Pragmatic Guide to JavaScript

by Porteneuve, Christophe

• ISBN13: 9781934356678
• ISBN10: 1934356670
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-10
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

The JavaScript ecosystem can be tough to hack through, even for experienced programmers. There are so many extensive JavaScript reference books and competing libraries to choose from-Prototype, jQuery, MooTools, YUI, Dojo, ExtJS, and so on. Christophe Porteneuve is here to help: he gives you fundamentals, the most handy techniques, and the insider's best practices. If you're reasonably comfortable programming in any widely known language, you'll be able to jump into JavaScript in no time. Divided into six Parts, the book starts with JavaScript code patterns that are too often ignored by JavaScript coders. Part 2 presents several essential JavaScript tasks-DOM and CSS manipulations, plus event handling and timers-in a framework-agnostic way, using syntax from all the major flavors. Parts 3 and 4, respectively, hit JavaScript's best features for user interface functionality-tooltips, lightboxes, image processing, infinite scrolling, and more-and forms for receiving and validating input. Part 5 explores the client/server relationship, touching on cookies, JSON, and Ajax (same- and cross-domain). Part 6 uses JavaScript in mashups with Twitter, Flickr, and geo-related APIs. The appendices feature Christophe's two-page JavaScript cheat sheet, followed by hard-won tips on debugging even the most maddening JavaScript errors. Next is an even-handed assessment of the major frameworks used in the book and in most JavaScript shops today. Last, Christophe presents an extensive group of resources for using and learning JavaScript and the major frameworks. This Pragmatic Guide is strictly focused on the techniques that will get you started in JavaScript. It's where you come to get the full scope of JavaScript in your head--fast! You'll quickly understand its core syntax, capabilities, and related frameworks. Start here first.

Author Biography

Christophe Porteneuve has been doing IT R&D for more than 10 years, specializing early in Web development. He joined Prototype Core in 2006, wrote Prototype and script.aculo.us in 2007, and sometimes speaks at conferences such as The Ajax Experience. He's the CTO of Ciblo.net in Paris, France, where he lives with his wife, Elodie.

Table of Contents

Dedication	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
What's This Book About, and Who Is It For?	p. xv
This Book and JavaScript Libraries	p. xvi
This Book at a Glance	p. xvii
How to Read This Book	p. xviii
Bread and Butter: Pure JavaScript	p. 1
Dynamically Selecting a Method/Property	p. 4
Achieving Code Privacy with the Module Pattern	p. 6
Using Optional, Variable, and Named Arguments	p. 8
The DOM, Events, and Timers	p. 11
Obtaining References to DOM Elements	p. 14
Dynamically Styling Content	p. 16
Changing an Element's Contents	p. 18
Running Code When the DOM Is Loaded	p. 20
Listening for Events (and Stopping)	p. 22
Leveraging Event Delegation	p. 24
Decoupling Behaviors with Custom Events	p. 26
Simulating Background Processing	p. 28
UI Tricks	p. 31
Pulling Off Classy Tooltips	p. 34
Making Unobtrusive Pop-Ups	p. 36
Preloading Images	p. 38
Creating a Lightbox Effect	p. 40
Implementing an "Infinite Scroll"	p. 42
Maintaining Viewport When Loading Content	p. 44
Form-fu	p. 47
Temporarily Disabling a Submit Button	p. 50
Providing Input Length Feedback	p. 52
(Un)checking a Whole Set of Checkboxes at Once	p. 54
Validating Forms: The Basics	p. 56
Validating Forms: Going Further	p. 58
Validating Forms: The Whole Nine Yards	p. 60
Providing On-the-Fly Help Tooltips on Forms	p. 62
Autocompleting Input As It's Typed	p. 64
Using Dynamic Multiple File Uploads	p. 66
Talking with the Server Side	p. 69
Reading/Writing Cookies	p. 72
Loading Stuff Through Ajax (Same Domain)	p. 74
Using JSON	p. 76
Using JSON-P	p. 78
Cross-Domain "Ajax" (Take 1)	p. 80
Cross-Domain "Ajax" (Take 2)	p. 82
Making Mashups	p. 85
Syndicating Your Twitter Updates	p. 88
Syndicating Your Flickr Updates	p. 90
Geocoding a Location and Getting Photos For It	p. 92
Appendices	p. 95
JavaScript Cheat Sheet	p. 97
Debugging JavaScript	p. 101
Here Be Dragons	p. 101
Firefox and Firebug	p. 102
Safari and Web Inspector	p. 106
IE6, IE7, the IE Toolbar, and Web Developer Express	p. 108
IE8 and Developer Tools	p. 111
Opera and Dragonfly	p. 112
Virtual Machines Are Your Friends	p. 113
The Network May Be Your Enemy	p. 114
JavaScript Frameworks	p. 115
Prototype, script.aculo.us, and Scripty2	p. 116
jQuery and jQuery UI	p. 117
MooTools	p. 119
YUI	p. 119
ExtJS	p. 121
Dojo	p. 122
Getting Help	p. 125
Help on JavaScript in General	p. 125
Help on Frameworks	p. 127
Bibliography	p. 131
Index	p. 133
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