JavaScript and Ajax for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (7th Edition)

Need to learn JavaScript fast? This best-selling reference’s visual format and step-by-step, task-based instructions will have you up and running with JavaScript in no time. In this completely updated edition of our best-selling guide to JavaScript, leading Web and computing experts Tom Negrino and Dori Smith use crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you to all of today's JavaScript essentials. Along the way, you'll find extensive coverage of Ajax and Visual QuickStart Guide—the quick and easy way to learn! Easy visual approach uses pictures to guide you through JavaScript and show you what to do. Concise steps and explanations get you up and running in no time. Page for page, the best content and value around. Companion Web site at(http://www.javascriptworld.com) www.javascriptworld.com offers sample scripts, updates, and more! Cover......Page 1 Table of Contents......Page 8 Introduction......Page 14 Chapter 1 Getting Acquainted with JavaScript......Page 20 What JavaScript Is......Page 21 JavaScript Isn’t Java......Page 22 Where JavaScript Came From......Page 24 What JavaScript Can Do......Page 25 What JavaScript Can’t Do......Page 26 What Is Ajax?......Page 27 The Snap-Together Language......Page 30 Handling Events......Page 33 Values and Variables......Page 34 Writing JavaScript-Friendly HTML......Page 36 What Tools to Use?......Page 39 Chapter 2 Start Me Up!......Page 40 Where to Put Your Scripts......Page 42 About Functions......Page 44 Using External Scripts......Page 45 Putting Comments in Scripts......Page 48 Alerting the User......Page 50 Confirming a User’s Choice......Page 52 Prompting the User......Page 54 Redirecting the User with a Link......Page 56 Using JavaScript to Enhance Links......Page 58 Using Multi-level Conditionals......Page 63 Handling Errors......Page 66 Chapter 3 Your First Web App......Page 68 Around and Around with Loops......Page 69 Passing a Value to a Function......Page 74 Detecting Objects......Page 76 Working with Arrays......Page 78 Working with Functions That Return Values......Page 80 Updating Arrays......Page 81 Using Do/While Loops......Page 83 Calling Scripts Multiple Ways......Page 85 Combining JavaScript and CSS......Page 87 Checking State......Page 90 Working with String Arrays......Page 96 Chapter 4 Working with Images......Page 100 Creating Rollovers......Page 102 Creating More Effective Rollovers......Page 104 Building Three-State Rollovers......Page 112 Triggering Rollovers from a Link......Page 114 Making Multiple Links Change a Single Rollover......Page 117 Working with Multiple Rollovers......Page 119 Creating Cycling Banners......Page 123 Adding Links to Cycling Banners......Page 125 Building Wraparound Slideshows......Page 127 Displaying a Random Image......Page 130 Cycling Images with a Random Start......Page 132 Chapter 5 Frames, Frames, and More Frames......Page 134 Keeping a Page out of a Frame......Page 136 Forcing a Page into a Frame......Page 138 Forcing a Site into a Frame......Page 139 Setting a Target......Page 144 Creating and Loading a Dynamic Frame......Page 145 Sharing Functions between Frames......Page 148 Loading Multiple Frames at Once......Page 152 Working with Iframes......Page 154 Loading Iframes with JavaScript......Page 157 Chapter 6 Working with Windows......Page 158 Opening a New Window......Page 159 Loading Different Contents into a Window......Page 163 Opening Multiple Windows......Page 165 Updating One Window from Another......Page 167 Closing a Window......Page 170 Putting Windows in Their Place......Page 173 Chapter 7 Form Handling......Page 176 Select-and-Go Navigation......Page 178 Changing Menus Dynamically......Page 183 Making Fields Required......Page 186 Checking Fields against Each Other......Page 191 Identifying Problem Fields......Page 193 Putting Form Validation into Action......Page 196 Working with Radio Buttons......Page 200 Setting One Field with Another......Page 203 Validating Zip Codes......Page 206 Validating Email Addresses......Page 210 Chapter 8 Forms and Regular Expressions......Page 216 Validating an Email Address with Regular Expressions......Page 218 Validating a File Name......Page 223 Extracting Strings......Page 225 Formatting Strings......Page 228 Formatting and Sorting Strings......Page 232 Formatting and Validating Strings......Page 234 Replacing Elements using Regular Expressions......Page 237 Chapter 9 Handling Events......Page 240 Handling Window Events......Page 241 Mouse Event Handling......Page 249 Form Event Handling......Page 257 Key Event Handling......Page 261 Chapter 10 JavaScript and Cookies......Page 264 Baking Your First Cookie......Page 266 Reading a Cookie......Page 270 Showing Your