Product Description
This task-based, visual reference guide has been fully revised. It uses step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots to give beginning and intermediate Web designers what they need to know to learn JavaScript. Readers can start from the beginning to get a tour of the programming language, or look up specific tasks to learn just what they need to know. In this updated seventh edition, readers will find new information on Ajax design and modern coding techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Terrible for Beginners
I was required to purchase this book for a JavaScript/Ajax course I am taking at my local college.I find this book absolutely terrible in its presentation.

I have been a programmer for over 16 years so I have a very good concept of what programming is about.I don't consider myself an absolute "beginner".However, I am struggling terribly with this book and its content presentation.

For instance.The book will list sample HTML and JavaScript code.The HTML code will reference the JavaScript file as something like script04.js.However, the sample JavaScript code does not show that it is named script04.js.It will only be referenced as something like 'Script 5.8'.This isn't too bad when we only have one HTML script and one JavaScript on the page.But when there are multiple, it gets confusing as to what they are referring to.

Also, there are often times where there is a reference to an HTML or JavaScript file which is not even displayed on the screen.It is assumed that you know they are calling a different file that is not shown.

There have been several chapters that I have had to read and reread several times and I'm still not clear on some of the code references.

This book may be good for someone at a different level of object oriented programming than I am.Or someone who has done some very basic JavaScripting before and is wanting to learn more.But it is not a good text book for a beginning JavaScript class.I do not recommend it.

An easy to follow introduction for javascript-Ajax
The book has more a learn by example approach than a basic theory of javascript flavor which you will appreciate if you want to write code right away. I took the book without any previous javascript and a little php previous experience, if you know the basics of HTML and previous programming experience you don't need many fundamentals to fill the gaps in the examples, the way javascript is organized is not difficult to grasp from the examples provided. The book is pretty useful if you have a previous web programming experience and you don't mind learning by example instead of knowing the basic philosophy of AJAX or javascript.

I found the style pretty easy to follow and the fact that they explain every line of every example particularly useful. A truly exceptional book in the subject and recommended if you have a clear idea of how HTML works with scripting.

The book leaves you in a good position to explore more in-depth AJAX books or to browse for examples in the web on how to do more complex stuff.

Quick Start JavaScript
This book is excellent for beginners learning javascripting language.it's great as it breaks the information down into digestible segments.making it easy to spend a lot of time on a particular chapter and absorbing the codes.i am a better designer than writing code and i think this book is great.thanks.

Not what I expected.
I ordered the HTML, XHTML, CSS Visual QuickStart Guide some time ago and was very pleased.My web development skill grew exponentially, so naturally I chose peachpit press for JavaScript and PHP.The PHP book was pretty good, though I haven't done focused study yet because I want to learn JavaScript first.However, this JavaScript & Ajax book is just too vague.I went through the whole first part of building the bingo game and at the end, still didn't have a clear understanding of just about anything I did.How do you build a whole program and not know what's going on.This quickstart guide is too quick.I even typed the code by hand to reinforce the syntax in my mind.The book suggests the web counterpart to help you through, but in my experience the copy and paste technique doesn't help the information stick... does anyone remember why you were asked to take notes in high school?Apparently not.Anyway, I went with the JavaScript Bible instead.1400+ pages and a full digital copy of the book on CD with extra content.In depth explanations of what the code means and when and why you should use it.The JavaScript quick guide may prove useful after I have a better understanding of JavaScript but I was disappointed with this book.

Frustrating
Sometimes I can't determine which figure on the page contains what script. The examples/scripts are only labeled with a Figure number.It is frustrating. ... Read more

Product Description
Get the hands-on, step-by-step guide to learning JavaScript for Web development. Even with no programming experience, you can teach yourself the essentials of working with the JavaScript programming language one step at a time. With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through hands-on, learn-by-doing exercises. Whether you re building skills for your career or just want to customize your personal Web site, you ll learn the core capabilities and fundamental techniques for working with JavaScript and begin to create professional-looking Web sites. Includes a companion CD with code samples, data sets, and a fully searchable eBook.

Key Book Benefits

Features easy-to-follow, logically planned lessons to help you learn at your own pace

Delivers a solid understanding of how to use JavaScript to build custom Web sites

Includes a companion CD with code samples, data sets, and a fully searchable eBook ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Must have a little knowledge of Java script beforehand
I agree with everyone here that this book is very informative and discriptive. My only concern is with the excercises. Steve teaches you with codes in the lesson but he uses a set of different codes in the execises that he never taught in his lessons. For example take a look in chapter 2's excercise section, it deals with alert function. I don't want to get into great details but if you own the book then you will understand where I'm coming from. My honest opinion is that you need a to have a little knowledge of java scripting before you completely understand this book. It is not for beginners but more for intermediate java programmers.

Lacking DOM features
This book is a good beginner level Java Script text.It covers all the basics rather well and comes with a nice disc full of example files.However there is very little coverage on DOM implementation.For me it seems almost pointless to use Java Script without the DOM. If you are looking to actually implement Java Script with lots of form access and manipulation, then this is not a good book to get.It is a good book to get if you are just interested in the semantics of Java Script.

Useful book
I'm learning. The book is very helpful. I'll meed other books to learn more completely. Book-on-CD is an excellent feature.

A Very Clear Book for Beginers
I agree with everyone, this is a true clear written JS book.
I'm a beginer, and took a JS class which was sucked. So I ended of reading this book outside class, and was very helpful. It helped me understood a lot of programming language methods.
But only one thing I have to point out: this book is a "Microsoft" JS book. It is helpful to get known the PC environment, but it's just too much. Well, this is a understandable since the publisher is Microsoft Press.

Great Book
I haven't actually finished the entire book, but I am about 75% done. It is clearly written with good examples. Easy to understand. I have a lot of programming in my background, but javascript is new to me. I strongly recommend this book for people in the same situation. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (32)

Great, unless you are using a framework like jQuery
While I don't want to turn people away from this book, I would like to point out that many of the recipes in this book (like DOM manipulation, Ajax, styling, etc.) can be done more easily using a framework like jQuery. I suppose that is why I was somewhat disappointed by this book; most of the things it accomplishes can be solved using a few lines of jQuery.

I gave it five out of five stars for two reasons: First of all, it does provide some excellent examples, especially in departments where jQuery isn't all that useful like string manipulation and arrays. The date manipulation recipes are very useful as well. Secondly, I didn't think it was fair to give it anything lower just because I don't use all of the material in it. I'm sure that eventually I will end up doing some kind of raw DOM manipulation without jQuery, whether it be with Greasemonkey userscripts or on portable devices, or for very short scripts.

In my opinion, this book is for someone who is not using jQuery (either because they don't want to or can't) or for someone who is developing a JavaScript framework. I would also recommend it for anyone who wants easy-to-use examples of array, string, and date manipulation.

Great for reference and learning
I was still relatively new to Javascript when I got this book, so I just went through all of the code examples one-by-one to see how they worked.It was a great way to learn, and the book has stayed on my desk ever since for reference.

Very useful, lots of gems
I'm a beginner/intermediate JS programmer and I found this book tremendously useful.I had to design a site for control and monitoring of an embedded device and this book more than paid for itself in the first few weeks.This is not for beginners, although I learned a great deal about the DOM and several JS browser-specific quirks simply by perusing the various "recipes".I would recommend that beginners start with a tutorial-style book first or some of the free online stuff, such as [...] and then get this book.If you use only a few of the recipes and it saves you time, its more than worth the price.

JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook
I can honestly say this is the best JavaScript reference I have ever read.The writing style is both engaging and informative.Every recipe presents solutions to common scripting problems that are browser neutral, and "best practices" style JavaScript.If you don't already own JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook (2nd edition), I suggest you make this your next purchase.

Good JS book
Like most of the cookbooks, this is perfect for a new JS programmer - like me. ... Read more

Product Description
The bestselling JavaScript reference, now updated to reflect changes in technology and best practices

As the most comprehensive book on the market, the JavaScript Bible is a classic bestseller that keeps you up to date on the latest changes in JavaScript, the leading technology for incorporating interactivity into Web pages. Part tutorial, part reference, this book serves as both a learning tool for building new JavaScript skills as well as a detailed reference for the more experienced JavaScript user.

You'll get up-to-date coverage on the latest JavaScript practices that have been implemented since the previous edition, as well as the most updated code listings that reflect new concepts. Plus, you'll learn how to apply the latest JavaScript exception handling and custom object techniques.

• Follows in the tradition of previous edition bestsellers, providing a thorough reference on JavaScript, the leading technology for making Web pages interactive
• Serves as a reference and tutorial and is packed with numerous working code examples
• Includes new developments in the ECMAScript 5th Edition standard on which JavaScript is based.
• Promotes state-of-the-art industry best practices including progressive enhancement, unobtrusive JavaScript, and separation of development layers
• Shows how to write scripts for mouse rollover effects, drag-and-drop, and interaction with stylesheets
• Reviews deployment strategies that best suit your content goals and target audience

Practical examples of working code round out this new edition and contribute to helping you learn JavaScript quickly yet thoroughly. ... Read more

Product Description

• Responding to reader feedback, the author has thoroughly revamped the book with more step-by-step coverage of JavaScript basics, an exclusive focus on Internet Explorer, and many complete sample scripts
• Updated to cover JavaScript 1.5, the latest release of this popular Web scripting language
• Using lots of examples, including a sample working Web site, the book shows how to create dynamic and interactive pages, build entire sites, and automate pages

Customer Reviews (78)

JavaScript for Dummies
I received this book promptly and as described.I ordered this book for my son so I can't review it for you.But the book is in great shape.

