JavaScript Application Cookbook

Larger Cover

By Jerry Bradenbaugh

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: October 1999

Pages: 482

There is a serious information gap for Webmasters learning client-side JavaScript skills and trying to solve common Web-related problems. Knowing the syntax is one thing, being able to build a useful application is another. And while there are dozens of "how- to" JavaScript books available, few literally hand the Webmaster a set of ready-to-go, client-side JavaScript applications with thorough documentation that enable the reader to fully understand and extend those applications. By providing such a set of applications, JavaScript Application Cookbook allows Webmasters to immediately add extra functionality to their Web sites.

This book targets readers with two different skill sets. The primary target is JavaScript-knowledgeable Webmasters and designers who can immediately begin constructing their own versions of the applications. The secondary target is those with little or no JavaScript experience. The included applications are ready for immediate use and require little customization.

This book explores both the code and the techniques that are centered around core JavaScript functionality, a functionality that will not become incompatible or obsolete. The source file design of most applications and libraries will help modularize reader Web sites and facilitate easier site management and coding practices.

Chapters are organized by application. Among the included applications are:

A client-side search engine that will show coders how to build their own search engine and get excellent results, all with a client-side tool
A drag-and-drop greeting application that lets users custom build and send DHTML email greetings
A GUI image rollover tool that generates cross-browser image rollover code for all versions of JavaScript
A robust client-side shopping cart application that lets shoppers browse and shop, while the application keeps a tab of the shopper's selections and a running bill, including tax and shipping
An online test application that auto-administers, grades, and displays answers to online exams or surveys

An additional value to this book is an online resource (http://www.serve.com/hotsyte/) that discusses the applications and points to other resources. With its focus on providing practical real-world solutions for Webmasters, JavaScript Application Cookbook is destined to become a staple for every JavaScript developer, regardless of experience.

Chapter 1 The Client-Side Search Engine
1. Execution Requirements
2. The Syntax Breakdown
3. nav.html
4. Building Your Own JavaScript Database
5. Potential Extensions
Chapter 2 The Online Test
1. Execution Requirements
2. The Syntax Breakdown
3. index.html—The Frameset
4. questions.js—The JavaScript Source File
5. administer.html
6. Potential Extensions
Chapter 3 The Interactive Slideshow
1. Execution Requirements
2. The Syntax Breakdown
3. Application Variables
4. The Application Functions
5. Potential Extensions
Chapter 4 The Multiple Search Engine Interface
1. Execution Requirements
2. The Syntax Breakdown
3. Potential Extension: Adding User Control
Chapter 5 ImageMachine
1. Execution Requirements
2. The Syntax Breakdown
3. Potential Extension: Adding Attributes to the Template
Chapter 6 Implementing JavaScript Source Files
1. arrays.js
2. cookies.js
3. dhtml.js
4. events.js
5. frames.js
6. images.js
7. navbar.js
8. numbers.js
9. objects.js
10. strings.js
11. Potential Extensions
Chapter 7 Cookie-Based User Preferences
1. Execution Requirements
2. Syntax Breakdown
3. prefs.html
4. dive.html
5. Potential Extensions
Chapter 8 The JavaScript Shopping Cart
1. Shopping Bag Walk-Through
2. Execution Requirements
3. Syntax Breakdown
4. Step 1: Loading Shopping Bag
5. Step 2: Displaying Products
6. Step 3: Showing All the Categories
7. Step 4: Adding Products to the Shopping Bag
8. Step 5: Changing the Order/Checking Out
9. Potential Extensions
Chapter 9 Ciphers in JavaScript
1. How Ciphers Work
2. Execution Requirements
3. The Syntax Breakdown
4. Potential Extensions
Chapter 10 Cyber Greetings: Drag-and-Drop Email
1. Execution Requirements
2. Syntax Breakdown
3. The Server Side
4. Potential Extensions
Chapter 11 Context-Sensitive Help
1. Execution Requirements
2. Syntax Breakdown
3. Potential Extensions
Chapter 12 Epilogue

Appendix JavaScript Reference
1. Browser Compatibility
2. Objects, Methods, and Properties
3. Top-Level Properties and Functions
4. Event Handlers
Appendix Web Resources
1. Cool JavaScript Sites
2. JavaScript Reference
3. JavaScript FAQs
4. DHTML Reference
5. Document Object Model Reference
6. Perl/CGI Reference
7. Graphics Resources
8. Similar Applications
Appendix Using Perl Scripts
1. A Perl/CGI Overview
2. Getting Perl
3. The Shopping Bag Script—bag.pl
4. The CyberGreeting Script—greet.pl
Colophon

