Beginning JavaScript, 3rd Edition (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

by Paul Wilton (Author), Jeremy McPeak (Author)
Key Phrases: modern browsers, quiz page, first list item, Internet Explorer, Common Mistakes, Storing Information (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

JavaScript is a scripting language that enables you to enhance static web applications by providing dynamic, personalized, and interactive content. This improves the experience of visitors to your site and makes it more likely that they will visit again. You must have seen the flashy drop-down menus, moving text, and changing content that are now widespread on web sites—they are enabled through JavaScript. Supported by all the major browsers, JavaScript is the language of choice on the Web. It can even be used outside web applications—to automate administrative tasks, for example.

This book aims to teach you all you need to know to start experimenting with JavaScript: what it is, how it works, and what you can do with it. Starting from the basic syntax, you'll move on to learn how to create powerful web applications. Don't worry if you've never programmed before—this book will teach you all you need to know, step by step. You'll find that JavaScript can be a great introduction to the world of programming: with the knowledge and understanding that you'll gain from this book, you'll be able to move on to learn newer and more advanced technologies in the world of computing.

In order to get the most out of this book, you'll need to have an understanding of HTML and how to create a static web page. You don't need to have any programming experience.

This book will also suit you if you have some programming experience already, and would like to turn your hand to web programming. You will know a fair amount about computing concepts, but maybe not as much about web technologies.

Alternatively, you may have a design background and know relatively little about the Web and computing concepts. For you, JavaScript will be a cheap and relatively easy introduction to the world of programming and web application development.

Whoever you are, we hope that this book lives up to your expectations.

You'll begin by looking at exactly what JavaScript is, and taking your first steps with the underlying language and syntax. You'll learn all the fundamental programming concepts, including data and data types, and structuring your code to make decisions in your programs or to loop over the same piece of code many times.

Once you're comfortable with the basics, you'll move on to one of the key ideas in JavaScript—the object. You'll learn how to take advantage of the objects that are native to the JavaScript language, such as dates and strings, and find out how these objects enable you to manage complex data and simplify your programs. Next, you'll see how you can use JavaScript to manipulate objects made available to you in the browser, such as forms, windows, and other controls. Using this knowledge, you can start to create truly professional-looking applications that enable you to interact with the user.

Long pieces of code are very hard to get right every time—even for the experienced programmer—and JavaScript code is no exception. You look at common syntax and logical errors, how you can spot them, and how to use the Microsoft Script Debugger to aid you with this task. Also, you need to examine how to handle the errors that slip through the net, and ensure that these do not detract from the experience of the end user of your application.

From here, you'll move on to more advanced topics, such as using cookies and jazzing up your web pages with dynamic HTML and XML. Finally, you'll be looking at a relatively new and exciting technology, remote scripting. This allows your JavaScript in a HTML page to communicate directly with a server, and useful for, say, looking up information on a database sitting on your server. If you have the Google toolbar you'll have seen something like this in action already. When you type a search word in the Google toolbar, it comes up with suggestions, which it gets via the Google search database.

All the new concepts introduced in this book will be illustrated with practical examples, which enable you to experiment with JavaScript and build on the theory that you have just learned. The appendix provides solutions to the exercises included at the end of most chapters throughout the book.

During the first half of the book, you'll also be building up a more complex sample application—an online trivia quiz—which will show you how JavaScript is used in action in a real-world situation.

From the Back Cover
Do you want to create more exciting web applications that will increase visits to your site? With this up-to-date guide, you'll find everything you'll need to know to develop interactive, robust, and personalized pages using JavaScript. It takes you step by step through this powerful scripting language so you can begin enhancing your site right away.

You'll begin with the basic syntax and learn how to take advantage of native JavaScript objects. Next, you'll see how to manipulate objects that are available to you in the latest browsers. You'll then progress through more advanced topics, such as using cookies and jazzing up your web pages with Dynamic HTML.

Inside, you'll also discover how to use Ajax, a communication technique that uses JavaScript to communicate with a remote web server. All of this will help you build truly professional-looking applications that allow you to interact with the user.