A terrible book!
Do not buy this book, it's too old. It's actually using HTML that's outdated and not recommended anymore. Also, it's full of faults. Even in the very first code snippet there are major faults (even though it's the shortest code snippet available). Also, it's really boring and using too many words to explain the same things over and over again. I can't understand why I bought it, I should've checked the reviews. I won't trust the "for dummies" brand again.

This book deserves 0 stars
I created a website for a friend with Dreamweaver (and a lot of help from searching on Google), enjoyed it and decided to start teaching myself how to design from scratch. I quickly learned HTML and CSS, and attempted to start learning Javascript with this book. After reading the first three chapters, I thought I was may be in over my head in teaching myself. Now, I am no dummy when it comes to technical learning, as I am an engineer and work in a mechanical field, yet I just could not get this book. I came on here to check other reviews and realized that it was not me, but the way the book is written.

First and foremost, there are typos and errors that occur not just in text, but also in somee charts that convey wrong information. I think this is unacceptable in a book intended to teach. The author jumps into technical terms and code right away without giving much reason as to why you would use such code. My favorite is when the author gives 4 pages of code, and than promises to explain this 'very easily'. Yeah right.

When learning something like this, you will always be writing code that is a little different than the last bit that you wrote. It's not like a history book that you can just memorize. You must learn HOW to use the different objects and methods for what you need to create. The author throws terms at you left and right in hopes of you memorizing them.

I am glad I only rented this book from the local library. I will check out other books recommended in previous reviews. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Not for novices, but lots of examples
Despite the "for Dummies" moniker, this book is not for "...the Rest of Us!". It is for those who already know some of thebasics of object programming and want to add Javascipts to their arsenal of skills. The book is full of useful examples of popular features that can be easily customized. A CD is included that saves time in writing and building scripts. There may be better books for beginners out there, but this one does an adequate job of surveying the subject.

Obviously Obsolete
The intentions of this book are good, and it is reasonably well written (hence two stars instead of one). However, I have two strong objections to the book.

First, it is way overdue for a new edition. Much of the book deals with detecting and accomodating differences between Internet Explorer and Netscape. Internet Explorer has changed a great deal in the latest release or two, so some of the IE information is obsolete, and Netscape doesn't even exist anymore. All of the major IE competition (Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and perhaps Opera) is Mozilla based, with significantly different behavior from that documented for Netscape, even though Mozilla is an offshoot of Netscape. Just one example is MARQUEE support, which the book documents as IE only, but which all the Mozilla based browsers support. So, a significant portion of the book is of questionable value. You will spend a lot of time figuring out why something isn't working as expected, or rewriting code to see if mozilla indeed has to bypass code that the examples bypass for non-IE browsers.
The author attempts to anticipate changes to some extent by giving links to documentation for updated information on such things as the document models for IE and Netscape, but all of the links I tried were non-existent (including the IE ones).

Second, several of the examples will not run as documented, and as they exist on the included CD. Most of these are text errors, though it is possible browser changes might explain some. For example, one sample has an included java applet (JavaClock.class), but the path name is different from the path on the CD, so it would not load the applet until that was corrected, which obviously is a textual error. Also, I had to remove ".class" from the end of the name of the class before it would load. Since I have seen other documentation which included the ".class" extention in the name specification, I don't know if this is a browser change or what. I just know that until I removed the extension from the code, all of the browsers (i tested all listed above except Opera) refused to load the applet.

I would strongly suggest to Wiley (the publishers) that they get on the ball with an updated edition. I would suggest potential buyers find a more up-to-date book.
... Read more

Product Description

Learn to use these powerful tools together and build Web sites that work

If you want to build Web pages that offer real value to your site's visitors, JavaScript and AJAX are top tools for the job. Even if you're new to Web programming, this book helps you create sites any designer will admire. With easy-to-understand steps and an emphasis on free tools, you'll be able to jump right into building a site using the same techniques as the pros.

• Down to basics — learn your way around JavaScript and choose an editor and test browser

• Manage complexity — use functions, arrays, and objects to create more sophisticated programs

• Page magic — discover how to control what happens on your pages, animate objects, and put pages in motion

• Get beautiful — Use the jQuery User Interface library to add sliders, tabbed interfaces, and custom dialogs to a site

• Come clean with AJAX — build AJAX requests into your programs, use jQuery, and work with AJAX data

Open the book and find:

• How to choose a test browser

• How to discuss string concatenation with a straight face

• Tips for debugging your code

• How to add useful information to a dropdown list

• Why AJAX connections should be asynchronous

• The exciting possibilities of the jQuery library

• How to use the Aptana editor

• Online resources for JavaScript programmers

Customer Reviews (3)

Pretty good thus far!
Hi everybody,
I think this book is pretty good. I have read three other programing books before and they were all way too complicated, even though they said they were for beginners, one of them was actually a for dummies as well, lol. This time I think I will finally learn how to program. In one of the other reviews, somebody complained about chapter three, but I disagree. I think chapter three is just using random numbers as an example, so you can better understand the topic it covers--Program behavior and conditions. However, I am still on chapter five, but if I change my mind about this book, I will come back here and fix this review. Another thing, maybe I am liking this better because by reading other books about programing I learned that these are not the kind of books you can just read like a sci-fi story. If you want to learn you really have to go to the website and download the files and try them out. You need to stop at every program sample and think about what is going on. This is the kind of stuff that you really need to get your hands dirty.
Thanks

Title is Deceiving - Don't Buy It
If you're starting out with JavaScript for the first time, as most dummies book readers probably are, do NOT buy this one. I don't understand how the editors of the company could allow such a complex, incoherent book to be described as one for dummies [beginners]. The only people whom I think would benefit are those who are already somewhat proficient in JavaScript. In sum, the author is an expert on his subject matter but doesn't have a clue when it comes to communicating. This happens all too often in the world of software, where programmers who become authors, have no idea how to communicate with non-programmers [beginners], the target audience of this book.

The author commits a classic error when writing about topics he knows inside out. He assumes the reader understands and/or is familiar with a wide array of JavaScript/Programming related concepts that are of course 2nd nature to him. So instead of starting out with the absolute basics of JavaScript, explaining them, and progressing accordingly in an organized manner from simple to more difficult, he quickly jumps into somewhat complex programming concepts and procedures. I found this scattered approach a little baffling.

To compound the classic error described above, he states that each element of the scripts he uses as examples, will be explained in detail, but that didn't always happen.

There was another problem that confused me. Maybe the concept was clear to others, but it certainly wasn't for me. On page 36 he said using //
The first two chapters were actually very good in introducing andsetting up what I thought would be an excellent book for someone new to JavaScript.However, the author completely lost me in Chapter 3. This chapter introduced the concept of "Conditions" to the reader. My big problem was the fact that the entire chapter was based on the concept of "Random Numbers", an area where most java script beginners like me are totally lost. Who cares about or understands random numbers? Instead of starting out with every day, real life examples that most people can identify with, the author seemed enthralled with the idea of exploring an esoteric subject. That chapter was a complete waste of time.

Chapter 4 on Looping was all right. OK, I'm thinking now I can really start learning in Chapter 5, Functions, Arrays, and Objects. Unfortunately, just like Chapter 3, instead of using real world, meaningful examples to illustrate Functions and Arrays, he utilized some stupid song about Ants Marching. I'm sorry but I want real world examples that challenge me every day. That was the final straw so I stopped reading.

Maybe the ensuing information is presented in a better fashion, but after an entire chapter on random numbers and another one on ants marching, I gave up and moved onto a much better organized book for people new to JavaScript.

Heads up on printing error!
I can't give a full review yet as I just bought this book, but other buyers should know that there's a printing error throughout the book. There's a double caret symbol in the code examples that should be double quotes instead. I was frustrated that my first attempts at writing javascript weren't working, and was relieved to find it wasn't me. A quick search online lead me to the author's page, where he mentions this error. My first Dummies book, and I was thinking I was an idiot. Onward! ... Read more

Product Description
An essential update to the key web authoring standards of HTML, XHTML, and CSS

The existence of Web pages depends on three vital technologies: HTML (base language that Web pages are written in), XHTML (standards that define how to write HTML pages), and CSS (standard that applies formatting styles to Web pages). This new edition provides you with critical coverage of these three Web authoring standards, and places special focus on the upcoming releases of HTML 5 and CSS 3.

Serving as a tutorial and reference, this comprehensive resource explains the basic structure and necessary formatting to create a static (non-changing) and dynamic (changing) page on the Internet.

