What is this book about?

JavaScript is the preferred programming language for Web page applications, letting you enhance your sites with interactive, dynamic, and personalized pages. This fully updated guide shows you how to take advantage of JavaScript’s client-side scripting techniques for the newest versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, even if you’ve never programmed before.

You begin with basic syntax and learn about data types and how to structure code for decision-making. Then you learn to use dates, strings, and other basic objects of JavaScript. Next, you see how to use JavaScript to manipulate objects provided by the browser, such as forms and windows. From there, you move into advanced topics like using cookies and dynamic HTML.

After you have a solid foundation, you explore dynamic generation of Web content using server-side scripting and back-end databases. And you practice what you learn by building a sample application as you go.

What does this book cover?

Here are some of the things you’ll find in this book:

• What types of data are used in JavaScript
• How to identify and correct flaws in your code
• Techniques for programming the browser
• How to use Microsoft Script Debugger and Netscape Script Debugger
• Ways to manage cross-browser issues
• How JavaScript interacts with XML and HTML

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who wants to learn JavaScript programming. You should have some understanding of HTML and how to create static Web pages, but no prior programming experience is necessary.

JavaScript is the preferred programming language for Web page applications, letting you enhance your sites with interactive, dynamic, and personalized pages. This fully updated guide shows you how to take advantage of JavaScript’s client-side scripting techniques for the newest versions of Netscape ; and Internet Explorer ;, even if you’ve never programmed before. You will begin with basic syntax and learn about data types and how to structure code for decision-making. Then you’ll learn to use dates, strings, and other basic objects of JavaScript. Next, you will see how to use JavaScript to manipulate objects provided by the browser, such as forms and windows. From there you will move into advanced topics like using cookies and dynamic HTML. After you have a solid foundation, you will explore dynamic generation of Web content using server-side scripting and back-end databases. And you’ll practice what you learn by building a sample application as you go. What you will learn from this book What types of data are used in JavaScript How to identify and correct flaws in your code Techniques for programming the browser How to use Microsoft ; Script Debugger and Netscape Script Debugger Ways to manage cross-browser issues How JavaScript interacts with XML and HTML Who this book is for This book is for anyone who wants to learn JavaScript programming. You should have some understanding of HTML and how to create static Web pages, but no prior programming experience is necessary. Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

What is this book about? JavaScript is the preferred programming language for Web page applications, letting you enhance your sites with interactive, dynamic, and personalized pages. This fully updated guide shows you how to take advantage of JavaScript’s client-side scripting techniques for the newest versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, even if you’ve never programmed before. You begin with basic syntax and learn about data types and how to structure code for decision-making. Then you learn to use dates, strings, and other basic objects of JavaScript. Next, you see how to use JavaScript to manipulate objects provided by the browser, such as forms and windows. From there, you move into advanced topics like using cookies and dynamic HTML. After you have a solid foundation, you explore dynamic generation of Web content using server-side scripting and back-end databases. And you practice what you learn by building a sample application as you go. What does this book cover? Here are some of the things you’ll find in this book: What types of data are used in JavaScript How to identify and correct flaws in your code Techniques for programming the browser How to use Microsoft Script Debugger and Netscape Script Debugger Ways to manage cross-browser issues How JavaScript interacts with XML and HTML

Suitable for learning basic programming for Web browsers, Beginning JavaScript is a patient, introductory tutorial on writing scripts successfully. It teaches you how to create client-side scripts (including full coverage of fundamentals like variables and flow control, plus plenty of screen shots.)

JavaScript is a good way to learn programming. It’s powerful, of course, but the book takes small steps, using scripts that work with string and time data first, and then moving to manipulating browser objects like forms and windows. A running case study for a trivia game helps anchor the steps with a practical (and fun) example. There are plenty of tips on debugging your scripts (including how to use the Microsoft Script Debugger tool), and each section includes sample questions. (The book also offers extensive answers in over 80 pages at the end of the book.)

There’s plenty of material on the differences between Internet Explorer and Netscape, especially when it comes to Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Coverage of the Document Object Model (DOM) for browsers helps bring the text up to date on some of the latest standards in Web browsers (including the new Netscape 6).