Title:

JavaScript Application Cookbook

By:

Jerry Bradenbaugh

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Safari Books Online

Print:

October 1999

Pages:

482

Print ISBN:

978-1-56592-577-9

| ISBN 10:

1-56592-577-7

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of JavaScript Application Cookbook is a hippopotamus. A native of several regions in Africa, the hippo makes its home in rivers and their bordering grasslands. Hippopotamus is Greek for "river horse," and these large, cumbersome-looking animals move gracefully through the water for much of the day. Hippos leave the water to eat at night. Their vegetarian diet consists mostly of grass, up to 150 pounds a day, as well as some water plants and fallen fruit. Full-grown hippos have no natural predators other than humans, who have hunted them for their ivory tusk-like teeth, for their hide, and for food. Hippos can live to be forty years old. A hippopotamus grows to be five feet tall, twelve feet long, and weighs 6,000 8,000 pounds. Its body is covered in a relatively hairless, gray-brown skin that secretes a reddish oil, often mistaken for blood, to keep the skin moist. A hippo's nostrils, ears, and eyes are situated close to the top of its head so that it can breathe, hear, and see, yet be almost fully submerged when it's swimming or walking on the riverbed. Several native marsh animals frequently rest on the backs of hippos in the water, including crocodiles, turtles, and birds. Nicole Arigo was the production editor for JavaScript Application Cookbook. Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary, Jeffrey Liggett, and Jane Ellin provided quality control. Bruce Tracy wrote the index. Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced by Kathleen Wilson, using QuarkXPress 3.32 and the ITC Garamond font. Alicia Cech designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. The book was implemented in FrameMaker by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Rhon Porter using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Nicole Arigo. Whenever possible, our books use RepKover, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKover's limit, perfect binding is used.

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oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook

4.1

(based on 8 reviews)

Reviewed by 8 customers

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Displaying reviews 1-8

2/16/2011

(1 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Inspirational old book; Still very good.

By lorlarz

from Minneapolis, MN

About Me Developer, Educator

Pros

Accurate
Concise
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written

Cons

Best Uses

Intermediate

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

I still occasionally use some of the code examples from this old book. It is a remarkable book (doing object-oriented stuff well before any other). Much of the programs are still good examples of great uses of javascript. This book made me a builder of JS programs that build JS programs, starting 10 years ago and continuing until today.

6/6/2003

(3 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

3.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By Tim O'Reilly

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

[...]:I agree that the book is mistitled -- as you can see from the other comments, it's a useful book for some people, but it's true that it's not at all what you'd expect based on the Perl Cookbook. But we realized the mistake, and we do have a book that is probably what you want -- the Javascript and DHTML Cookbook, which was just released. See [@] for details.

6/6/2003

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

1.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By Wortwart

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

I recommended this one to my colleagues (who are not very crafted in JavaScript) because I expected something like the outstanding Perl Cookbook. That means: I wanted handy pieces of code for the daily hack which cost your daily portion of nerves (you think it should be easy, you think you have done it several times and end up browsing the JavaScript reference). What I did not want are full recipes for 5-course-dishes that bury the original idea with pages full of HTML code. The most useless O'Reilly book I saw by now.

6/18/2002

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By T. T. Giang

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

Anyone interested in serious programming with Javascript should definitely consider "Javascript Application Cookbook" by Jerry Bradembaugh. First and foremost, this book is not for the lighthearted. One should be well versed with programming (Javascript, Java, C, C++) before considering taking on this book.

From the very first sample (Online Test), I knew this book would be teaching me a lot of new techniques. Having a web-based application running solely (actually, more like 99%) on Javascript is great. Bradenbaugh is very thorough in his writing, explaining, and guiding readers through various sections of each application. His presentations of the processes and variables used are so helpful when walking through the source code.

Right out of the book, there is no need to configure anything except to download the samples. Once you have it saved on your machine, it's time to make things happen. The best thing about the author's walk-through is that he tells you explicitly what is going on, and he offers ways to enhance each application. That's a must when you are looking for ideas from someone with as much knowledge as he has.

