Professional JavaScript for Web Developers [Paperback]

Nicholas C. Zakas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1118026691 | ISBN-13: 978-1118026694 | Edition: 3

This book provides a developer-level introduction along with more advanced and useful features of JavaScript. Coverage includes:

• JavaScript use with HTML to create dynamic webpages, language concepts including syntax and flow control statements
• variable handling given their loosely typed nature
• built-in reference types such as object and array
• object-oriented programing
• powerful aspects of function expressions
• Browser Object Model allowing interaction with the browser itself
• detecting the client and its capabilities
• Document Object Model (DOM) objects available in DOM Level 1
• how DOM Levels 2 and 3 augmented the DOM
• events, legacy support, and how the DOM redefined how events should work
• enhancing form interactions and working around browser limitations
• using the <canvas > tag to create on-the-fly graphics
• JavaScript API changes in HTML5
• how browsers handle JavaScript errors and error handling
• features of JavaScript used to read and manipulate XML data
• the JSON data format as an alternative to XML
• Ajax techniques including the use of XMLHttpRequest object and CORS
• complex patterns including function currying, partial function application, and dynamic functions
• offline detection and storing data on the client machine
• techniques for JavaScript in an enterprise environment for better maintainability

This book is aimed at three groups of readers: Experienced object-oriented programming developers looking to learn JavaScript as it relates to traditional OO languages such as Java and C++; Web application developers attempting to enhance site usability; novice JavaScript developers.

Nicholas C. Zakas worked with the Web for over a decade. He has worked on corporate intranet applications used by some of the largest companies in the world and large-scale consumer websites such as MyYahoo! and the Yahoo! homepage. He regularly gives talks at companies and conferences regarding front-end best practices and new technology.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Get up to date on the latest ways to use JavaScript in web development

If you want to achieve JavaScript's full potential, it is critical to understand its nature, history, and limitations. To that end, this updated version of the bestseller by veteran author and JavaScript guru Nicholas C. Zakas covers JavaScript from its very beginning to the present-day incarnations including the DOM, Ajax, and HTML5. Zakas shows you how to extend this powerful language to meet specific needs and create dynamic user interfaces for the web that blur the line between desktop and internet. By the end of the book, you'll have a strong understanding of the significant advances in web development as they relate to JavaScript so that you can apply them to your next website.

Professional JavaScript for Web Developers:

• Offers a detailed discussion of the components that make up a JavaScript implementation

• Zeroes in on new and emerging APIs such as the Selectors API, Web Workers, and Cross-Document Messaging

• Explores object-oriented programming in JavaScript

• Shows how to implement drag and drop file upload with Ajax and the File API

• Highlights the new core language features introduced in ECMAScript5

• Explains how to work with data formats such as XML and JSON

• Looks at what's coming in ECMAScript Harmony

• Walks you through creating offline-capable web applications

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About the Author

Nicholas C. Zakas is a front-end architect who honed his skills working at Yahoo! for five years. He has worked in web development for over a decade, developing web solutions for some of the largest companies in the world. He is the author of previous editions of Professional JavaScript for Web Developers and a coauthor of Professional Ajax.

Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 3 edition (January 18, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118026691
• ISBN-13: 978-1118026694
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Programming > JavaScript
  • #58 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Web Design

More About the Author

Nicholas C. Zakas is a front-end consultant who specializes in user interface design and implementation for web applications using JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, CSS, XML, and XSLT. Has has 15 years of web development experience and spent nearly five years at Yahoo! in various roles, including principal front end engineer for the Yahoo! homepage and contributor to the Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) library, having written the Cookie Utility, Profiler, and YUI Test.

Nicholas is the author of Professional JavaScript for Web Developers and High Performance JavaScript, a co-author on Professional Ajax, and a contributor to Even Faster Web Sites. He has also written for several online sites such as WebReference, Sitepoint, the YUI Blog, A List Apart, and the Web Performance Advent Calendar.

Nicholas regularly gives talks about web development, JavaScript, and best practices. He has given talks at companies such as Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Google, Netflix, TripAdvisor, and NASA, and conferences such as the Ajax Experience, the Rich Web Experience, OSCON, WebDirections, Fronteers, and Velocity.

Through his writing and speaking, Nicholas seeks to teach others the valuable lessons he's learned while working on some of the most popular and demanding web applications in the world. He firmly believes that no difficult problem should need to be solved more than once.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming from a real language? This book is your best bet. November 3, 2012

By Kevin Stokes

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

There is a line from Lion King where little Simba comments on his Uncle Scar's weirdness. Scar replies "You have no idea."

