The Book of JavaScript, 2nd Edition : A Practical Guide to Interactive Web Pages

Brief Contents Contents in Detail Foreword Foreword to the First Edition Acknowledgments Introduction How This Book Is Organized Companion Website Welcome to JavaScript! Is JavaScript for You? Is This Book for You? The Goals of This Book What Can JavaScript Do? What Are the Alternatives to JavaScript? CGI Scripting VBScript Java Flash JavaScript’s Limitations JavaScript Can’t Talk to Servers JavaScript Can’t Create Graphics JavaScript Works Differently in Different Browsers Getting Started Where JavaScript Goes on Your Web Pages Dealing with Older Browsers Your First JavaScript Summary Assignment Using Variables and Built-in Functions to Update Your Web Pages Automatically Variables Store Information Syntax of Variables Naming Variables Arithmetic with Variables Write Here Right Now: Displaying Results Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 2-4 Strings Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 2-6 More About Functions alert() Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 2-9 prompt() Parameters Writing the Date to Your Web Page Built-in Date Functions Date and Time Methods Code for Writing the Date and Time Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 2-12 How the European Space Agency Writes the Date to Its Page Summary Assignment Giving the Browsers What They Want A Real-World Example of Browser Detection Browser Detection Methods Quick-but-Rough Browser Detection More Accurate Browser Detection Redirecting Visitors to Other Pages if-then Statements Boolean Expressions Nesting if-then-else Statements if-then-else-if Statements When and Where to Place Curly Brackets OR and AND OR AND Putting It All Together A Few More Details About Boolean Expressions How Netscape Provides Browser-Specific Content Summary Assignment Working with Rollovers A Real-World Example of Rollovers Triggering Events Event Types Quotes in JavaScript Clicking the Link to Nowhere More Interesting Actions Swapping Images Working with Multiple Images What’s with All the Dots? The document Object Object Properties Finally, Rollovers! Image Preloading How the Tin House Rollovers Work Summary Assignment Opening and Manipulating Windows Real-World Examples of Opening Windows to Further Information Working with Windows as Objects Opening Windows Manipulating the Appearance of New Windows Some Browsers and Computers Open Windows Differently Closing Windows Using the Right Name: How Windows See Themselves and Each Other Moving Windows to the Front or Back of the Screen Window Properties The status Property The opener Property More Window Methods Resizing Windows Moving Windows Summary Assignment Writing Your Own JavaScript Functions Functions as Shortcuts Basic Structure of JavaScript Functions Naming Your Functions Parentheses and Curly Brackets An Example of a Simple Function Writing Flexible Functions Using Parameters Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 6-4 Using More Than One Parameter Getting Information from Functions Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 6-9 Dealing with Y2K Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 6-12 Defining Variables Properly Summary Assignment Providing and Receiving Information with Forms Real-World Examples of Forms Form Basics Text Fields Buttons, Checkboxes, and Radio Buttons Select Elements Textareas Final Form Comments Forms and JavaScript Naming Form Elements Naming Radio Buttons Naming Options Reading and Setting Form Elements Reading Information from Text Fields Setting the Value of a Text Field Textareas Checkboxes Radio Buttons Pull-Down Menus and Scrollable Lists Handling Events Using Form Elements Make this a Shortcut Using Pull-Down Menus as Navigational Tools One Last Forms Shortcut How the Doctors Without Borders Pull-Down Navigation Tool Works Summary Assignment Keeping Track of Information with Arrays and Loops Real-World Examples of Arrays JavaScript’s Built-In Arrays Figuring Out How Many Items an Array Contains Going Through Arrays while Loops while Loops and Arrays Going Off the Deep End Using array.length in Your Loop An Incremental Shortcut Beware of Infinite Loops for Loops How AntWeb Checks Off All the Checkboxes Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 8-11 Creating Your Own Arrays Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 8-12 How the Book of JavaScript Tip Box Works Checking for Blank Statements Checking the Last Element in the Array Testing the Limits of Arrays The startScroll() Function A Streamlined Version Loops Can Nest Creating Arrays As You Go Along Associative Arrays Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 8-18 Summary Assignment Timing Events Real-World Examples of Timing Events Setting an Alarm with setTimeout() Canceling an Alarm with clearTimeout() Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 9-3 Repeating Timed Actions Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 9-5 Using parseInt() with Form Elements Clearing Out a Time-Out Before You Set a New One Declaring Variables That Hold Time-Outs Outside Functions Building a Clock with Timing Loops Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 9-7 How the Book of JavaScript Website’s Timer Works How Space.com’s Countdown Script Works Calculating Times Global Variables and Constants A Timed Slide Show Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 9-11 A Safer Version of rotateImage() Why Declaring a Variable Outside a Function Is Unsafe Why