I see combining several chapters worth of code into a bigger and better application. For example, using the file I/O techniques used in the Online Test application in conjunction with the Slideshow application, one could create a database of images used and allow users to load and save them. Better yet, why not offer something like a shopping cart for your users to select which image to include in a slideshow. The possibilities are endless from the use of this book. If time permits, incorporate other functions and create a true scripting-library. Use the include directive to bring in what is needed to make your application lean and user-friendly.

There are some sample chapters of the JavaScript Application Cookbook available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jscook/chapter/index.html

6/13/2001

5.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By Leonard v. K.

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

Marvelous! what a style the writer used!

Even I'm from the Netherlands the book has been to read very easy!

I've bought the latest print and I'm use as well the zip.files from the

homesite!

I'm very glad with this cation for Javascript!

By the way: (all) the books from O'Reilly.com are very well!

Go on this way and stay ahead!

7/27/2000

4.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By Geneva Roth

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

When I received my copy of the JavaScript ookbook, I got exactly what I was looking for - a JAVASCRIPT resource. This is a solid piece of work that not only includes practical web ready

applications & code, but also provides clear and concise explanations each step of the way. I foundmost of these explanations to hold considerable value beyond just the scope of the particular recipe;I had no problem using them to broaden my understanding in the bigger picture of JavaScript.

I found Bradenbaugh's book quite helpful and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in

expanding their bag of JS tricks with immediate applicability. (I am currently using the client-sidesearch engine application, and have dog-eared a handful of practical JS functions in Chapter 6).

7/27/2000

(0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By ben c

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

The title is 'JavaScript Application Cookbook'. The author says he aimed to provide complete applications in JavaScript to demonstrate its power and in my opinion, he has done this extremely well.

If you don't quite have the time to try and build entire applications, or would like to use cross-browser JavaScript to its fullest extent, then this book is highly recommended - kudos to the author. If you're looking for a JScript reference, stick with JavaScript : The Definitive Reference by David Flanagan or the JavaScript Bible by Danny Goodman.

7/21/2000

5.0

JavaScript Application Cookbook Review

By N.M.Seyed Ismail

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly JavaScript Application Cookbook:

This book is very nice to learn and use the JavaScript in Web applications. You can increase the explanations part,thus the newcomer also can refer this book.

Displaying reviews 1-8

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Chapter 1 The Client-Side Search Engine

Execution Requirements

The Syntax Breakdown

nav.html

Building Your Own JavaScript Database

Potential Extensions

Chapter 2 The Online Test

Execution Requirements

The Syntax Breakdown

index.html—The Frameset

questions.js—The JavaScript Source File

administer.html

Potential Extensions

Chapter 3 The Interactive Slideshow

Execution Requirements

The Syntax Breakdown

Application Variables

The Application Functions

Potential Extensions

Chapter 4 The Multiple Search Engine Interface

Execution Requirements

The Syntax Breakdown

Potential Extension: Adding User Control

Chapter 5 ImageMachine

Execution Requirements

The Syntax Breakdown

Potential Extension: Adding Attributes to the Template

Chapter 6 Implementing JavaScript Source Files

arrays.js

cookies.js

dhtml.js

events.js

frames.js

images.js

navbar.js

numbers.js

objects.js

strings.js

Potential Extensions

Chapter 7 Cookie-Based User Preferences

Execution Requirements

Syntax Breakdown

prefs.html

dive.html

Potential Extensions

Chapter 8 The JavaScript Shopping Cart

Shopping Bag Walk-Through

Execution Requirements

Syntax Breakdown

Step 1: Loading Shopping Bag

Step 2: Displaying Products

Step 3: Showing All the Categories

Step 4: Adding Products to the Shopping Bag

Step 5: Changing the Order/Checking Out

Potential Extensions

Chapter 9 Ciphers in JavaScript

How Ciphers Work

Execution Requirements

The Syntax Breakdown

Potential Extensions

Chapter 10 Cyber Greetings: Drag-and-Drop Email

Execution Requirements

Syntax Breakdown

The Server Side

Potential Extensions

Chapter 11 Context-Sensitive Help

Execution Requirements

Syntax Breakdown

Potential Extensions

Chapter 12 Epilogue

Appendix JavaScript Reference

Browser Compatibility

Objects, Methods, and Properties

Top-Level Properties and Functions

Event Handlers

Appendix Web Resources

Cool JavaScript Sites

JavaScript Reference

JavaScript FAQs

DHTML Reference