Brilliant Java Script
By Ken Bluttman
June 2009
Pearson / Prentice Hall
ISBN: 9780273721536
276 Pages, Illustrated
$52.50 paper original
If you are designing websites and need an introduction to programming with the scripting language of the Web, Brilliant Javascript will show you how to use basic javascript programming to improve the functionality and design of your webpages, validate forms, detect browsers, create cookies, and much more.
Summary
JavaScript is a critical component of nearly all web pages and web applications, and is the most popular scripting language on the internet, working in all major browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera.
It is a very powerful language but often overlooked as such. For years it has been used primarily for two things – validating form entries, and image rollovers. Yet there is much more under the hood. JavaScript is as powerful and comprehensive as any other development language.
JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool- HTML authors are normally not programmers, but JavaScript is a scripting language with a very simple syntax! Almost anyone can put small "snippets" of code into their HTML pages. Brilliant JavaScript will take the reader through the necessary introductory material, and build on this to present practical applicable methods involving text, maths and numbers, and much more. Further tips will be presented in boxouts and text alerts .
The book will follow a progression of knowledge; however will be modular in approach. A reader can jump right to the task(s) they need to learn and use. The step by step approach will make it easy to follow how JavaScript is written and implemented – something that many developers struggle with when it comes to JavaScript’s cryptic syntax.
Contents
1. Getting started with JavaScript
Write a basic script
Place your script in the head section
Place JavaScript in the web page body
Use an external JavaScript file
New concepts
Test a condition to determine the output
How to use conditional testing
Getty loopy
Use a loop to run repetitive actions
Break out of a loop
Debugging JavaScript
Understand the difference between comparison and assignment
2. Working with text
Typical text applications
Count the characters in a text string
Something to consider
Get a part of a text string
Find where a string starts inside a larger string
Out with the old, in with the new
Combining text
Breaking up is easy to do
3. Working with numbers and mathematics
Operate the operators
Basic maths
Following operator order
Rounding it out
Finding the lowest and highest values
Getting powered up
Random number generation
4. Calculating dates and times
What day and time is it?
Working with the month, day and year
Right on time
Getting granular with milliseconds
Counting elapsed days
Calculating the number of days till a future date
5. Getting organised with arrays
Creating an array
Working with array elements
Sorting an array
Combining arrays
Multidimensional arrays
6. Validation
Basic text entry validation
Validating an email address
Validating radio buttons and check boxes
Validating dates
Further validation issues
7. Applying JavaScript actions
Events are always happening
Update one select list based upon the selection in a different select list
Navigate to another website from making a list selection
Show or hide part of a page
Smart entry
Highlight where the entry is going
8. Enhancing the Web page
Personalisation
Keeping track of time spent on a web page
Providing a print button
Providing font resizing
Controlling page colours
9. Working with text effects
Stretching and contracting text
Scrolling text in the title bar
Whatever happened to scrolling in the status bar
Scrolling text on a button
Displaying text, typewriter style
Generating random text
10. Working with images
Preloading images
Image rollovers
Showcase photographs in a marquee
Zooming in on an image
11. Windows, pages, popups and prompts
Writing content to the browser
Alerts, prompts and confirms
Opening windows
Opening a new blank window
Planning for different screen sizes
12. Fancy and fun animation
Page transitions
Mouse trails
Bouncing a ball
Combining transitions and rollovers
13. Getting to know DOM (the Document Object Model)
A bit of DOM
Understanding the relationships of elements
Using the DOM to change elements
14. Using Ajax for fast server interaction
Saving page update time with Ajax
Using Ajax to return filtered data
15. Security
Disabling the right mouse button
Same origin policy
Keeping your site out of the frame of another site
Making your code unreadable
16. A roundup of advanced techniques
Getting information about the browser and the screen
Using an image map to control page visibility
Catching errors
Using a JavaScript library
Jargon buster
Troubleshooting guide
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