Coverage includes:

• Creating Content with HTML
• Markup Languages
• HTML Values and Units
• What Goes into a Web Document?
• The HEAD Elements
• Text Structuring Essentials
• Character Formatting Essentials
• Lists, Links, Tables, Frames, and Forms
• Multimedia
• Dynamic HTML
• HTML Tools and Variants
• Web Development Software
• Publishing Your Site
• An Introduction To XML
• Creating Mobile Documents
• Tidying and Validating Your Documents
• Controlling Presentation with CSS
• Style Definitions
• CSS Values and Units
• CSS Inheritance and Cascade
• Font Properties
• Text Formatting
• Padding, Margins, and Borders
• Colors and Backgrounds
• CSS Layouts
• Pseudo-Elements and Generated Content
• Dynamic HTML with CSS
• Media Styles and Defining Documents for Printing
• The Future of CSS: CSS3
• User Interface Styles
• Testing and Validating CSS
• HTML, XHTML, and CSS Tips and Tricks

Helpful examples round out this essential guide and will get you up and running with HTML, XHTML, and CSS in no time!

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

jQuery, PHP, Apache centric examples
Sadly, I write in Cold Fusion, MooTools and use IIS7 Servers.I will have to translate the ideas, but still, it pointed the directions to go in.I don't regret buying it.

Opened my eyes
I had bought an iPad when they were first announced. I had the expressed intention of creating some very specific apps; I did not need Wired Magazine to tell me that mobile apps are the future.

My plans were delayed by Apple's delay in releasing a new iPad OS.I didn't want to waste a lot of time struggling with things in the original OS that might become easier in the next.

I'd rather not struggle at all. As I have gotten older, the thrill of twisting C and C++to my will is far less alluring than it used to be. Honestly, there is no allure left at all: I saw learning the Apple API as an onerous but necessary task. I was not looking forward to it.

Then this book arrived and opened my eyes.Yes, there is that "Android" in the title, but this is really about building device agnostic apps and I saw that long before the author off handedly mentioned iPhones in Chapter 7.Yeah, baby - if you think I was reluctant to learn Apple API's, well, that's nothing compared to how I feel about futzing around with Java to drive Android stuff.No thank you. But CSS and Javascript? That's different.

Not that I still don't have a learning curve.I have done very little with CSS or Javascript because of browser quirks. I realized that Jquery could smooth a lot of that out for me, but I just did not have enough of a need to invest any time learning that either.Mobile apps provides that incentive.

This book opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities I was just not aware of. For example, I did not know about theWeb SQL Database abilities in HTML5.The author said that rocked his world; well, it rocked mine also.

I am looking forward to sitting down and playing with the ideas this book has exposed me to. This really changes my plans, and this is one case whereI am very happy to veer off course.Jquery, here I come! ... Read more

Product Description
Make your Web pages stand out above the noise with JavaScript and the expert instruction in this much-anticipated update to the bestselling JavaScript Bible. With renowned JavaScript expert Danny Goodman at your side, you’ll get a thorough grounding in JavaScript basics, see how it fits with current Web browsers, and find all the soup-to-nuts detail you’ll need. Whether you’re a veteran programmer or just starting out, this is the JavaScript book Web developers turn to again and again.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Has It All
Excellent tutorial and reference book. After looking at about ten js books, this is the best.

Good Reference
The searchable PDF on the CD is great. I agree with other reviewers that it has flaws and is also self-admittedly non-w3c compliant in places, but they include non-compliant code where useful, and kudos to them for it.

It's the only Javascript/dhtml book I own, though I own many programming and a few web-development books. When combined with the online [...] sites you can do anything.

Not much out there on core JavaScript
Good book. I've been perusing books trying to learn core JavaScript for developing Adobe Acrobat. Not much out there on core JavaScript; all the books are on HTML implementation and so is this one. But the author teachesJavaScript "programming" (which is what core JS is) in addition to HTML but necessarily uses HTML examples and exercises. I can work with that.

Everywhere I turn I have read that "JavaScript: the Definitive Guide" is the best for learning core because half the book is dedicated to core and the other half is on HTML. But "the definitive guide" is more like a reference for those who already know JavaScript or general programming. That doesn't make it bad; it just doesn't teach you how. If you already know JS or programming you might as well just refer to the "Core JS Guide" and "Reference" for free online at Mozilla.

I was just spinning wheels before this book and now, at least, I'm making some progress.

Good book.

Thanks.

Bad if learning the language, but good if looking up a specific topic
This book suffers from the drawbacks of all programming "Bibles" which try to cover everything. It is decent as a reference for a specific topic, but sketchy as a book to teach you the basics of JavaScript. I'm only on chapter 14, so I haven't got too far into the book, but I find it extremely frustrating. People who know nothing about computer programming should steer clear of this book. The first couple chapters seem easy enough, but then the JavaScript Bible starts throwing a bunch of examples and terminology at you which you won't understand unless you already know how to program. For instance, the book starts using arrays without any explanation of how they work. As someone who knows half a dozen computer languages, I could follow the examples, but I was frustrated by the lack of structure in the book. Core concepts of the JavaScript language are not explained. Basic things like data types are never really covered and the explanation of the fundamentals of the language aren't explained until chapter 13, when they only warrant 3 lousy pages. The idea is that people just want to jump into the good stuff and won't have the patience to plow through chapters explaining the fundamentals of the JavaScript language, but I buy a book about JavaScript so that I will learn those fundamentals. So, buy another book if you want a decent introduction to JavaScript.

The other thing that I find annoying are the detailed references to extremely outdated versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. What web designer today worries about any web browser before IE5.5? Some of the text feels a decade out of date.

Nonetheless, this book is good for people who already know JavaScript and need to look up a specific topic. It covers a huge number of topics and is probably the most comprehensive reference available for the entire JavaScript language. So it is definitely worth buying. Even for a JavaScript beginner like me, I am getting something out of this book, so it isn't a total waste.

Javascript Bible
I seldom extol the virtues of computer technology books but I have to say that this book because of its clarity and content has been and continues to be, a delight to work with.

I am what you might call an 'old hand' in the industry and needed to adapt my skills to embrace browser based technology for the first time.

This book explains clearly how the DOM components work together and the relationship bwtween those components and the scripting language.

I will certainly be looking out for any other books that may have been written by the author. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (21)

a good starter
i got this book, when i didn't have a slightest skill with javascript. back then, it was a good choice of book, it teaches you javascript from ground up. it'd be particularly a very good choice if you have some programming background of any kind.

Simply Mind-Boggling
I have to agree with the others who claim that this book is incredibly misleading. I have a pretty good understanding of programming, and I was still getting headaches by Chapter 3, as everything is presented entirely out of context.

It starts off innocently enough, just giving you some general programming guidelines: variables/functions/loops/conditionals/etc., but then the author launches into an explanation on the Document Object Model, and spends 40 pages explaining it with no context to what it actually means for someone new to Javascript, and no actual examples of how to apply the knowledge.

A good programming book needs to have you writing simple programs from page 1. The only way you can learn what the code really means is by writing it yourself, making your own mistakes, and learning from them.

I have made it past page 100, and there have been ZERO interactive examples. I have been bludgeoned over the head with DOM knowledge, and still have not written even a basic webpage with JS on it. The author just keeps explaining new topics, and doesn't show you how to use any of them or explain what they are actually used for. The book has a very "trust me, this will make sense later" attitude. SitePoint has some great books, but this one is definitely NOT an introductory text on JS.

If it were title something more like "How Javascript Works," I could let it go. But the title implies (well, and it even says so inside) that anyone with knowledge of HTML and CSS should be able to start writing great JS from this book, but I just can't make sense of what is being presented. I would look elsewhere for your JS needs.

Great book, period
The last time that I visited library, I wanted to pick up something that would explain JS to me and something would allow me to create my own scripts.

Well, this book is exactly what I was looking for - it explains all the intricacies of JavaScript, but also it makes it...*gasp*...fun to study what otherwise seems to be somewhat dry subject.

Granted, I might not be a newbie when it comes to scripting (I know CSS/HTML fairly well), but JS is an entirely different thing altogether - not a full-on programming language, but yet its a bit harder to understand it than, say CSS or stuff related to basic coding.

So kudos to authors for being so thorough in their approach and I can't wait to get to the end of the book and see what I will be able to do later on.

The title says it all...it's amazing
This book was awesome.I read it off and on for the last 2 years.I got it when it came out because my school had a javascript course, but I switched schools and just read it on my own.I had some difficulties at first because javascript is a proto-type language, not a OOP language.That really bugged me for a while.I honestly can say that I hate the authors' programming style, it's horrible, I hate it.But if you can get past that, haha, it's good.This book really is "simply javascript".They don't go over anything from a computer scientist's point of view.I think it's good to get started on javascript, but I would recommend "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers"I read through practically all of that book and the author discusses everything from a computer scientist point of view like going over pointers and memory mangement...if you are coming from C/C++ or Java you defiantly need to read that book because the authors here don't talk about that at all.It's a shame that none of the sitepoint books have OOP in javascript.

Well written but buggy
Simply JavaScript is a well-written book.You can follow what the author is trying to tell you fairly well.You don't get that in all coding books.

However there are also some errors in the book.You can read some in the comments but one example is page 69.The snippet fails to tell you that you need to use window.onLoad = function name and put the snippet in that function.You can tell when a book has been through the new user experience test - I believe this one may not have been.

