Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional)

by Christian Heilmann and Russ Ferguson

Book Overview

This is the most up-to-date book on JavaScript available, covering current standards, techniques, and practices. A lot of the competitors out there are large tomes; this book assumes a different... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590596803
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

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.

Bookmarked throughout - lots of useful stuff

I liked this book - it has many real applications and explanations. I found myself slipping in markers on lots of pages so that I could come back for information that I knew I needed or showed a better way to code something that I had already done.

Great book to learn how to do JavaScript properly

Up until now, most JavaScript books I have seen have not really described how to be a good JavaScript programmer - most of them have lead by example (which is how many JavaScript programmers I know learnt JavaScript). Unfortunately learning JavaScript by simply viewing other people's code without understanding why it was written the way it was could also lead to learning by bad example. Christian Heilmann's "Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax" is different - it teaches the reader the concepts that will help them to become a good JavaScript programmer. Perhaps more importantly, it teaches how to use JavaScript, CSS, DOM, and Ajax in a degradable manner, so that all visitors to your web site will be able to access it. Christian explains not only the guidelines for developing good code, but the reasons why it is important. Christian's passion for creating maintainable, standards compliant, usable websites is clearly visible in his writing. Throughout the book he reiterates key issues that good programmers should know, and demonstrates them in his code. This is an excellent book on JavaScript, and one that I will thoroughly recommend to anybody new to JavaScript programming. I also recommend it to anyone who plans to make their website more accessible to a wider audience (and who doesn't want that?).

Good beginners book

JavaScript has had an up-and-down reputation as a developer's tool with promising and creative concepts followed by problems with browser problems and cross-platform variations and a whole host of other problems. But that situation has changed to a great extent due to better browser support, better standards, and more consistent performance across browsers. Combine that with the recent fascination with creative uses of the Ajax techniques and it seems that everyone is getting onto the bandwagon. In this book the author teaches the basics of the JavaScript platform and how to use it to create a dynamic and user-friendly website. This is one of the best books available to learn JavaScript from scratch. The presentation moves gracefully from the very basics through detailed descriptions and workable code examples to a complete understanding of how to write productive code. Christian Heilmann's writing style is unusually clear and makes concepts easy to grasp. Some of the areas covered include working with images, roll-over effects, site navigation, using forms, data validation techniques, and debugging JavaScript. Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax is highly recommended as one of the best introductions to JavaScript available on the market today.

A different style than most JavaScript tutorial books...

This JavaScript tutorial is a bit different than most I've had the opportunity to review over the years... Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax: From Novice to Professional by Christian Heilmann. It will probably play well to the serious developers who want to come at JavaScript from an object-oriented background... Contents: Getting Started with JavaScript; Data and Decisions; From DHTML to DOM Scripting; HTML and JavaScript; Presentation and Behavior (CSS and Event Handling); Common Uses of JavaScript: Images and Windows; JavaScript and User Interaction: Navigation and Forms; Back-End Interaction with Ajax; Data Validation Techniques; Modern JavaScript Case Study: A Dynamic Gallery; Using Third-Party JavaScript; Debugging JavaScript; Index Most JavaScript books that try and teach the language usually do the "Hello World" approach, have you put a date on the web page, etc. All OK stuff, but pretty common fare. Heilmann seems to treat JavaScript as a legitimate coding language, with plenty of power and features to allow you to code solutions based on current accepted techniques. For instance, he dives into DOM manipulation pretty early, so you end up seeing quite a bit of material using document.getElementsBy statements. In most JavaScript books, that's either relegated to the later chapters, or skipped altogether. Breaking up the learning by presentation and behavior also helps those who are more in tune with MVC-style design. JavaScript *can* be built in such a way that it's maintainable and segmented, and Heilmann does a very nice job in teaching that style. I also really liked the chapter on debugging, as that's one of those things that I find extremely frustrating about JavaScript. He presents some great options that top my normal "scan the code and see if anything looks wrong" method of finding JavaScript errors... My only "quibble" with the book is that I don't think I'd recommend it for the pure novice. Perhaps a novice JavaScript developer with solid development skills in other areas... I think a pure novice to coding in general AND JavaScript in particular would quickly get lost here... Definitely a good read if you have the basics down, and it will likely improve your JavaScript skills and coding techniques...