JavaScript for Dummies 4Th Ed

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 Team DDU JavaScript for Dummies 4Th Ed 1 Cover 1 Table Of Content 14 Introduction 22 System Requirements 22 About This Book 23 Conventions Used in This Book 23 What You're Not to Read 24 Foolish Assumptions 25 How This Book Is Organized 25 Part I: Building Killer Web Pages for Fun and Profit 25 Part II: Creating Dynamic Web Pages 25 Part III: Making Your Site Easy for Visitors to Navigate and Use 26 Part IV: Interacting with Users 26 Part V: The Part of Tens 26 Part VI: Appendixes 26 Icons Used in This Book 26 Where to Go from Here 27 Part I: Building Killer Web Pages for Fun and Profit 28 Chapter 1: Hitting the Highlights: JavaScript Basics 30 What Is JavaScript? (Hint: It's Not the Same Thing as Java!) 31 It's easy! (Sort of) 32 It's speedy! 34 Everybody's doing it! (Okay, almost everybody!) 34 JavaScript and HTML 35 JavaScript and Your Web Browser 37 What Can I Do with JavaScript That I Can't Do with Web Languages? 38 Make your Web site easy for folks to navigate 39 Customize the way your Web site looks on-the-fly 39 Create cool, dynamic animated effects 40 What Do I Need to Get Started? 40 Hardware 40 Software 41 Documentation 42 Chapter 2: Writing Your Very First Script 44 From Idea to Working JavaScript Application 45 Ideas?! I got a million of 'em! 45 Part I: Creating an HTML file 46 Part II: Creating your script 50 Part III: Putting it all together by attaching a script to an HTML file 51 Testing Your Script 53 Chapter 3: JavaScript Language Basics 56 JavaScript Syntax 56 Don't keep your comments to yourself 57 Fully functioning 63 Operators are standing by 71 Working with variables 77 Putting It All Together: Building JavaScript Expressions and Statements 79 The browser-detection script 80 The date-formatting script 85 The data-gathering script 89 Chapter 4: JavaScript-Accessible Data: Getting Acquainted with the Document Object Model 94 Object Models Always Pose Nude 95 Object-ivity 96 For sale by owner: Object properties 98 There's a method to this madness! 100 How do you handle a hungry event? With event handlers! 102 Company functions 103 Anatomy of an Object: Properties, Methods, Event Handlers, and Functions in Action 105 Dynamic objects: The least you need to know about CSS and DHTML 105 Example DHTML script: Adding text dynamically 107 Example DHTML script: Positioning text dynamically 111 Example DHTML script: Changing page appearance on-the-fly 114 Browser Object Models 117 Netscape Navigator 117 JavaScript data types 119 Microsoft Internet Explorer 121 Part II: Creating Dynamic Web Pages 124 Chapter 5: Detecting Your Users' Browser Environments 126 Whacking Your Way through the Browser Maze 126 Detecting Features 127 Browser make and version 127 Embedded objects 133 The referrer page 142 User preferences 143 Chapter 6: That's How the Cookie Crumbles 146 Cookie Basics 146 Why use cookies? 147 Cookie security issues 147 Looking at cookies from a user's perspective 148 Saving and Retrieving User Information 152 Setting a cookie 153 Accessing a cookie 154 Displaying content based on cookie contents: The repeat-visitor script 155 Chapter 7: Working with Browser Windows and Frames 164 Working with Browser Windows 165 Opening and closing new browser windows 165 Controlling the appearance of browser windows 168 Working with Frames 169 Creating HTML frames 170 Sharing data between frames 173 Part III: Making Your Site Easy For Visitors to Navigate and Use 176 Chapter 8: Creating Interactive Images 178 Creating Simple Animations 178 Now you see it, now you don't: Turning images on and off 182 Slideshow Bob: Displaying a series of images 186 Creating Rollovers, Hotspots, and Navigation Bars 189 Creating a simple rollover 190 Creating navigation bars by putting rollovers together 192 Carving up a single image into multiple hotspots 198 Chapter 9: Creating Menus 202 Getting Acquainted with Menus 203 Pull-down menus 203 Sliding menus 207 Taking Advantage of Third-Party DHTML Menu Components 211 Chapter 10: Creating Expandable