What you will learn from this book

• How to use objects such as dates and strings to manage complex data and simplify your programs

• Tips for using forms, windows, and other controls

• Ways to spot common syntax and logical errors as well as how to use the Microsoft® Script Debugger

• How to make JavaScript interact with XML and HTML

• Techniques for integrating ActiveX® and plug-ins with JavaScript

• Steps for communicating with a server using remote scripting

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone who wants to learn JavaScript scripting. You should have some understanding of HTML and how to create static web pages, but no prior programming experience is necessary.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 792 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 3 edition (May 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470051515
• ISBN-13: 978-0470051511
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #188,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 3rd Edition VERY DISSAPOINTING, June 9, 2007

By	L. S. Marcus (Ellington, CT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have used the first and second editions of this book as training courseware for several years. Allthough, I was never 100% happy with the book (some important topics had been left out, the content is not cleanly organized and the examples could have been better) it served its purpose.

When I heard that the 3rd edition would be coming out, I looked forward to new and updated information, more complete descriptions and the inclusion of previously omitted information. When the 3rd edition came out, I purchased it and found it to be VERY DISSAPOINTING...to the point that it is actually worse than it was before. I will no longer use this text as a training resource as it is more conveluted than in the past and still does not include basic information that should be there.

Examples:

The 2nd edition was 1010 pages, the 3rd edition is 767 - clearly much information has been removed and unfortunately it was Appendicies B, C, & D, which were The JavaScript Core Reference, The JavaScript Client Reference, and the Latin Character Set. Now, the book just has Appendix A, which is the book's exercise solutions. The book's exercise, by the way, is a continuing example that is not very "real-world" oriented and something that most people would skip over anyway. Devoting an appendix to this, but removing the hard-core reference appendicies makes no sense whatsoever!

In none of the previous editions was there any mention of referring to external script files (.js) files, as is done as common practice out in the real world. I was hoping the new edition would include this, but not a word about it is mentioned.

The confusing "flow" of the chapters has not been corected, so you still have to get to chapter 10 before addressing errors and debugging techniques (which should be addressed as chapter 2, in my opinion as a professional trainer) and finding out that you really should be working with certain IE and FireFox settings changed if you want to be able to see your JavaScript errors show up in your browser! Seriously?! The reader is expected to go through 9 chapters without being told how to see an error message about their mistakes!! Like we don't make mistakes until chapter 11?!!

Chapter 13 is still called "Dynamic HTML in Modern Browsers" instead of what the rest of the world calls it; "The W3C Document Object Model".

There was, and still is, a chapter on XML in the book, but rather than simply merging this information into the chapter about the DOM (since the only JavaScript that is discussed in the XML chapter has to do with parsing XML via the DOM), we get a small chapter that is more about XML than JavaScript. And, there is no mention at all about using JavaScript within XML, rather than XML within JavaScript (ie. enclosing JavaScript inside of CDATA sections for proper XML parsing).

We still have the same old chapter 4 that is an overview of JavaScript and OO. Half of what you need to know about the JavaScript Native Objects (String, Number, Math, Date, etc.) is in this chapter and the other half is in chapters 8 and 9, instead of putting it all together in one place.

The bottom line for me is that this book skips important information that new JavaScript developers should know. It has no hope of becomming organized properly and crucial appendicies have been removed. This makes this book no longer useful as a reference (which serious programmers want and need).

By the way, WROX (now owned by Wiley Press) has done basically the same thing with the new 4th edition of Beginning XML. That book is still wildly incomplete and disorganized.

3.0 out of 5 stars Too many inconsistencies, June 8, 2009

By	Veteran Programmer (Louisville, KY 40241) - See all my reviews

Although the book is a good introduction for JavaScript, it suffers greatly from the lack of a single voice. I find this a problem with other Wrox books that have been written by multiple authors. I really don't blame the authors as much as I put the blame on Wrox's editors.

The books is just full of inconsistencies. These range from different coding styles, lack of consistency in source code filenames, etc., etc. Also, the HTML is often poorly written.

Even with the book's problems, I would still recommend the book for the beginning JavaScript programmer. The book does get the point across and should give the reader a good foundation in JavaScript programming.

3.0 out of 5 stars OK Guide for the Beginner, March 27, 2009

By	Robert (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

It was relatively easy to follow, however it does suffer from occasional coding errors and coding style consistency, which can be confusing.

All that said, I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone that wants to learn JavaScript.