The main point of this review is that Javascript is a really weird contraption, and that this book points this out in a way that is very helpful for programmers coming from more traditional compiled programming languages.

I have programmed in C, C++, Java, C# for many years. I have read other books on Javascript which tried to teach by examples. With normal programming languages, this works fine. However, within a few hours with this book I realized that to understand Javascript, you must give up on some basic expectations you may have as a code developer. This was a surprise to me, but crucial to be able to learn Javascript well enough to work on non-trivial projects with existing code.

Javascript is simply bizarre. There are many different ways to implement object-oriented patterns which all use different-looking code, and have subtle differences, making it so easy to get bitten by unintended consequences. From this book I learned that there is no one solid way to implement the basic pattern of your code, you must make a choice.

If you try to read a Javascript book which teaches by examples, you will be in trouble when you actually start to modify someone else's Javascript code which used a different pattern. This book doesn't just show trivial examples, it methodically goes through how it works in enough detail so you can understand how it is working under the hood.

Also, the text has plenty of warnings about buggy implementations and common pitfalls.... After you get about 1/4 of the way through it you will be wondering how any Javascript code runs on Internet Explorer at all, since about every other page is another 'this-is-broken-in-IE' warning boxes.

The text is written in a very clear style, never glossing over anything. It isn't at all cute or made to be entertaining, just kind of down to business.

There is no question I will be using this book nearly every time I have to work on Javascript code.

If you are just looking to make a little mouse button handler in a web page, this is probably not the book for you. It does not jump right into little useful examples.

If you are coming from a programming background in traditional compiled languages, and you want to know more about Javascript than little tiny scripts, IMHO this book is absolutely necessary. You will never regret purchasing it. Read more ›

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Long but so is the topic March 19, 2012

By J Rosoman

Format:Paperback

I usually get turned of by books this big as I assume they are badly edited. However, before this I read many books on JavaScript and while I learnt a lot from each one I never quite got my head around the more complicated parts of the language such as inheritance until reading this book. Zaka's just explains everything really well, though don't interpret that as meaning at length, I think his chapters are more the natural length of the topics they describe. Not condensed down to 'seem' friendly as in "The Good Parts".
This is the book which finally got me comfortable with the core language, though it also taught me a lot which I didn't expect to be taught or hadn't even heard of such as document fragments and many aspects of the browser API's. So while this book could have been a lot shorter by removing a lot of the stuff most people won't care about, I am glad the author kept them in as I found them interesting. Actually I wish the book was longer. And besides its well enough organised that you could simply skip to 'the good parts' and still end up with a better book than its restricted cousins.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars User friendly March 20, 2012

By Francois Piat

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you have already read the previous edition of this book, the reading of this third edition will bring you a lot of new stuffs. This book is not only a complete rewriting, but also a more deep explanation and a detailed presentation of HTML5 apis.
For me, "JavaScript for Web Developpers" is really really more user friendly than "Javascript, the definitive guide". Code samples are easy to understand (and don't spread across 3 or 4 pages). The style is simple and the writing is easily understood by a "non english native" like me.
The only thing I would change if I could is stripping out the 50 pages on XML and replacing them by more of advanced techniques.
Definitly a must-have.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic encyclopedia of not just Javascript but web development in general May 22, 2012

By Hotcheese

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is about so much more than Javascript, its a huge encyclopedia of everything related to modern-day web development techniques.
It does an excellent job of describing Javascript, with a lengthy section on OO techniques (describing the pros and cons of dynamic prototyping, parasitic construction, durable construction, prototype chaining, constructor chaining parasitic combination inheritance, and so on, to name a few).
Then it has full descriptions of all web related technologies such as BOM, DOM, AJAX, COMET, JSON, XML,HTML5, event handling, and much much more. Each of these topics is covered in depth and clearly explained.
The book also contains a substantial amount of history describing the evolution of the web, which is essential to provide context to understand where the web is today, how it got here and how the legacy of the past still echoes today.

If you have any involvement in web technologies, direct or tangentially, or you have no involvement in them but are curious and want to learn about them, then this is a must read.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Concise March 21, 2012

By Paul

Format:Paperback

I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking a comprehensive knowledge of JavaScript and best practices. Within a few minutes you can take your knowledge of JavaScript from intermediate to advanced.

I really appreciate the examples of cross browser solutions (facades) used throughout to illustrate advanced techniques and patterns.

Whether you skip around the chapters to topics of interest or read in chronological order, you won't be disappointed. The book is well written with concise examples.