Designing with JavaScript, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

~ (Author), Bill Pena (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Designing with JavaScript opens up a whole new world to Web-design artists, especially those making the leap from a print-design background. Many people liken Web design to print design, but there is nothing interactive about a printed page. Web pages, however, can be completely dynamic, different from moment to moment and responsive to the reader. The best way to take advantage of this is through JavaScript.

Eleven chapters and four appendices cover the basics to the complex, from extracting and validating information using forms to creating rotating images to using DHTML for animation. The first half covers basic yet important issues like an introduction to the syntax of the language, browser detection, setting up forms, and controlling frames and windows. Filled with examples, screen shots, and links to more examples and info, these chapters build a solid foundation for the second half of the book.

Dynamic images, rollovers, using cookies, and creating interactive features using DHTML are some of the features covered later in the book, with numerous practical examples. These chapters are invaluable for the learning designer, as nearly every feature is practically required on a contemporary Web site. The appendices include a handy JavaScript guide to the language, including syntax, handlers, an object guide, and style properties.

Not everything can be handled (yet) through the available WYSIWYG editors, making this book an invaluable reference and one to keep at your fingertips. --Mike Caputo

Review

"A well written, attractive book which provides a good range of useful content that is applicable to common web development problems; if you are in need of a book to get you going straight away in using JavaScript, I suggest that you take a look at this one." - Jono Bacon LinuxFormat, May 2002

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2 edition (December 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156592360X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565923607
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8 x 0.6 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.com Sales Rank: #1,088,433 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical Real-World Scripting, November 30, 2001

By	Andrew B. King (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Most JavaScript books force you to slog through reams of reference material before you get to the good stuff. This book is not one of them. Nick Heinle, former WebReference expert and WebCoder wunderkind, and Bill Pena have updated Heinle's first edition into O'Reilly's patented Web Studio style intro to JavaScript.

Aimed at beginning to intermediate scripters, DWJ2 skips the dry stuff and dives right into practical real-world examples of useful scripts you can easily add to your own pages. Everything from simple descriptive links and remotes, to frames, form validation and arrays, through sniffing, rollovers, personalization through cookies, and more advanced topics are covered.

A brief DHTML chapter follows, with some simplified examples of drop-down menus (non-hierarchical), sliding tabs, and scrolling layers with clipping, useful for news feeds.

The advanced chapter covers object-oriented scripting and shows how to create a quiz to test your readers. Relational select menus (2-level) illustrate using two-dimensional arrays nicely.

I especially enjoyed the section on cross-browser style objects, where the authors demonstrate the use of Netscape's xbStyle object. xbStyle is a simple abstraction layer that removes the complexity of accessing style properties. Using xbStyle you can grab, hide, and move layers without worrying about implementation details of specific browsers.

The coolest thing about xbStyle is the layer grabbing technique. xbStyle implements a W3C-like document.getElementById() method for 4.0 browsers! For these older browsers, xbStyle redefines this method, to make its use seamless for scripters manipulating layers (DIVs). This example demonstrates the leveraging power of a well-executed API. This book is a good intro by example to JavaScript.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Beginners, March 19, 2002

By	Ponchai Reainthong "ponchai.com" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am more of a designer than a programmer. This book caught my attention by it's title "Designing with Javascript". I wanted to design more engaging web pages. However HTML just wasn't enough. So I decided to learn Javascript. This is my first time diving into Javascript.

In the PREFACE it even says that "the examples are designed to be applied immediately in web pages, so explanations focus on the key features and discuss how the scripts can be modified to suit individual needs". It's true. From the beginning of this book you are diving right into the material, and can even apply some of the codes to your existing web pages. The material presented is VERY EASY to follow. It talks about the language from the very basic foundation. It gradually introduces you from the basic foundation to the more advanced functions.

This book is also from the O'Reilly Web Studio. From whom I also own other books for Web and Multimedia design and programming.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not for learning javascript, March 20, 2003

By	chicken260 (North Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews

I'm a true beginner. I've been learning javascript, and this is definitely not the book for that. It claims to teach, but it doesn't, not really. I have to admit it does explain the techniques and examples used, but the style in which this book is written I did not find very conducive to learning the language. This is more like a compilation of the most commonly used scripts. The examples are made to be applied immediately in webpages. I did dip into it and use one or two scripts, but for the most part I did not get that much out of it(other than the pleasure of viewing the pretty pink swirly pattern on the cover and throughout the book).

I would compare this book's offerings to fast food: it all comes prepared, and the most you'll have to do is squeeze some ketchup on top of it. You won't be stepping into the kitchen.

I found JavaScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, by Andy Harris, much better for learning javascript concepts and syntax.