The website associated with this book has minimal support. ... Read more

Product Description
Step-by-step instruction teaches beginning JavaScript programmers and Web designers to create windows, display moving text, and generate sound or other multimedia elements with ease. Uses the successful Beginner's Guide teaching system, which countless new users have praised for giving them a solid foundation in technology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

Great Book, but Dated
Before purchasing this book, be sure to get the newer edition (3rd edition at the time of this writing). This edition contains a lot of deprecated code and improper HTML. Don't get me wrong, this book still contains a lot of relevant information; however, it would be best obtained in the newer edition.

My only quarrel with this book is the figures and charts are often under the wrong section or heading. For instance, Section A of the text may refer to Figure A, but Figure A is under Section B. It really disrupts the reading flow. I often found myself reading along and coming across a figure which was referenced in a previous section and that distracted me from what I was reading.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I didn't read the book as a beginner, but I still learned a lot about JavaScripting, which is the primary goal of the book.

Excellent for beginners - except for one faux pas!
Dear Beginner,

This book is an excellent beginner's book for learning JavaScript. You can tell by the plethora of positive reviews it has received on these pages. I bought this Second Edition in August of 2008, and am re-reading it now to brush up on my JavaScript as I prepare for an online JavaScript class that I'm taking.

There are a handful of minor typos in this book that aren't worth mentioning here, that aren't mentioned on the book's author's website's "Corrections" page--compared to one glaring typo, I guess you could call it, on page 405 of the book, that I think you should know about.

That's where there is a script called "Putting It All Together," that changes the first letter of a person's first and last name, that they enter into a "Prompt" box, to either a capital "Z" or a capital "W," depending upon what that first letter might be.

The problem is: the script doesn't work! I know. I spent several sleepless days and nights getting the same incorrect results as I repeatedly typed the script into my Text Editor.

Rather than going into a long explanation as to why the script doesn't work: how about I make an analogy for all of you Beginners out there--who are thinking of buying this book--as to the problem with the script, and how the problem can be easily fixed! That way, by the time you get to page 405, you won't be slowed down in what is an otherwise fast-paced introductory book for learning the JavaScript scripting language.

Here goes: The script's logic is: If something isn't equal to "A," then do "B," else do "C." But that can't work! The script can never get past "B." The correct logic is: If something is equal to "A," then do "B," else do "C."

By the time you get to page 405, this last paragraph will make perfect sense to you!

Here's the corrected script for you to peruse while you ponder your purchase. By the time you reach page 405, this script will seem like child's play:







If you use the "Look Inside" feature for this book that Amazon provides, and type in "page 405" into a little box you'll see, you will be taken to the script itself on page 405, where you will see the way it was erroneously printed onto that page.

Using Amazon's "Look Inside" feature just now, I found that the same suspect script is also on pages 431-432 of the original edition of the book, JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, published in March of 2001, and on pages 360-361 of the latest edition of the book, JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Third Edition, that came out just last month!

This points out the importance of typing in every single script and example you come across in this or any other computer book you may be studying, and opening up what you typed in your browser...because otherwise, you'll never know for sure what code works and what code doesn't!

Good luck,

Bennie

Best book for a Beginner
After a series of dissapointment buying the so called beginners/dummies book, I found this book to be great. The language in the book is simple and yet it has a lot of information for "beginners". It also has small but good examples. Since I had some programming background I found it a lot easier but I got to learn more about JavaScript. Finally, this is not an advanced book and only an intro to JS.

Great Book-Easy To Use!
As one new to web design and developer, I found this book to be very easy to use and to understand, not like some other books I have purchased. I plan on buying another "Beginner's Guide" by John Pollock. Thank you John you have made my learning experience a pleasure!

Pretty Good Book for an old programmer
After an unsuccessful attempt to learn how to JavaScript with one of the SAM's books, this book was much better. Helpful if you've at least programmed before, and if you are an old C programmer, this book will make JavaScript very easy for you. ... Read more

Product Description
JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors to design interactive sites. JavaScript can interact with HTML source code, enabling Web authors to spice up their sites with dynamic content. JavaScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner not only teaches you JavaScript, a great programming "gateway" language, it will teach you the fundamental programming concepts you need to grasp in order to learn any computer language. It also uses game creation as a learning tool. You will learn how to program in JavaScript and produce something at the same time! Plus, the accompanying CD will contain games that you can cut and paste right into your own Web site! This book is perfect for anyone looking for an easy, non-intimidating introduction to JavaScript and general programming concepts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

More web less game
I'm new to java and some web design. This book was pretty good, if your building a game for online. But not so good in reference to online web design. I did like it however just a pain in the rear trying to figure out were the code goes in my xhtml/css. But it also could just be me being a little behind the ball.

Excellent teaching, but a bit outdated.
When I got this book, it was the second book I got to learn Javascript with. The other book had poor teaching methods, leaving a lot of blanks for the reader to fill in.

This book didn't seem to have that problem at first. It was very good at teaching concepts and syntax at the same time. However, as I got into later chapters, I noticed that the code it had me type, though identical to what was in the book, did not produce the specified results, or even generated errors.

I skipped ahead to some of the later examples. Fortunately, the CD that comes with the book has all the examples pre-typed out, as well as files that go along with the lessons (before and after files, if you will). Many of the files in the latest chapters didn't function at all.

About this time I checked the printing date (2002), and realized I was probably dealing with coding systems that had been updated, as virtually all web-related coding systems I've studied (HTML/XHTML, CSS, PHP) all seem to have updates and variations every year or so.

All in all, the author and publisher did a good job of teaching, and I'd recommend their work....but, unless I've made a major mistake, I wouldn't recommend this one...unless it gets revised to keep up with the current technology.

Poor on example (relate only with games)
I have read this book for a long time (may be 2 years a go) but I did not complete it until now. The book is very boring, Because I'm never learn javascript, that is why it is the reason that i choose this book. But all of the book example is explain with the game project. I really hate it. What I expect to learn is the benefit of javascript scripting language that I could use in the business website. I expect to have a real example for business web site development using javascript scripting language, but this book is totally nothing. If you want to learn javascript for using in business, don't buy this book.

Good approach, but poor editing
This books approach, teaching JS by programming games is effective, but the way the programs are layed out is confusing.In one chapter, the program is presented in parts, but it is VERY confusing how they go together, and parts of the program are left out entirely, which makes the program not work at all (Petals around the Rose, ch.6). An editor should be used who can correct programs, as well as correctling spelling.

Woohoo!!
I just finished taking Andy Harris' Client-Side Web Programming class at IUPUI that follows this book.Written in English, not computerese, this practical, how-to guide equips you with tools that get you in the saddle and off and running as a javascript programmer.Armed with just this information, you can create highly versatile and functional web programs of which you can be proud.The applications for these concepts are limitless.Go Andy! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the three most important Javascript books for your library
If you need this book now, go to [...] and order it from the Manning Early Access Program.
Thirteen chapters are completed. This is a must own book for professionals.Also consider Object-oriented Javascript and Pro Javascript Design Patterns.

If you are bewildered by Javascript libraries, this book takes you to a deeper understanding and sense of independence from cut, paste and hope it works. You can pick any 5 consequtive pages at random and those pages alone are worth the purchase price. As a resource for anyone that has wasted over 100 hours debugging javascript this book is an invaluable resource. ... Read more

Product Description

JavaScript is one of the most important technologies on the web. It provides the means to add dynamic functionality to your web pages and serves as the backbone of Ajax-style web development. Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax is an essential guide for modern JavaScript programming; its practical but comprehensive. It covers everything you need to know to get up to speed with JavaScript development to add dynamic enhancements to web pages and program Ajax-style applications.

Experienced web developer Christian Heilmann begins gently by giving you an overview of JavaScriptits syntax, good coding practices, and the principles of DOM scripting. Then he builds up your JavaScript toolkit, covering dynamically manipulating markup, changing page styling on the fly using the CSS DOM, validating forms, dealing with images, and much more. Then he takes you to advanced territory, with a complete case study illustrating how many new JavaScript techniques can work together, plus a great introduction to Ajax development.

Customer Reviews (16)

Not recommened for beginners
The book's title suggests that it's a book for beginners as well as experienced programmers, but I wouldn'trecommend this book to a person who is just starting to learn JavaScript unless you know a similar scripting language. The first few chapters of the book explain the basics like data types and variables, but then the author suddenly starts throwing really long examples of code at the reader that will definitely confuse an inexperienced programmer. He ends each chapter with "now you know how to do this, and that" which is frustrating becausehe doesn't take the time to explain everything and just assumes that you will figure it out by yourself. He also tells you to ignore some parts of code and tells you that it will be explained later in the book, but if you are like me and won't start a new chapter until you have completely understood the current chapter this is going to annoy you. You feel almost like you have skipped a chapter or two and now can't understand what the author is talking about. It seems like he just decided that it would be easier to just cut and paste big chunks of code to the book and add brief and often vague explanations rather than take a more traditional approach. I would recommend this book only to people who know JavaScript and want to learn new techniques and improve their skills. If you are a beginner and just starting to learn JavaScript buy a "JavaScript for dummies" type book and once you learn the basics read this book to improve your knowledge of JavaScript.