While the focus of Beginning JavaScript clearly is on the client, later sections turn to server-side ASP development (in which the sample trivia game is enhanced with ASPs written in JavaScript using ADO and Microsoft Access.) Reference sections on JavaScript and the browser object model for Internet Explorer and Netscape (through version 4.x) round out the material.

In all, with its approachable style and clearly rendered code examples, Beginning JavaScript makes for a worthwhile first book of programming for today’s browsers. Even if you haven’t programmed before, this text can give you the tools you need to bring your static Web pages to life. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to JavaScript
• Cross-browser compatibility issues
• JavaScript data types and variables
• Displaying errors
• Calculations
• Operators
• String handling
• Flow control statements
• Loops
• Introduction to using objects
• The browser object model
• HTML forms (including types of input controls)
• Frames and windows
• Tutorial for regular expressions
• Advanced string methods
• Date, time, and timer objects
• Common errors
• The Microsoft Script Debugger
• Cookies
• Dynamic HTML (DHTML) on Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape Navigator 4.x
• The Document Object Model (DOM)
• ActiveX controls and plug-ins used with JavaScript
• Server-scripting
• Introduction to ASP and databases (including SQL basics and database design with Microsoft Access)
• Sample case study for a trivia game
• Sample exercises and answers
• References to JavaScript
• Internet Explorer 4 and 5 and Netscape Navigator 4 objects
• ASP object model reference

What is this book about?

JavaScript is the preferred programming language for Web page applications, letting you enhance your sites with interactive, dynamic, and personalized pages. This fully updated guide shows you how to take advantage of JavaScript’s client-side scripting techniques for the newest versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, even if you’ve never programmed before.

You begin with basic syntax and learn about data types and how to structure code for decision-making. Then you learn to use dates, strings, and other basic objects of JavaScript. Next, you see how to use JavaScript to manipulate objects provided by the browser, such as forms and windows. From there, you move into advanced topics like using cookies and dynamic HTML.

After you have a solid foundation, you explore dynamic generation of Web content using server-side scripting and back-end databases. And you practice what you learn by building a sample application as you go.

What does this book cover?

Here are some of the things you’ll find in this book:

• What types of data are used in JavaScript
• How to identify and correct flaws in your code
• Techniques for programming the browser
• How to use Microsoft Script Debugger and Netscape Script Debugger
• Ways to manage cross-browser issues
• How JavaScript interacts with XML and HTML

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who wants to learn JavaScript programming. You should have some understanding of HTML and how to create static Web pages, but no prior programming experience is necessary.

Very big book
Extremely huge book. Great for a blank introduction to the language. Very extremely thorough. Not so much of a quick reference book, but great for learning the basic and advanced commands of JavaScript. It is so big I’ve had it for a while and still have not finished reading it.. You create a JavaScript quiz throughout the book that tells you how many you got wrong and your score. Great introduction book, it does have advanced stuff at the end of it.

Beginning Javascript excellent book
Can’t say enough about this book. Really outstanding in explaining the how-to of Javascript, especially for the beginner. Truly an outstanding book! Thnak you.

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With this up-to-date guide, you’ll find everything you need to know in order to develop interactive, robust, and personalized pages using JavaScript. It takes you step by step through this powerful scripting language so you can begin enhancing your site right away and increase visits. You’ll learn how to take advantage of native JavaScript objects, manipulate objects that are available to you in the latest browsers, use cookies, and jazz up your web pages with Dynamic HTML. Great Update!!!
Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction to JavaScript and the Web.
Chapter 2. Data Types and Variables.
Chapter 3. Decisions, Loops, and Functions.
Chapter 4. JavaScript--An Object-Based Language.
Chapter 5. Programming the Browser.
Chapter 6. HTML Forms--Interacting with the User.
Chapter 7. Windows and Frames.
Chapter 8. String Manipulation.
Chapter 9. Date, Time, and Timers.
Chapter 10. Common Mistakes, Debugging, and Error Handling.
Chapter 11. Storing Information. Cookies.
Chapter 12. Introduction to Dynamic HTML.
Chapter 13. Dynamic HTML in Modern Browsers.
Chapter 14. JavaScript and XML.
Chapter 15. Using ActiveX and Plug-Ins with JavaScript.
Chapter 16. Ajax and Remote Scripting

information in this book is very very VERY old!
this book is a total waste of money. The things you learn are made for very old browsers. So if you want a book to learn js don’t get this one, you would learn things as they where done 10 years ago.

