someone at my level, and for my uses, this book is GREAT!

The only thing that kept me from going to 5 stars is that I WANT MORE (yes, I am greedy). If there were a vol. 2, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

The prior reviewer didn't review the book so much as Javascript itself. While I can appreciate that he/she likes Perl better, saying that while reviewing a Javascript book is silly.

This is a decent book, on the order of the Perl Cookbook. 'Nuff said.

Anyone interested in serious programming with Javascript should definitely consider "Javascript Application Cookbook" by Jerry Bradembaugh. First and foremost, this book is not for the lighthearted. One should be well versed with programming (Javascript, Java, C, C++) before considering taking on this book.

From the very first sample (Online Test), I knew this book would be teaching me a lot of new techniques. Having a web-based application running solely (actually, more like 99%) on Javascript is great. Bradenbaugh is very thorough in his writing, explaining, and guiding readers through various sections of each application. His presentations of the processes and variables used are so helpful when walking through the source code.

Right out of the book, there is no need to configure anything except to download the samples. Once you have it saved on your machine, it's time to make things happen. The best thing about the author's walk-through is that he tells you explicitly what is going on, and he offers ways to enhance each application. That's a must when you are looking for ideas from someone with as much knowledge as he has.

I see combining several chapters worth of code into a bigger and better application. For example, using the file I/O techniques used in the Online Test application in conjunction with the Slideshow application, one could create a database of images used and allow users to load and save them. Better yet, why not offer something like a shopping cart for your users to select which image to include in a slideshow. The possibilities are endless from the use of this book. If time permits, incorporate other functions and create a true scripting-library. Use the include directive to bring in what is needed to make your application lean and user-friendly.

There are some sample chapters of the JavaScript...

As a javascript, I started using this book after studying Goodman's "The Javascript Bible", hoping to study some real-life applications. The code is nicely written and fully commented. But most of the examples do not work on today's browsers (IE6 and Firefox 1.0 when this review was written), so in this respect, the book is useless.