Very Disappointed
The book sets out to give you real-life examples of what you can accomplish with JavaScript, offering some real-life solutions to browser support issues and users with that don't have JavaScript enabled.All of that sounds great in theory, but it's a mistake to dump tons of this kind of information on JavaScript beginners without a cleaner, more digestible introduction.In fact, all of those supportability concerns could have been and, indeed, should have been, dealt with all the way at the end, perhaps in an advanced chapter or two that conclude the book with real-life problems and solutions to these problems.

For the most part, the book is nothing more than a poorly documented and poorly organized set of examples that only serve to frustrate the reader.It really reads like it was thrown together in a rush just to get it over with, rather than with any specific goal in mind.

Very disappointed and looking for a much better tutorial.

well written
I found the book to be easy to read and organized in a logical manor.Example code was provided to emphasis important points.
Since this book is listed as "User level: Beginner-Intermediate," I would have liked to have seen more examples through the book.Examples enhance the learning experience, and help clarify a difficult to understand topic (although in truth, I have this criticism of most programming books).I would have been nice to have a consistent theme through the book, some scenario where we are developing a web page for a company, starting with a simple HTML page and each chapter "improves" the site by adding new JavaScript features.This would help the student integrate the chapter's contents with the overall concept.
Additionally (and also a common complaint in a teaching book), I would suggest that the author adds end of chapter exercises and an appendix with sample solutions.This could be offered as an online download for individuals who register their books.
My biggest disappointment, for a beginner learning book, was lack of a chapter with sections explaining how to enter / develop JavaScript using the most common development environments (Visual Studio).I don't know of anyone who still develops using Notepad.
In summary, a good book if you are motivated to spend time inventing programming exercises and working through them.If end of chapter exercises were added then this would be a great book!

It's about time
I have been going through a lot of javascript books to find that all of them want to teach you the trivial things javascript can do. Not only are the examples trivial, they teach the reader horrible habits. This book doesn't have any "Hello World" examples. It gets into what javascript SHOULD be used for, and how to use it correctly. Other reviews have said that the examples do not work. Do not let that throw you off. I went through the ENTIRE book and every single example worked for me. There are a few towards the end that require a server or a local host like xampp, but either way they still worked. Another review also complained about the DOMhelp library that Chris creates. Chris explains EVERY method in that library before you use it. The library does not do trivial things like "getLinks" You learn how to do that the regular way with the DOM. I think that reviewer got that method mixed up with DOMhelp.getTarget which gets the correct target that a user clicked on depending on which browser the user is using. That is mostly what Chris developed the library for, browser cross compatibility so you don't have to write extensive code. Simply put, some of the other reviews were not very well thought out. If you want to learn useful javascript the right way with plenty of examples to help you learn it, then this is the book for you.

Emphasize "beginner"; "professional" part is false
Just be aware of what you're getting into when you buy this book. It is *for beginners*, not for experienced developers. It spends the first 90 pages covering for- and while-loops, if-tests, and the rest of the machinery that you already know if you're an experienced programmer. It is the fate of most computer books, I'm afraid, that they either address rank beginners or professional software developers, with few addressing those in the middle.

After every chapter, I had to take a second to recapitulate what I had just learned into the terminology that I'm aware of from my experience with other languages. One large section, for instance, is devoted to namespace-collision issues -- but the word "namespare" appears nowhere in the index. If you need a book that will jumpstart to "Here's how you solve the namespace-collision problem in JavaScript," this book is not for you.

I had lots of specific questions, having just come to JavaScript. How do I set up a callback *chain*, for instance, on something like the window.onload event? This book is not at that level. It will be unable to answer that question for you. It spends so much time on beginners that it doesn't have enough time to help with best practices or common, cookbook-type programming problems.

And yet it does seem confused about exactly who its audience is. Right after a chapter on basic flow control, Heilmann tosses off "XSLT" as though he expects his readers to know what that is. I submit that those who needed the first chapter will not need the XSLT bit, and conversely.

So just be aware what you're getting into. I'm actually not blaming Heilmann, though I do blame whoever gave the book its title; it's much more about novices than professionals. If you look on the back of this book, you'll see the flow chart that Apress recommends: start with Heilmann's book, and progress into "Pro JavaScript Techniques" and "Pro CSS Techniques." "Pro Javascript" will be my next step.
... Read more

Product Description
JavaScript is the brains of your Web page—it enables you to modify a document’s structure, styling, and content in response to user actions without requesting new pages from the server. Scriptin' with JavaScript and Ajax teaches you how to master this powerful and elegant language so you can develop intuitive user interactions that take the user experience to new levels of sophistication and responsiveness.

Today’s application-like Web experiences (such as Salesforce.com and Google Maps) and Web 2.0 sites (such as Flickr.com and Twitter) are powered by JavaScript and Ajax. Using the techniques shown in this book, you will be able to start creating similar experiences in the sites you design.

Scriptin' with JavaScript and Ajax will teach you how to:

• Start developing with JavaScript fast!

• Write lightweight but powerful object-oriented code

• Modify the Document Object Model

• “Progressively enhance” your pages with JavaScript to provide the highest levels of accessibility to all users

• Learn sophisticated techniques for making your pages respond to user actions

• Use the downloadable Scriptin’ library of helper functions to speed development and ensure cross-browser compatibility

• Use Ajax scripting techniques to update specific areas of the page with data from the server

• Create powerful interface interactions, such as sliding panels and tree menus

• Evaluate frameworks such as jQuery and Prototype to find the best one for your needs

• Build an online application that looks and responds like a regular desktop application

• Easily adapt the Scriptin’ code examples for use in your own projects—download them at www.scriptinwithajax.com

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Book for New and Seasoned Web Designers Alike
Scriptin' with JavaScript and Ajax is written by Charles Wyke-Smith who is also the author of Stylin' with CSS which is one of the best CSS books I've read. This is a great book for new and seasoned web designers alike. He does a great job of explaining the basic programming fundamentals of JavaScript so that even a newbie can grasp the concepts of JavaScript and similar programming languages.

There are only seven well thought out chapters that present the concepts of JavaScript in easily digestible chunks with a logical flow. You will learn about the rise of JavaScript, the basics, objects and the DOM, events, Ajax, and the major JavaScript frameworks that make the language fun and easy to learn. Before you are through, Charles presents instructions for creating two simple JS powered web applications.

Charles discusses JavaScript's rise to popularity on the web and the fact that it's the only programming language that runs in the browser. He covers accessibility and progressive enhancement, discussing building websites in three layers. The first layer, the plain HTML with the server technology such as PHP. The second layer, making it look good with CSS styles in an external stylesheet. Finally the third layer, enhancing the experience with JavaScript and using Ajax to make sites that can retrieve data from the server without refreshing the page.

The basics of JavaScript programming are explained in a concise introduction discussing variables, strings, evaluations, booleans, and arrays. Arrays are further dissected with techniques to add, read, and sort elements in an array. He also discusses associative arrays. I have read many programming books and taken classes and his explanations of programming basics were a great refresher and helped cement the concepts. Charles talks about using code to work with data. He explains operators, concatenation, and decision statements like switches and loops. There is a great explanation of how functions work and variable's scope. Passing anonymous functions as variables and calling functions from links is also show. The book does a really great job of explaining common programming characteristics in a clear, understandable way.

Objects, named collections of variables and functions, are explained. He discusses accessing an object's properties and methods with the dot sequence: objectName.aPropertyOfTheObject; objectName.aMethodOfTheObject();. Everything in JavaScript is an object and there are two types: predefined and user-defined. Charles talks about object literals, comma separated lists of properties and methods. He discusses how objects are great to organize code into tasks the application performs. This chapter has a good diagram to explain how objects work. The DOM is explained and how to use it with JavaScript to modify any part of the document's HTML and styles.

The chapter focused on events shows how to use JavaScript to add feedback and interactivity when the user operates the mouse and keyboard to interact with the web site. It shows a technique to create striped tables with rollover effects and how to change text on a page based on the amount of characters keyed in.

There is a chapter devoted to Ajax where Charles walks through building an Ajax powered guitar catalog and even makes it accessible. Another cool part of the chapter is where he shows how to store the data for the guitar catalog in JSON and then in XML format. This is great to see the differences between the two.

In the chapter on frameworks, Charles discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using frameworks, the major four being YUI, Prototype, jQuery, and Adobe Spry. He explains namespacing and why it's important that frameworks use it to prevent variables of the same name from colliding with each other when multiple frameworks are used. The great thing about this chapter is that he shows how to accomplish the same task in four different frameworks. This shows the differences in size of code and will help you make a decision about what framework to learn. Rich Internet Application components are shown created in the different frameworks so you can see how they each accomplish the same function in their own way.

In the last chapter you build two applications that combine everything learned from the previous chapters into real work examples. The first application is a horizontal scrolling image carousel with an overlay view of the images when clicked. The second is a location finder with AutoComplete built into the search box. The AutoComplete application uses maps with the Yahoo! API. He also shows how to use a jQuery plugin to set rounded corners on the carousel application.

Scriptin' with JavaScript and Ajax is a great addition to the collection of web design books written by Charles Wyke-Smith and will fit nicely into any web designers library. It's a medium-sized, easy read that is not dry, long, or boring. It makes great use of color and diagrams when displaying the code examples. The code samples are available on the book's site and will be useful in your next web projects. I highly recommend the book!

