Designing with JavaScript, 2nd Edition

Author: Bill Pena, Nick Heinle
List Price: $34.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 156592360X
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates (15 December, 2001)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 58,367
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 out of 5

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Customer Reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5
Very good book for getting up to speed quickly...
In some of my other reviews, I've talked about how you need a mixture of "how to" and reference books. This book falls into the "how to" realm, as this is a volume you can use if you're just starting out with JavaScript. Don't let the small size fool you, however. There's a lot of really good information packed into a book of manageable size.

The book is made up of a series of code samples that illustrate a particular task or function you'd want to accomplish in a web page. For instance, in the Forms And Validation chapter, the authors discuss why you would want to use JavaScript to do form validation. They then start out with a simple script to show how you'd set up a validation script for a form. After that, they start to build out the different validation edits that should catch invalid data. At the end, they recap with the complete script they just walked you through. The advantage to this style is that you are learning by doing real-world examples. And when finished, you have examples of code that you can refer back to in the future when you need similar functionality.

Another important thing to understand about JavaScript is how to use it to work with the object model of the browser, such as windows, forms, images, etc. Much of this information is interspersed within the chapters that are teaching you how to do things with JavaScript. I would have liked to see a chapter devoted just to the browser object model. However, given the intended audience (beginning web developers), it could have been a little too confusing to break that out.

For Notes/Domino developers, you'll find a lot that will be immediately useful as you start developing Domino web applications. Once again, the form validation section will help you to understand how you can use JavaScript to do your form validation instead of making round trips to the server to edit the Domino form using @Formula language. You will have to work a little harder to translate some of this into the Domino development environment, however. Since Domino translates Notes design objects into HTML "on the fly", you may never end up coding

tags by hand. You'll have to work to understand where you can put JavaScript code within Designer so that it works in your application. Having said that, you will still need to know how to code the JavaScript routines that you'll need. This book will help you get there.

Conclusion
I would recommend this book if you are just starting to get into using JavaScript for your Domino web apps. You'll get up to speed quickly on basic functionality, and you can refer back to the examples over time to help you figure out new features you want to add over time.

Rating: 3 out of 5
not for learning javascript
I'm a true beginner. I've been learning javascript, and this is definitely not the book for that. It claims to teach, but it doesn't, not really. I have to admit it does explain the techniques and examples used, but the style in which this book is written I did not find very conducive to learning the language. This is more like a compilation of the most commonly used scripts. The examples are made to be applied immediately in webpages. I did dip into it and use one or two scripts, but for the most part I did not get that much out of it(other than the pleasure of viewing the pretty pink swirly pattern on the cover and throughout the book).

I would compare this book's offerings to fast food: it all comes prepared, and the most you'll have to do is squeeze some ketchup on top of it. You won't be stepping into the kitchen.

I found JavaScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, by Andy Harris, much better for learning javascript concepts and syntax.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Clear Explanations, Good Examples
I recommend this book to people that have done some HTML(& CSS), Javascript. This books presents the techniques that are used to create sliding menu bars, scrollers, tabbed folders, and many practical & useful scripts. The book doesnt delve deep into the syntax of javascript, but teaches you the technique instead. Together with the well chosen examples(& example code) and screenshots, it is easy to understand.

Although the example codes are simple, once you get the basics, you can easily create your own scripts using the techniques taught in the books and interwine them with your own imagination.

The xbStyle object presented at the end of the book really helped. Although its a little outdated (xbStyle.js has been split into 2- xbStyle.js and xbDOM.js). But the API's are still the same, except now they are more specific(being split into xbDOM[contains methods like xbGetElementById() ] and xbStyle[object] and all.

Overall, this terrific book will put you on the 'exponential' road to javascript success. It did to me

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