Pretty good book on Beginning Javascript
I was required to purchase this book for a class that I was taking. It works well for the class, and I feel that the content has been thorough. The explanations have been very good.

For the JavaScript beginner this is for you
I bought this book for a class I was taking and it help me to better grasp the the subject of JavaScript with it’s practical examples and quizzes. I am a better programmer now. I can’t wait for their Advanced JavaScript book if there is one.

3rd Edition VERY DISSAPOINTING
I have used the first and second editions of this book as training courseware for several years. Allthough, I was never 100% happy with the book (some important topics had been left out, the content is not cleanly organized and the examples could have been better) it served its purpose.

When I heard that the 3rd edition would be coming out, I looked forward to new and updated information, more complete descriptions and the inclusion of previously omitted information. When the 3rd edition came out, I purchased it and found it to be VERY DISSAPOINTING...to the point that it is actually worse than it was before. I will no longer use this text as a training resource as it is more conveluted than in the past and still does not include basic information that should be there.

Examples:

The 2nd edition was 1010 pages, the 3rd edition is 767 - clearly much information has been removed and unfortunately it was Appendicies B, C, & D, which were The JavaScript Core Reference, The JavaScript Client Reference, and the Latin Character Set. Now, the book just has Appendix A, which is the book’s exercise solutions. The book’s exercise, by the way, is a continuing example that is not very "real-world" oriented and something that most people would skip over anyway. Devoting an appendix to this, but removing the hard-core reference appendicies makes no sense whatsoever!

In none of the previous editions was there any mention of referring to external script files (.js) files, as is done as common practice out in the real world. I was hoping the new edition would include this, but not a word about it is mentioned.

The confusing "flow" of the chapters has not been corected, so you still have to get to chapter 10 before addressing errors and debugging techniques (which should be addressed as chapter 2, in my opinion as a professional trainer) and finding out that you really should be working with certain IE and FireFox settings changed if you want to be able to see your JavaScript errors show up in your browser! Seriously?! The reader is expected to go through 9 chapters without being told how to see an error message about their mistakes!! Like we don’t make mistakes until chapter 11?!!

Chapter 13 is still called "Dynamic HTML in Modern Browsers" instead of what the rest of the world calls it; "The W3C Document Object Model".

There was, and still is, a chapter on XML in the book, but rather than simply merging this information into the chapter about the DOM (since the only JavaScript that is discussed in the XML chapter has to do with parsing XML via the DOM), we get a small chapter that is more about XML than JavaScript. And, there is no mention at all about using JavaScript within XML, rather than XML within JavaScript (ie. enclosing JavaScript inside of CDATA sections for proper XML parsing).

We still have the same old chapter 4 that is an overview of JavaScript and OO. Half of what you need to know about the JavaScript Native Objects (String, Number, Math, Date, etc.) is in this chapter and the other half is in chapters 8 and 9, instead of putting it all together in one place.

The bottom line for me is that this book skips important information that new JavaScript developers should know. It has no hope of becomming organized properly and crucial appendicies have been removed. This makes this book no longer useful as a reference (which serious programmers want and need).

By the way, WROX (now owned by Wiley Press) has done basically the same thing with the new 4th edition of Beginning XML. That book is still wildly incomplete and disorganized.

The best
Still the best book on JavaScript. With each edition it becomes better, if that’s possible.

Its a great book for beginners and helps you grow in the field as it moves on
Its a great book one I think should always be there even when you have moved on to advanced levels of Java scripting. The language is simple great examples help you put your knowledge at work.

Beginning JavaScript- a great place to start
I have experience programming Java, C++, Q-Basic, CSS, HTML, PHP and started to learn JavaScript from free resources on the internet. The problem is that the internet is full of sales pitches and just free code. I wanted to get a good understanding to write my own code. The Beginning JavaScript gave me a great understanding of the basics. The reading was very easy- for someone with programming experience, there was too much of the basic programming info and far too many examples to help understand the basics. If you have NO programming experience, then this book is perfect for you because it will teach you everything you need to get started. After reading this book I was able to do some pretty cool dymanic website stuff on my websites.