Making beans of Ajax
I found this book to be excellent in bring Javascript together. The Author used a project to teach javascript and including simple modular approach to create and debug. This book is perfect for the beginner that also has server space to host their website. HTML.CSS.PHP.Javascript were brought together nicely and understandable. Highly recommended as a new builders aid.

Great AJAXand JavaScript book
There are lots of JavaScript and AJAX books out there now, but few really combine both skills into one book. A few books that do, are huge books (700+ pages) and really are impossible to read through and actually get through all the 'techo-jargen' to really get anything out of the book. Most people need a easy-to-understand, to the point with real-world examples book.

This book by Charles Wyke-Smith is the book you are looking for if you want to quickly get started learning JavaScript with all the latest features (including libraries) and how to incorportate AJAX features as well. Since AJAX is not a separate technology, but incorporate sepecific JavaScript objects to create AJAX-enabled websites.

The author assumes no previous JavaScript experience and goes through the basics of JavaScript covering variables, if statements, loops, arrays and how objects/classes work.Then the author goes into explaining the DOM works in modifying and referencing HTML elements of a web page as well as modifying CSS styles of elements (and child elements) of a page. This of course is the foundation of how to use AJAX properly and explained very nicely by the author will great examples to get anybody up and running easily.

The author then goes into explaining JavaScript events inrelation to how they affect an HTML page with window and mouse and keyboard events.The author also covers the Event object in talking about event delegation and working with the DOM in creating some complex JavaScript examples.

Then various JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, Adobe Spry, Protype are explained with some really cool examples of using multuiple libraries together which is very unique for most JavaScript books.

Finally, the author very nicely explains how the objects that work with AJAX work and how to create some really useful AJAX web pages with PHP.

Lots of good stuff to learn from this book and the author does a fabulous job doing it a relatively short book (300 pages).

A great book and worth buying if you want to learn JavaScript and AJAX the proper way!!!

Some good content, brought down by loads of errors.
I'm an experienced programmer, but fairly new to JavaScript.

I liked how the book didn't get stuck on the basics and jumped quickly into real examples of applying JavaScript to enhance a website.

However, as more code appeared on the pages, so did a lot more mistakes. A number of these seemed to be the result of going through several revisions and not updating all references to the code being discussed, but many were pretty inexcusable such as:

- Glaring syntax errors
- Inconsistent names / referencing functions or objects that don't exist
- Incomplete / non-functional code in places

I was able to get something out of this book and didn't get stumped by many of these mistakes (although there were certainly some WTF moments), but I kept imagining a poor novice programmer getting totally confused by parts of the text. There were also some bad practices demonstrated in places. The number of errors is severe enough that I wouldn't recommend this book to friends or colleagues.

Easy to understand - great starting point for JavaScript and Ajax
I had preordered this book after reading the author's two previous guides (Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide (2nd Edition) and Codin' for the Web: A Designer's Guide to Developing Dynamic Web Sites), and this book is a great addition to the series.It gives a great overview of JavaScript and Ajax.The writing style is engaging and approachable, and the examples build on themselves in the same way that a program would be written, with more functionality added in increments, so that the end result is not only a program that works but one that the reader can understand and reuse.

Aside from being able to learn a new technology, I was able to easily justify the cost of the book by being able to use the code examples (Zebra Tables and Carousel) in my current projects.They are presented in such a way that it's easy to modify and integrate them, because you see them built from the ground up rather than just appearing as a monolithic program.

I appreciated the section on frameworks, demonstrating how to accomplish the same task with four different tools.It's a good jumping-off place for more research, and there are pointers given in the margins to useful sites and references.The accompanying website is also a great reference for examples and downloadable code.

This is not a JavaScript or Ajax reference, nor does it try to be.Rather, it guides you to a point where you can understand how to use these technologies in your own work.If you're already a JavaScript/Ajax expert, you might want something else.For me, this book met its objective of developing practical skills, and gives me a good foundation on which to build. ... Read more

Product Description

Pro JavaScript RIA Techniques: Best Practices, Performance, and Presentation shows you how you can build JavaScript RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) with compelling user interfaces and great performance.

With the best practices and optimization techniques you’ll learn in this book, you can optimize performance without sacrificing a rich user interface. Using a combination of innovative ideas and intelligent use of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and plug–ins, this book shows you how to make decisions based on best web standard development practices and real–world browser data.

Through practical examples, you’ll see how to optimize both design and performance with an eye toward future enhancements and efficient maintenance.

• Starting with the essential principles and techniques of semantic markup, build efficient, responsive web applications based on web standard best practices and real–world experience.
• Apply practical techniques and see how to reuse examples of broadly relevant page components to improve the interface and performance of existing sites.
• Explore ways to push the boundaries of the possible with existing browser technology.

Customer Reviews (6)

A Thorough Overview of JavaScript RIA Techniques
Rich Internet Applications are often the basis for Web 2.0 sites, where increased functionality comes at the price of more extensive development and coding efforts. Here's an excellent overview from a JavaScript perspective that will help anyone and everyone who wants to master this, from beginners to seasoned professionals.

The author has distilled his expertise and experience in successfully delivering JavaScript-based Rich Internet Applications, in 402 pages plus index, organized as 12 chapters in three parts. While the focus is on JavaScript, the scope of the book also encompasses the other technologies required to make RIAs useful. The book has a good mix of background information with specific techniques the reader can put to immediate use.

The first part, chapters one and two, deals with best practices proper, to ease both initial development and subsequent maintenance. These deal with such things as naming conventions, folder structures, coding styles and documentation support, with specific recommendations on tools that aid these activities. The importance of this project organization is emphasized several times throughout the book. So, too are reminders the business side will certainly welcome, while the designers and developers all too often overlook: Build to accomplish the task at hand, as simply as possible, nothing more and nothing less.

This first part also outlines the importance of maintaining separation of the several elements that together make up RIAs: Content in html, presentation in Cascading Style Sheets, and functionality in JavaScript, which, not surprisingly, is the largest chapter in the book. The importance of JavaScript frameworks is also covered, and the necessity to review each of them for a given task as one size fits all really doesn't.

The second part, chapters three through five, deals with performance or the functionality integrated with JavaScript. As the author points out, browsers each have their own interpretations of implementing standards, with no two browsers acting identically for the same source material. Each browser has its own development and debug tools, some more effective then others, which are reviewed in a concise manner. Very helpful is the overview of browser functionality, from both the design goals and actual operational viewpoints. There are some interesting tips and tricks that are described, with the ones for Microsoft's IE particularly helpful in reducing the code required to detect the differences and respond specifically and intelligently, so much so that these by themselves may be well worth the price of the book.

The third and last part, chapters six through twelve, deal with presentation, multimedia, UI and accessibility issues, as well as interactivity and several third party components that extend RIA possibilities. It also looks at advanced subjects based on the next versions of the several open standards currently undergoing revision.

Finally, the book has a deep and well organized index that makes for a very good desk reference.

Like all Apress books, the source code used in each chapter can be downloaded for further study, or an implementation model. The source consists of JavaScript and html files, along with Cascading Style Sheets and Visual C#, that are needed to illustrate an example or demonstrate a technique or approach.

Brilliant
Absolutely brilliant book. Really clearly organised and laid out. If you can only read one book about the subject then make this the book.

Review by Didier Mouronval
This book has really been a good surprise for me. Not only it tackles the best techniques for nice and understandable coding, but also it treats how to manage a whole RIA project and gives you useful examples clearly explained.

The first part of the book is devoted to generic HTML, CSS and JavaScript best practices.
We can see how to build what the author calls "solid foundation" based upon good syntax and well presentated code.
Then, we are explained plenty of very usefull details and tips to build a functionnal and maintenable RIA.
All these advices come along with pieces of functionnal code, showing examples of how to carry this out.
Finally, we gather all that have been seen to build our own JavaScript library, with every chunk of the code explained very clearly. Then, a focus is given on a full project creation, meaning how to elaborate it and how to make it easily maintenable.
This part of the book should be mainly reminders, yet the level is increasing gradually to reach advanced concepts.

In the second part, the author points all the improvements we should give to our code in terms of performance.
Performance is seen in a global way, that's to say from the server optimizations all the way to the user's interaction.
Every single part of a complete Internet application is detailed (server-side, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images etc.) to allow your visitors to take the best advantage of your application, including warning them of actions being made.

The last part of the book takes up all that have been explained to show powerfull and original examples of what can be done following all the points given. All the examples are very strongly commented and explained so that the functions can be fully understood.

As a conclusion, I would say that this book should become a must have for all RIA programmers who want to increase their knowledge and have solid understanding of all the different points in play in such applications.
JavaScript is always present, but the range of the book is much wider than strict JavaScript.

Great book on JavaScript Professional Developmen
Over the bast couple year, the JavaScript language has come of age for web developers. As soon as the AJAX boom hit a few years ago, there has been a real resurgence of web developers using JavaScript. Of course that means more books on the topic especially for high end development for AKAX widgets and components.

The recent books in the past year or two that have come out have primarily been focused on using JavaScript libraries to create AJAX components but really havent really explained throughly how and AJAX enabled website should be developed. This book is the exception and really covers everything you would need to know to create RIA (Rich Internet Applications) which basically means AJAX enabled components using JavaScript and possibly a server-side langauge as well.