You Can’t Put var Inside a Timing Loop The Solution The Hitch The Solution to the Hitch Why image_array Is Declared Outside the rotateImage() Function Summary Assignment Using Frames and Image Maps A Real-World Example of Frames and Image Maps Frames Frame Basics Frames and JavaScript Frames and Image Swaps Changing the Contents of Two Frames at Once Frames Inside Frames JavaScript and Frames Inside Frames Frame Busting Using Frames to Store Information Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 10-15 Image Maps Image Map Basics Image Maps and JavaScript How Salon’s Bug-Eating Script Works Salon’s Nested Frames Salon’s Image Map The changeMe() Function Summary Assignment Validating Forms, Massaging Strings, and Working with Server-Side Programs A Real-World Example of Form Validation Making Sure a Visitor Has Filled Out a Form Element Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 11-2 String Handling Breaking Strings Apart Matching String Patterns with Regular Expressions How Dictionary.com’s Form Validators Work Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 11-11 Summary Assignment Saving Visitor Information with Cookies A Real-World Example of Cookies What Are Cookies? What Cookies Can and Can’t Do Working with Cookies Setting Cookies Reading Cookies Resetting Cookies Setting More Than One Piece of Information Setting the Duration of a Cookie Who Can Read the Cookie? The Whole Cookie Setting Multiple Cookies Cookie Libraries A Cookie-Based Shopping Cart Adding an Item to the Cart The Checkout Page The readTheCookie() Function The checkOut() Function Summary Assignment Dynamic HTML Real-World Examples of DHTML CSS Basics The Tag Positioning a div with CSS Hiding a div Layering divs JavaScript and DHTML Making divs Move Using setTimeout() and clearTimeout() to Animate a Page Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 13-10 Changing the Contents of a div spans and getElementsByTagName() Advanced DOM Techniques W3C DOM Overview Creating and Adding Elements Using the W3C DOM Adding Text to an Element Adding Elements in the Middle of a Page and Removing Elements Additional DOM Details Manipulating a Page Using the DOM Fancy Event Handling The event Object Adding Event Handlers Using JavaScript Drop-Down Menus Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 13-23 The Borders Summary Assignment Ajax Basics A Real-World Example of Ajax Introduction to Ajax Asynchronicity-The A in Ajax XML-The X in Ajax JavaScript-The J in Ajax Creating and Sending Requests Creating a Request Object Telling the Object Where to Send the Request What to Do When the Request Is Answered Writing JavaScript That Is Called After the Request Has Been Answered Sending the Request Putting Everything Together Getting the Results Demonstrating Asynchronicity Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 14-6 Ajax and Usability The Back Button URLs and Bookmarking Poor Design To Ajax, or Not to Ajax Bad: Just Because You Can Bad: It’s the Hot New Thing Bad: Replacing Something That Works with Something New and Confusing Good: In-Context Data Manipulation Good: Interactive Widgets Good: Saving State Summary Assignment XML in JavaScript and Ajax A Real-World Example of Ajax and XML Google Suggest XML-the Extensible Markup Language The Rules of XML The XML Header XML Elements XML Attributes Illegal XML Characters XML Documents Have a Single Root Element Final Comments About the XML Format Processing XML Line-by-Line Analysis of Figure 15-6 Internet Explorer, responseXML, and Client-Side Ajax Problems with White Space in XML Creating a Suggest Application for Translation Finding the Translations Displaying the Results Summary Assignment Server-Side Ajax Real-World Examples of Server-Side Ajax The Power of Webservers A Server-Side Programming Language PHP Basics Sending Simple Input to PHP with a GET Request Passing Input in a URL Using PHP to Read the Inputs of a GET Request Creating a Google Suggest Application with an Ajax GET Request Contacting Third-Party Webservers with Ajax and PHP The JavaScript for the Homemade Google Suggest Application Using PHP to Contact Other Webservers Ajax and the POST Method An Ajax-Friendly Form POSTing with Ajax Sending XML Information from the Browser to a Webserver HEAD Requests: Getting Information About a Server-Side File Adding Headers to Your Responses Headers and XML The Caching Problem File Handling in PHP Creating and Adding Contents to a Text File with PHP Reading Files in PHP When Communication Breaks Down Automatically Updating a Web Page When a Server-Side File Changes readFileDoFunction() callReadFile() callUpdateIfChanged() stopTimer() Recap and Breathe The Server-Side PHP Code Summary Assignment Putting It All Together in a Shared To Do List Features of the To Do List Application To Do List Data Files userInfo.xml To Do List File To Do List Server Side The To Do List Client Side, Part 1: The HTML The To Do List Client Side, Part 2: The JavaScript The Function Road Map Logging In and Out Functions Related to Logging In Helper Functions Displaying Available Lists Displaying a Specific List Processing Changes to a List Limitations on Manipulating XML Documents Adding a New Item A Few Closing Notes Client-Side or Server-Side Code? Security Issues Summary Assignment Debugging JavaScript and Ajax Good Coding Practices Starting with Comments Filling In the Code Avoiding Common Mistakes Use a Consistent Naming Convention Avoid Reserved Words Remember to Use Two Equal Signs in Logical Tests Use