I did want to learn more JavaScript though, so I checked out the Professional JavaScript by the same publisher. The Professional JavaScript book is great (especially if you read the Beginning JavaScript or already now programming or a little JavaScript). I was affraid that after reading the Beginning JavaScript book I would see a lot of repeat stuff in the Professional JavaScript book- that is NOT the case. There is a little over lap, but the Professional book does not spend as much time on the easy stuff. To make a long review short... I recommend the Beginning for beginners and I recommend the Professional to those who finished the Beginning book and to those that are already good at programming!

good overview
For a beginning JavaScript book, this covers a lot of topics. The trade-off naturally is that some topics aren’t covered as thoroughly as they might be. As an example, it only mentions one form of commenting code, with 2 slashes:

//this comment must fit on one line

without mentioning comments surrounded by /* and */, as in

/* this comment can extend over
* many lines */

On the other hand, it also covers topics beginning books might omit, like using the free Microsoft Script Debugger, and embedding RealPlayer content.

The book is a bit dated, spending quite a bit of time discussing Netscape 4.x, when most NN users have navigated to Firefox by now. It also uses a lot of deprecated HTML, so tweaking is necessary if you want to validate the examples with the W3C Validator.

A feature I liked were the problems at the end of each chapter, with a solution provided in the appendix. Also, it explains every code example *very* thoroughly--maybe even a bit too much at times when the explanations become repetitious. However, the trivia game application it develops over the course of many chapters is too simplistic to provide much of a real world example, and while there is a support website, it doesn’t seem too up to date. I’ve submitted several errors, but have yet to see them posted.

All in all, I’d rate this 3 1/2 stars, but since I can’t do that, I rounded up to 4 stars.

Excellent Book
I learnt Javascript for the first time from this book and the experience is really great.The examples are beneficial to solve real world problems.
Highly recommended for first time Javascript users

Complete and easy to follow
My company had bought one copy of several books on JavaScript and everyone started borrowing Beginning JavaScript. So we bought several more! It is complete, easy to follow - for both beginning programmers and experienced programmers new to JavaScript. We were particularly interested in generating XML files. The ’advanced’ book we bought didn’t cover it, but Beginning JavaScript did. We couldn’t be happier with it!

Spectacular
JavaScript is the first programming language that I have ever attempted to learn. This book is making it so easy for me. Paul Wilton lays it out for you, step by step, explaining in layman’s terms what each line means and any rules of thumb that are relevant to that line. He doesn’t bog you down with detail or obscure exceptions either. I love this book, and I am so lucky to have found it.

Full client side javascript tutorial
This is a perfect book for those who is looking for skills of creating dynamic web pages, though it is a bit outdated now in part of intensive discussion on how to create cross-platform pages for older versions of IE and Netscape.
The original drawback of the book is a lack of information on how to handle situations when you don’t use IIS as a web server and your database is other than MS Office Access. It’s understood a single book can not cover every single OS flavor and all the variety of Web Servers and databases but limiting a discussion of server side scripting to ASP only is sort of a weak approach. The same is true for programming examples with MS Access only.
However, besides that it is a really good book and is strongly suggested as a comprehensive guide for client side javascripting.

Great book for beginners
This is a great book for beginners. The author explained everything in detail on how everything works together. You do not need any book else for the same topic to get you started and to get your work done.

An excellent book
When this book arrived I thought my gosh what am I in for here, it’s got nearly 1000 pages! But then I started to work through and was pleasantly surprised at the effort the author has put into ensuring that the reader understands everything being set forth. It’s particularly good that the basics of important material from previous chapters are briefly reiterated when they are being put into practical use in the next chapter.

The only reservation I have is with the exercises at the end of each chapter; it would have been good to have had small exercise sections through each chapter instead of just a broad sweep of a few exercises at the end. A lot of material is covered and I found it hard to absorb except in very small sections. Still, if this were the case, the book would probably be twice the length! It all comes down to what suits different readers. It’s great that the code for the various examples can be downloaded from the publisher’s site, but I find it’s best to type the code in line by line and read the explanatory text with it.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone starting out webpage design. It will be money well spent.