The author first explains the foundations of building an HTML/XHTML web site, starting with best practices and CSS tips and tricks. This chapter is a great foundation for anyone needing a refresher on the best way to create scable web pages/sites.Because even with the most sophisticated JavaScript code, you always need a good foundation for your site which will always be XHTML and CSS.

The next chapter is a great chapter on Object Oriented development with JavaScript.Although JavaScript is a little limited in creating class-based code, you still can work around most of the limitations in the JavaScript langauge with some smart coding or hacking). This chapter covers everything you need to know and is a very important chapter to start your work in creating RIA using JavaScript.

The author does an excellent job in explaining these complex techniques to the reader.His examples are very concise, easy to understand and explained very well. The expected readership of this book would be anybody who has a basic understanding of web development using XHTML, CSS and JavaScript.

The 3rd chapter is one of my favorites because it covers everything about how different web browsers execute JavaScript and what areas can affect performance and bottle-necking.The athor does a great job in reviewing ever browser available with lots of benchmarking statistics that are current (covers IE 8, FF3, Opera 10, etc) and saves you hours of time researching these stats on the web.

The rest of book has some really valuable information such as: Additional Performance tweaking, the best way for visual responsiveness to the user, image replacement techniques, multimedia playback, widget control creation, and even off-line storage.

The book isnt huge (only 400 pages) but cover ALOT of information that will take you awhile to review and fully implement.This book will be a very valuable resource for any web developer looking to understand how to create RIA or the web.

Recommend You Buy
The book is to the point in most chapters with good code samples. It's similar to other books on this topic, but I still recommend it. This is very much the way to develop sites these days. ... Read more

Product Description

Today’s Web 2.0 applications (think Facebook and Twitter) go far beyond the confines of the desktop and are widely used on mobile devices. The mobile Web has become incredibly popular given the success of the iPhone and BlackBerry, the importance of Windows Mobile, and the emergence of Palm Pre (and its webOS platform). At Apress, we are fortunate to have Gail Frederick of the well-known training site Learn the Mobile Web offer her expert advice in Beginning Smartphone Web Development. In this book, Gail teaches the web standards and fundamentals specific to smartphones and other feature-driven mobile phones and devices.

• Shows you how to build interactive mobile web sites using web technologies optimized for browsers in smartphones
• Details markup fundamentals, design principles, content adaptation, usability, and interoperability
• Explores cross-platform standards and best practices for the mobile Web authored by the W3C, dotMobi, and similar organizations
• Dives deeps into the feature sets of the most popular mobile browsers, including WebKit, Chrome, Palm Pre webOS, Pocket IE, Opera Mobile, and Skyfire

By the end of this book, you’ll have the training, tools, and techniques for creating robust mobile web experiences on any of these platforms for your favorite smartphone or other mobile device.

You’ll learn how to:

• Build interactive mobile web pages that comply with industry standards and best practices.
• Develop web sites using the markup languages of the mobile Web: XHTML-MP, Wireless CSS, and WML.
• Use Mobile JavaScript and Ajax for client-side web interactivity.
• Adapt the syntax and design of mobile web pages to target smartphone models.
• Enhance mobile web pages to target advanced features of smartphone browsers.
• Validate and compress mobile markup to optimize for network transmission and browser performance.
• Simulate smartphone browsers using emulators and development tools.

Who is this book for?

Customer Reviews (7)

Helps with understanding design concepts.
This book turned out to have some solid information on figuring out the designing and packaging concepts you need to keep in mind when setting up an appliction for a tiny screen hand held device. Forget complex rich-media site artwork that makes people linger on a widescreen monitor and think focused task operated by thumbs. Reminds me of the efficiency principles from the days of 3278's and VT100's in a way ... there's not a lot of room for noise factor on a screen the size of a playing card. The book emphasizes this and shows a number of good examples. The section on style guide planning the top, middle and bottom sections of a display page was worth the price of the book.

Beginning Smartphone Web Development
Even though I am a .NET developer, I found the book contained a lot of information that is relevant to my future plans. Mobile is here to stay and growing exponetially. So to stay ahead of the curve, as a developer, you need to keep up with current technology and, this book is a great starting point. My thanks to the authors for sharing their hard earned knowledge.

Learn Smartphone Web Development
Mobile web development is very current nowadays and the books out there now is very slim in explaining all the technologies that are neccessary.This book is a godsend for web developers who really need a reference book on understanding what issues and concerns must be taken on trying to get your mobile web page viewable on the thousands of different web platforms there are.

Web browsers in mobile devices aim to comply with web and mobile industry standards.The author teaches you the standards, best practices and development techniques for building interactive mobile web pages for browsers in smartphones and other mobile devices.

The standards-based mobile web browser is the most promising cross-platform mobile technology.The author based this book on his courses he teaches based upon his many years of experiennce in deploying mobile web applications around the world.

The examples are easy to follow and help get you up and running in a short time.

Its a great book and should be in your computer book library.

Very well written and relevant information
This book is an excellent source of information for the mobile web developer. It assumes you have prior knowledge of web development and takes you straight in to the mobile web. The information presented is extremely relevant. There is a section about useful add-ons for Firefox as a tool for web development. There are references about the MIME types used in mobile web. I specially liked the four case studies which examined four popular mobile web sites: Bank of America, CNN, Flickr and Wikipedia. The book also is supported by code examples in their website which is especially useful in web development.
It ends with a chapter interviewing a panel of experts about the future of mobile web which was very interesting and comprehensive.
Altogether, I highly recommend this book to experienced developers looking to create mobile web content. I plan to use the newly acquired knowledge to create the mobile web version of my protesting web site (BeMeProtest).

Great Book for bird eye's view of mobile platform.
It is a very well written book. The book provides a very good overview and a overall birds eye view of most of the mobile platforms. This book is not in depth, but thats exactly what the title says 'Beginning'. If you want in depth you can view some of their other series. The book is like a movie trailer, if you want to see the whole movie, there are other book by the same publisher, and same series. Its great for people who don't want to get into the details, but would like to select their favorite mobile platform, by seeing what every platform has to offer. The language and style is excellent, and the information flows smoothly. The book does contain codes and examples to try. The book help a starter to navigate the complex waters of mobile platform development with great ease. Highly recommended for mobile platform starters. ... Read more

Product Description
? Features more than 500 oversized, annotated screenshots and a companion Web site with all the code from the book
? Demonstrates over 100 key JavaScript tasks, such as using buttons to trigger events, detecting browsers, changing text and link colors, working with forms and frames, and determining environment properties
? Each step is illustrated with callouts that show the reader exactly where the action occurs on the screen
? JavaScript remains extremely popular for use in interactive Web pages ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Examples hard to read and hard to understand
As someone else noted, the examples are in tiny type.

More seriously, I found the examples to be hard to follow because of overly-similar variable names and unnecessary complexity. Often tries to show several concepts combined in one long example instead of one short example for each.

Good concept but trying to cram too much material into too few pages.

Probably better as a reference then a beginner's guide.
This is a decent book on JavaScript. The format consists of a detailed explanation of a concept or technique then example code. It's filled with many useful examples both large and small. This book has a lot of good information and probably could have benefited from being a bit longer. Many areas were covered including event handling, debugging and objects. There was also a great chapter on cascading style sheets (Probably just a setup for the next chapter on DHTML).

The code is displayed using screens shots of the code in a notepad window on the author's computer. At times it was difficult getting the whole picture of the code across multiple screen shots. It was sometimes difficult reading and typing code from these screen shots as well. I had a lot of errors because I couldn't tell the difference between a single and double quote or between a comma and period. This was more of a problem with the lengthier scripts. Also, the order of the chapters wasn't very helpful either since many concepts were used in early chapters but not explained until a later chapter.

This book is definitely more of a reference than a book on actually teaching the fundamentals of the language. Though as a reference it has far fewer pages compared to a code bible or cookbook. It's probably better for someone who wants to cut and paste code or is already fairly fluent in another programming/scripting language.

From the Publisher
Please note that the printing issue has been fixed in all available product. Any future books shipped will have correct text and code.
Thank you.

Publisher fixed problem
I bought this book and it had some printing errors, but I contacted the publisher and got a new copy overnight. They have fixed the problem since so I don't believe you will find the same issue. If you like learning step-by-step, this is the book for you. Easy to follow and great for some new to Javascript. The book is well organized and explaines javascript concepts in quick concise explainations. All of the examples are easy to follow and focus on one topic at a time.

Make sure you get second (or greater) printing
Updated:
The publisher has now provided me with a corrected copy so I would like to update on my negative remarks made previously. This an excellent book for beginning JavaScript programmers and it also makes a good reference (or cookbook) for experienced programmers. If you need a jumpstart into the world of clientside scripting this is the book I recommend. Give it 5 stars now.