Quotation Marks Correctly Finding Bugs Printing Variables with alert() Statements Debugging Beyond Alerts Using Your Browser’s Bug Detector Using JavaScript Debuggers Debugging Ajax in Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 Other Debugging Resources Fixing Bugs Back Up Your Program Fix One Bug at a Time Avoid Voodoo Coding Look for Similar Bugs Clear Your Head Ask for Help Summary Answers to Assignments Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 index.html image_page.html Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 index.html assignment-nav.html blank.html Chapter 11 index.html assignment-nav.html blank.html Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 addressBook.xml index.html Chapter 17 Join Functions Giving a User Access to Your To Do List Resources Tutorials HTML Tutorials Cascading Style Sheets Tutorials Advanced Topics in JavaScript Ajax Tutorials Example JavaScript and Ajax Code Good Ajax Websites Ajax Frameworks JavaScript PHP Java .NET Ruby Reference to JavaScript Objects and Functions alert() [FF, IE 3] Anchor Properties Applet Properties Methods Area [FF, IE 3] Array [FF, IE 3] Properties Methods Less Common Methods Button (Including Submit and Reset Buttons) Properties Handlers Methods Checkbox Properties Handlers Methods clearInterval() [FF, IE 4] clearTimeout() [FF, IE 3] confirm() [FF, IE 3] Date Methods for Getting the Date and Time Methods for Getting the UTC Date and Time The Problematic getYear() Method Methods for Setting the Date and Time Methods for Setting the UTC Date and Time Methods for Converting Dates to Strings Document Properties Methods elements[] [FF, IE 3] escape() [FF, IE 3] eval() [FF, IE 3] Event Properties FileUpload Properties Methods Handlers Form Properties Methods Handlers Hidden Properties History Properties Methods HTMLElement [FF, IE 4] Properties Methods Handlers [FF, IE 4] Image Properties isNaN() [FF, IE 4] Link Location Properties Methods Math [FF, IE 3] Properties Methods Navigator Properties Less Common Properties Methods Number Properties Methods Option Properties parseInt() [FF, IE 3] parseFloat() [FF, IE 3] Password Properties Methods Handlers prompt() Radio Properties Methods Handlers Reset Screen Properties Select Properties Handlers setInterval() [FF, IE 4] setTimeout() [FF, IE 3] String Properties Methods Style [FF, IE 4] Properties [FF, IE 5] Submit Text Textarea Properties Methods Handlers this [FF, IE 3] unescape() [FF, IE 3] var [FF, IE 3] window Properties Methods Features Methods Less Common Methods Handlers XMLHttpRequest [FF] and ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP") [IE 5.5] Properties Methods Handlers Chapter 15’s Italian Translator and Chapter 17’s To Do List Application Chapter 15’s Italian Translator Chapter 17’s To Do List Application todo.html readXMLFile.php saveXMLFile.php Index Updates JavaScript makes it easy to add interactivity, animation, and other tricks to your web pages. But this isn't just a book of JavaScripts for you to cut and paste into your HTML, only to find out that nothing works as you'd expected. Using real-world examples as the starting point, author thau! walks you step-by-step through various scripts and explains how they produce the effects you want.Because no discussion of JavaScript today is complete without coverage of Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), this thoroughly updated second edition includes new chapters on Ajax to get you up to speed with this valuable method for creating truly dynamic web pages.You'll also find revised appendices and new examples that reflect today's web environment. Learn to:– Work with frames, forms, cookies, and alarms– Use events to react to a user's actions– Perform image swaps and rollovers– Program your own functions to produce customized solutions– Store user preferences and build a shopping cart– Use Ajax to turn web pages into applicationsIf you need to spruce up tired-looking pages, The Book of JavaScript, 2nd Edition will help take your site from bland to brilliant.BONUS: Includes a complete reference to all JavaScript objects and functions, including examples, properties, methods, handlers, and browser compatibility! The Book of JavaScript teaches readers how to add interactivity, animation, and other tricks to their web sites with JavaScript. Rather than provide a series of cut-and-paste scripts, thau! takes the reader through a series of real world JavaScript code with an emphasis on understanding. Each chapter focuses on a few important JavaScript features, shows how professional web sites incorporate them, and takes readers through examples of how they might add those features to their own web sites. This thoroughly updated 2nd edition includes new chapters on Ajax, revised appendices, and new examples throughout. Summary sections and assignments close each chapter, making the book perfect for use in college courses or independent study. The Book of JavaScript teaches readers how to add interactivity, animation, and other tricks to their websites with JavaScript. Rather than provide a series of cut-and-paste scripts, thau! takes the reader through a series of real world JavaScript code examples with an emphasis on understanding. Each chapter focuses on a few important JavaScript features, shows how professional websites incorporate them, and shows readers how they might add those features to their own websites. This thoroughly updated 2nd edition includes coverage of Ajax, revised appendices, and new examples throughout. Summa