Cookies......Page 271 Using Cookies as Counters......Page 273 Deleting Cookies......Page 276 Handling Multiple Cookies......Page 278 Displaying “New to You” Messages......Page 280 Chapter 11 Objects and the DOM......Page 286 About Node Manipulation......Page 287 Adding Nodes......Page 289 Deleting Nodes......Page 291 Deleting Specific Nodes......Page 293 Inserting Nodes......Page 297 Replacing Nodes......Page 300 Writing Code with Object Literals......Page 304 Chapter 12 Making Your Pages Dynamic......Page 310 Putting the Current Date into a Web Page......Page 311 Working with Days......Page 313 Customizing a Message for the Time of Day......Page 314 Displaying Dates by Time Zone......Page 315 Converting 24-Hour to 12-Hour Time......Page 321 Creating a Countdown......Page 323 Hiding and Displaying Layers......Page 327 Moving an Object in the Document......Page 330 Date Methods......Page 332 Chapter 13 Introducing Ajax......Page 334 Ajax: Pinning It Down......Page 336 Reading Server Data......Page 340 Parsing Server Data......Page 348 Refreshing Server Data......Page 355 Getting Data From a Server......Page 358 Previewing Links with Ajax......Page 362 Auto-Completing Form Fields......Page 366 Chapter 14 Ajax Toolkits......Page 372 Dragging and Dropping Page Elements......Page 374 Adding a Calendar to Your Page......Page 380 Adding a 2-up Calendar to Your Page......Page 384 Using the Container Utility......Page 390 Adding Animation Effects......Page 395 Implementing the Logger Control for Debugging......Page 398 Chapter 15 Applied JavaScript......Page 402 Using Sliding Menus......Page 403 Adding Pull-Down Menus......Page 406 Enhancing Pull-down Menus......Page 410 A Slideshow with Captions......Page 414 A Silly Name Generator......Page 418 A Bar Graph Generator......Page 424 Style Sheet Switcher......Page 432 Chapter 16 Designing With Ajax......Page 442 Highlighting New Elements......Page 443 Creating Accordion Menus......Page 448 Creating Smarter Dialogs......Page 451 Striping Tables......Page 453 Sorting Tables......Page 456 Chapter 17 Bookmarklets......Page 462 Your First Bookmarklet......Page 463 Resetting a Web Page’s Background......Page 469 Changing a Page’s Styles......Page 470 Word Lookups......Page 473 Viewing Images......Page 476 Displaying ISO Latin Characters......Page 478 Converting RGB Values to Hex......Page 481 Converting Values......Page 483 A Bookmarklet Calculator......Page 484 Shortening URLs......Page 486 Validating Pages......Page 487 Mailing Pages......Page 488 Resizing Pages......Page 489 Appendix A: JavaScript Genealogy and Reference......Page 490 JavaScript Versions......Page 491 ECMAScript......Page 494 Object Flowchart......Page 496 The Big Object Table......Page 502 Appendix B: JavaScript Reserved Words......Page 514 Appendix C: Cascading Style Sheets Reference......Page 518 Appendix D: Where to Learn More......Page 526 Finding Help Online......Page 527 Books......Page 533 A......Page 534 C......Page 535 D......Page 536 F......Page 537 J......Page 538 M......Page 539 R......Page 540 S......Page 541 W......Page 543 Z......Page 544 Need to learn JavaScript fast? This best-selling reference’s visual format and step-by-step, task-based instructions will have you up and running with JavaScript in no time. In this completely updated edition of our best-selling guide to JavaScript, leading Web and computing experts Tom Negrino and Dori Smith use crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you to all of today's JavaScript essentials. Along the way, you'll find extensive coverage of Ajax and XML techniques, current browsers (Opera, Safari, Firefox), and more.Visual QuickStart Guide--the quick and easy way to learn!Easy visual approach uses pictures to guide you through JavaScript and show you what to do.Concise steps and explanations get you up and running in no time.Page for page, the best content and value around.Companion Web site at www.javascriptworld.com offers sample scripts, updates, and more!Tom Negrino is the author of dozens of books including Visual QuickStart Guides covering Macromedia Contribute and Keynote, and Visual QuickProject Guides on upgrading to Mac OS X Tiger, Keynote, and PowerPoint. Dori Smith is the author of Java for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide. She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, publisher of the Wise-Women’s Web community, and a member of the Web Standards Project. Together they’ve written the best-selling Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide, authored numerous print and online articles, and maintain the Backup Brain weblog.

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.

This volume uses pictures to guide you through JavaScript and Ajax and show you how to add pizzazz to your Web pages