Decent
Some good examples. I was able to use this title as a suppliment to a course.

Excellent resource for general Programming understanding too!
I have spent the past 6 months purchasing/reading numerous books about a variety of programming languages (i.e. ASP, Visual Basic, C++, PHP, VBScript, Javascript, XML, SQL etc.) to become adept at a high level in web development project management to better understand why each language is chosen over another in any given scenario. I also enrolled in an online Intro to Programming class for the past 8 weeks that focused on the C++ language. I started reading this book from the beginning and immediately the basic concepts for programming that the C++ class tried to instill were so much more clear in this book’s presentation that many lightbulbs have been going off moment by moment as I read further. This book lays out a great foundation for understanding programming in an organized and easy to grasp presentation of the material. Of course it’s all about JavaScript but it gives the much needed foundation for those of us who know HTML but haven’t gone on to the next step to fully dive into scripting languages and beyond to create dynamic websites.

Excellent book...
For years I’d gotten by with learning/copying JavaScript from existing websites, and used "JavaScript for the World Wide Web visual Quickstart guide" as my meager handbook. I finally decided to get serious about it.

Paul Wilton’s book is very well-written and easy to follow. Even skimming the stuff I thought I knew I’d find cool new things I’d never heard of.

As a bonus, his section on Regular Expressions, another topic I’d found difficult for years, is a real eye-opener. He goes through the RegExp thought process step by step, gradully revealing more powerful options, with useful examples. I’m finally going to USE Regular Expressions! And I’m not the only one who found this enlightening. Wilton was hired to cover Regular Expressions in a few other books as well.

In short, I doubt I’ll ever need another JavaScript book, and this was money well spent.

Thank You, Paul Wilton!
I bought the first edition of this text five years ago when I was just beginning to learn JavaScript, and I still refer to it on a regular basis despite having several other more advanced texts on Javascript, because the information in this text is so complete and well-explained. I am writing this review today because the book is here on my desktop as I am working on a script, and it occurred to me that I should take a moment to acknowledge what a valuable resource it has been for me.

The first edition is dated, of course, due to browser changes mainly. The transition from Classic ASP to ASP.NET is another area where the technology has changed, but the basic information on the language itself is as relevant as ever. That notwithstanding, I’ll have to purchase the 2nd edition now that I’m aware of it’s existence.

This book will gently but firmly take you from knowing nothing about Javascript to programming at an advanced beginner to intermediate level, and once you have worked through the entire book, you’ll find yourself using it as a reference for the details of syntax or the useful little tricks, as well as the excellent documentation of the Javascript core and the various object models.

If you are looking for information on more advanced techniques, such as object-oriented construction or extension, or very advanced DHTML, you might consider a text such as Danny Goodman’s, or the Wrox Professional JavaScript 2nd Ed., or the Javascript Developers Dictionary which is available new for just a few bucks and is not bad at all.

Second edition adds great improvements
All of the reviews of this book from April 2004 and earlier are based on the 1st edition, not this new second edition which didn’t publish until the end of April 2004. The second edition adds some new great coverage of dynamic HTML in more recent browser versions and a new chapter on JavaScript and XML. Throughout the book there are many new examples and all of the code is now updated to be sure it works with the latest browser versions.

Book confuses the issues and doesn’t get to the syntax
Instead of defining all the attributes of say "Request.QueryString" into differenct contexts like Javascript and HTML , he muddles around with probably the lamest web application environment around.

Good for beginners
I chose this book as my introduction to JavaScript and am quite pleased with it. It pretty well covers all the basics and is worth a straight-through read. The author builds several examples, expanding on them as the book progresses. Each time a large block of code is presented. If you can’t figure out what is going on just by inspecting the code, each section is followed by a detailed ’how it works’ explanation.
The book was thorough enough to give me a good understanding of just about everything I needed to know to begin developing a rather complex client-side application. I had to go to a more in-depth reference to learn how to assign an event handler with parameters to a control that was being generated by code, but that was about all that I did not find covered in this book.
I would definitely recommend this book to Javascript beginners, particularly those who are willing to read steadily through it.