Site Maps 212 Site Map Basics 212 The pull-down menu revisited 214 Adding frames to the pull-down menu 217 Putting it all together: Adding targeted hyperlinks 218 Taking Advantage of Third-Party Site-Mapping Tools 220 Chapter 11: Creating Pop-Up Help (Tooltips) 222 Creating Plain HTML Tooltips 223 Building DHTML Tooltips 225 Creating an HTML map and designating active areas 225 Defining a style for the tooltip 226 Creating custom JavaScript functions to display and hide tooltips 227 Calling custom functions in response to the onMouseOver and onMouseOut events 228 Putting it all together: Using DHTML code to create simple tooltips 230 Taking Advantage of Third-Party Tooltips Scripts 232 Part IV: Interacting with Users 234 Chapter 12: Handling Forms 236 Capturing User Input by Using HTML Form Fields 236 Creating an input-validation script 237 Calling a validation script 242 Putting It All Together: The Order Form Validation Script 243 Testing for existence 245 Testing for a numeric value 246 Testing for patterns 248 Form-level validation 249 Chapter 13: Handling User-Initiated Events 260 The Skinny on Events and Event Handlers 260 Handling Events 261 Window events 264 Mouse events 265 Form events 266 Keyboard events 268 Chapter 14: Handling Runtime Errors 270 Exceptional Basics 270 Handling Exceptions 271 Part V: The Part of Tens 274 Chapter 15: Top Ten (Or So) Online JavaScript Resources 276 Ten Web Sites to Check Out 276 Netscape 277 Microsoft 277 Builder com 277 Webmonkey 277 Project Cool's JavaScript QuickStarts 277 EarthWeb com 278 About com 278 IRT org 278 WebReference com 279 ScriptSearch com 279 Not-to-Be-Missed Newsgroups 279 Chapter 16: Ten (Or So) Most Common JavaScript Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) 282 Typing-in-a-Hurry Errors 283 Breaking Up a Happy Pair 284 Lonely angle brackets 284 Lonely tags 284 Lonely parentheses 285 Lonely quotes 286 Putting Scripting Statements in the Wrong Places 286 Nesting Quotes Incorrectly 287 Treating Numbers as Strings 288 Treating Strings as Numbers 289 Missing the Point: Logic Errors 290 Neglecting Browser Incompatibility 291 Chapter 17: Ten (Or So) Tips for Debugging Your Scripts 294 JavaScript Reads Your Code, Not Your Mind! 295 Isolating the Bug 296 Consulting the Documentation 297 Displaying Variable Values 297 Breaking Large Blocks of Statements into Smaller Functions 300 Honing the Process of Elimination 301 Debugging browser problems 302 Tracking HTML bugs 302 Checking the JavaScript code 303 Taking Advantage of Others' Experience 303 Exercising the Time-Honored Trial-and-Error Approach 304 Just Try and Catch Me Exception Handling! 304 Taking Advantage of Debugging Tools 308 Netscape's JavaScript console 309 Microsoft Internet Explorer's built-in error display 311 Part VI: Appendixes 314 Appendix A: JavaScript Reserved Words 316 Appendix B: JavaScript Color Values 318 Appendix C: Document Object Model Reference 324 The Document Object Model 324 Anchor 325 Applet 325 Area 326 arguments 326 Array 326 Boolean 327 Button 327 Checkbox 327 clientInformation 328 crypto 328 Date 329 document 329 elements[] 330 event 330 FileUpload 331 Form 331 Frame 332 Function 332 Hidden 332 History 333 Image 333 java 333 JavaArray 334 JavaClass 334 JavaObject 334 JavaPackage 334 Link 335 location 335 Math 335 MimeType 336 navigator 336 netscape 337 Number 337 Object 337 Option 338 Packages 338 Password 339 Plugin 339 Radio 339 RegExp 340 Reset 341 screen 341 Select 341 String 342 Style 342 Submit 343 sun 344 Text 344 Textarea 344 window 345 Global Properties 346 Built-In JavaScript Functions 346 escape() 346 eval() 346 isFinite( ) 347 isNaN() 347 Number() 347 parseFloat() 347 parseInt() 348 String() 348 taint() 348 unescape() 349 untaint() 349 Appendix D: Special Characters 350 Appendix E: About the CD 356 Getting the Most from This CD 356 System Requirements 357 Using the CD 357 JavaScript For Dummies Chapter Files 358 What You'll Find 358 If You Have Problems (Of the CD Kind) 359 Index 362 Team DDU 1 * 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