When JavaScript became the backbone of AJAX and began to figure prominently in web development, it was clear to David Flanagan that his book JavaScript: The Definitive Guide was due for a revision. Hence, the fifth edition of this guide for JavaScriptTM programmers, which O'Reilly has released.

Flanagan explains: "After the fourth edition of my book was published in 2001, the world of client-side web development entered a four-year period of relative stability. JavaScript was stable and well supported at version 1.5. The W3C DOM was stable, and reasonably well supported by developers. I grew complacent ... there never seemed to be the need to update the fourth edition.

"Then Google released their Gmail application and people noticed that it didn't behave like the web sites they were used to. And Jesse James Garrett published his seminal essay on this new style of web development, which he christened AJAX. All of a sudden, the world of JavaScript had changed."

"The new edition," as Flanagan puts it, "has been thoroughly updated so that it covers JavaScript the way it is used today, rather than the way it was used in 2001. These changes appear throughout the book. But the most important new material are the new chapters on scripted HTTP and XML manipulation: these are the cornerstones of AJAX applications, and these two new chapters explain them, with detailed examples.

Flanagan has included substantial material in the new edition on classes and namespaces to enable programmers to better understand the way to structure JavaScript programs that now run to lengths only imagined just four or five years ago.

The book covers JavaScript in four parts, which are as follows:

• Part I: Explains the core JavaScript language in detail, enabling newcomers to JavaScript to learn the language. Experienced JavaScript programmers will use the section to sharpen their skills and deepen their understanding of the language.

• Part II: Explains the scripting environment provided by web browsers, with a focus on DOM scripting with unobtrusive JavaScript. Readers will learn how to:

• Generate a table of contents for an HTML document
• Display DHTML animations
• Automate form validation
• Draw dynamic pie charts
• Make HTML elements draggable
• Define keyboard shortcuts for web applications
• Create Ajax-enabled tool tips
• Use XPath and XSLT on XML documents loaded with Ajax

• Part III: Contains a complete reference for core JavaScript that documents every class, object, constructor, method, function, property and constant defined by JavaScript 1.5 and ECMAScript version 3.

• Part IV: Provides a reference for client-side JavaScript, covering legacy web browser APIs, the standard Level 2 DOM API, and emerging standards such as the XMLHttpRequest object and the <canvas> tag. [...read more...]
  
  
  Keywords:

  • Google
  • JavaScript

  Other articles in the Java Technology section of Volume 102, Issue 5: "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition" Updates on Scripted HTTP and XML Manipulation Short Course on Monitoring and Managing Java SE Java BluePrints Solutions Catalog for Java EE 5 Security Enhancements in the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5 (Java SE 5) Free Web-based Course on Java Application Security See all archived articles in the Java Technology section.

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