[Old review: I have just received this book in its first printing of the 2nd edition.
Unfortunately the publishers have let the author down badly.
This book would have rated 5 stars from me if it did not contain bad printing errors which cause most of example code in the diagrams to be invisible.
Hold off on this one until the next corrected printing.] ... Read more

Product Description
JavaScript is one of the easiest, most straightforward ways to enhance a website with interactivity. Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours, 4th Edition serves as an easy-to-understand tutorial on both scripting basics and JavaScript itself. The book is written in a clear and personable style with an extensive use of practical, complete examples. It also includes material on the latest developments in JavaScript and web scripting. You will learn how to use JavaScript to enhance web pages with interactive forms, objects, and cookies, as well as how to use JavaScript to work with games, animation, and multimedia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

A good overview but ineffective
I came to this book with intermediate knowledge of XHTML/CSS. I bought it at a bookstore and thought it would be an effective teaching aide. I was able to follow the first few chapters but got lost soon thereafter. The author jumps too far too soon. Even though I tried to carefully read every chapter, highlighting and annotating, I was unable to comprehend many aspects of the language and felt entirely unprepared to do the examples. I ended up reading the book once through as an overview in order to get my head around Javascript but I don't think this book deserves a second reading.

Pretty good, but get some prior knowledge
JavaScript is basically a programming language.Not as powerful as C++, but still uses all of the basic programming constructs, such as variables, functions, objects, if/else statements and so on.Unless you have a good understanding of programming basics (like how to construct a for loop, what an Array is, how variables work, what a Function is and how to pass data to and fro a Function), JavaScript will be difficult to grasp.

Before I got this book, I read the following two books (in order) to give me a solid understanding of programming basics:
1. Computer Programming for Teens by Mary Ferrell
2. Head First JavaScript by Michael Morrison

The two books above tear apart what all common programming languages use to make things happen.Such as all the components of an if/else and for loop statements, what they are, and how they work.Without the two books above giving me a solid foundation, I would have not rated this book "JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition" 4 stars.

"JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition" helped me with some questions I had that the other two books did not answer.Such as there are three types of Objects in JavaScript:
1. Built-in objects
2. DOM objects
3. Custom objects
Breaking objects in JavaScript into three types, really cleared up my basic understanding of DOM.

I also found that "JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition" gives easy coding examples, so you can quickly code out and better understand how things work. For example:
In Hour 2, the book goes over a few implementations of how the built-in Date() object can be used and written to the web page.And gives the full coding in both HTML and JavaScript.

I like how the chapters are short and to the point.

This book is not for the absolute beginner, rather someone who already has a good understanding of programming basics and a little bit of exposure to JavaScript already.I highly recommend the two books I listed above as pre-reqs to "JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition."

I rate this book 4 stars because it really is not for the absolute beginner and I would like to see more coding examples.Otherwise, this book has a place on my bookshelf.

Happy Learning!

Book Review from Silicon Valley Web Builder (SVWB)
Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours

It is a very pleasant surprise to learn Sams Teach Yourself series has been improved into a very well-organized book. Each chapter is limited with 12-14 pages. It is easy to read entire chapter during short break. It includes the latest programming practices like object-oriented JavaScript, DOM Level 2 Scripting, Feature-sensing, Unobtrustive Scripting in CSS, JavaScript and AJAX. It helps you to review the content by reading Q&A and Quiz questions. Each chapter comes with good examples and sample codes.

Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself)

Not great, but not bad.
The Sam's PHP books made them my preferred publisher of tech books, this book didn't live up to my expectations.If you are somewhat competent this book will frustrate you.It doesn't provide much detail on the fundamental concepts.The last third of the book goes further and is devoted to examples that have "cook book" value but not a lot of educational value.

It's not a bad book by any means.I think it may even be a great book, for the right reader.The right reader I think is someone who: knows just a bit about html, what javascript is in vague terms, and wants to get something up and working quickly.If have a basic knowledge of javascript already and are looking to strengthen your foundation this may not be the best book for you.

good if you know basic elements of java
This is not a bad book. It's really a well written book, but it does require some prior knowledge from the user. It would help if a user has some basic knowledge of Java. Some rudimentary knowledge of Java will help to understand the JavaScript object model and methods like toString(), etc.

Compare to what I consider to be the main competitor for this type of book, the O'Reilly JavaScript book, this book is superior for beginners. It explains the document object, math object, etc. simply and clearly. It gives nice examples that you can either type in as an automaton, or that you can elaborate and experiment on. Either way, the explanations are great -- assuming you have a rudimentary knowledge of Java.

I own and have used extensively over 20 of the O'Reilly books, so it's obvious I like them. The O'Reilly JavaScript book is not bad, it's just not the best to learn from. My suggestion is to learn the basics from this book, and then go to the O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive guide book.

Can you really learn JavaScript in 24 hours? If you follow the book word for word, page by page, and type in the examples exactly as stated, then you can finish in 24 hours. If you like to experiment and try different variations of the examples (what I do), then it can take longer. Either way the book is a nice introduction to JavaScript. At least, now I know what the document model can do !!! ... Read more

Product Description
PRACTICAL, EXAMPLE-RICH COVERAGE OF:

• XHTML®
• CSS®
• JavaScript™: Control Statements,
• Functions, Arrays, Objects
• JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
• XHTML DOM®: Objects and Collections
• JavaScript Event-Driven Programming
• XML® and RSS
• XML DOM
• Rich Internet Applications
• Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax)
• XMLHttpRequest
• Dojo Toolkit
• Consuming Web Services
• And more…

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Customer Reviews (5)

What a joke!
This book is promoted as a book for programmers.It starts at a HS level introduction and takes several chapters to get to anything resembling programming.It passes history and justification of the language along the way.I skipped all of that but then the writing style is obviously for someone who has absolutely no clue about programming.I have been a software engineer for more than 20 years and have learned many different languages, but have not seen a book this poorly written for a long time.If you know any programming at all, look for another book.

Pretty Good Beginner JavaScript Book
Here's my breakdown:

1. This book definitely does spend time on other closely related things like XHTML, CSS, etc. That may or may not bother you. These are definitely a prereq to using JS so if you haven't really cut your teeth on them you may like this. I'm pretty good with all of these but there were a couple of things I realized I had overlooked so it worked out well for me.

2. You may not like their coding style if you're picky about things like DRY(don't repeat yourself), but hey, it's meant to be pedantic code and so you really should be thankful that it's easy to understand. Actually, the examples in the DOM chapter were quite good IMO.

3. Very readable and easy to comprehend if you have programming experience. That being said, it says "for Programmers". I'd say it's a little more for beginners.

4. I don't remember seeing anything on things like Object.prototype, .call, .apply, etc. So it's definitely NOT an advanced JS book. If you don't mind having a couple of different books, that still may not bother you as you could supplement with some sort of "definitive" tome. I have to say this one did bother me a bit and I thought at least one more advanced JavaScript chapter would have been good.

Book has potential but needs a better focus...
I have other programming books from these authors and that is why I bought this title. I have looked at other Javascript titles and was not impressed. The book is okay but needs to be reorganized. The following are the changes that it needs...

1) The book is short for tech books so it needs to focus on the important Javascript topics and not HTML format...

The book seems to spend a lot of time with XML and CSS, while important, there are other books that go into the detail and they do not spend enough time explaining and giving examples of the other topics critical to the subject.

2) In more detail they need to talk about code elements and the advanced features witch include built in, objects and DOM (there might be a few things that I may be missing...

I am disappointed since these authors have written very good books about the web, JAVA and PERL which are part of my book collection...

A 'must' for any library catering to professional programmers
Programming libraries must have Javascript for Programmers, a guide to XHTML, CSS, XML and more. It applies the author's infamous live-code approach to JavaScript operations, presenting the basics in the form of over a hundred tested programs with 6,000 lines of code and detailed descriptions. RIA development is covered in detail plus there's a website with download code examples and free updated for this book online. A 'must' for any library catering to professional programmers.

Annoyingly Repetitous, and Where's the Site?
Let me start by admitting I am only on page nine of this book, so I may have to change my rating later [EDIT: After having read all of the book, I have concluded it's not worth reading].I am compelled to write this review because I am already heavily annoyed by amount of repetition in this book.

On page 3 I read

Errata and updates for this book are posted at [...]

and that is the sixth (!) time that URL is mentioned.The fifth time was exactly, to the line, one page earlier.Other URLs occur many times as well.Why not mention the above link just once, and let that be an index page that directs the reader to the other pages?Note also that the above link does not lead to an existing page AND the web site doesn't seem to offer errata to the book. I discovered this when I wanted to point out the mistakes -plural- in

"Common Programming Error 5.4: If the body of a while loop never causes the while statement's condition to become true, a logic error occurs."

I've read the phrase "send email to [...] and we'll respond promptly." a few times already as well.I find myself focusing more on the repetition than on the content.How can professional writers make such mistakes?Is this book templated and are all the paragraphs just gathered from previous books?

I suspect that the Deitels like to talk about themselves and/or like to see their names in print.Not just in the preface, but also on page 3: "In the late 1960s, one of the authors (HMD) was a graduate student at MIT..." and on page 7: "One of the authors, HMD, remembers the great frustration felt in the 1960s..." .Apparently, HMD has been in the business for a long time, and is proud of it. Unfortunately, this does not make for enjoyable reading.

It is one of the first rules you learn when (heaven forbid!) you go into marketing: Customers do not care about you as a sales person, nor do they care about the company you work for.What they are interested in, is how the product that you sell can make their life easier. I hope the Deitels will at some point take this lesson to heart and give us what we want and/or need, and paid for.

Self-glorification isn't it. ... Read more