Microsoft Silverlight Books

Provides a rapid and thorough exposition of the JavaScript programming language, as well as an in-depth reference section covering each JavaScript function, object, method, and even handler. Experienced programmers will quickly find the information they need to start writing JavaScript programs.This Fifth Edition is completely revised and expanded to cover JavaScript as it is used in today's Web 2.0 applications. This book is both an example-driven programmer's guide and a keep-on-your-desk reference, with new chapters that explain everything you need to know to get the most out of JavaScript, including: Scripted HTTP and Ajax XML processing Client-side graphics using the canvas tag Namespaces in JavaScript--essential when writing complex programs Classes, closures, persistence, Flash, and JavaScript embedded in Java applications

Part I explains the core JavaScript language in detail. If you are new to JavaScript, it will teach you the language. If you are already a JavaScript programmer, Part I will sharpen your skills and deepen your understanding of the language.

Part II explains the scripting environment provided by web browsers, with a focus on DOM scripting with unobtrusive JavaScript. The broad and deep coverage of client-side JavaScript is illustrated with many sophisticated examples that demonstrate 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 And much more

Part III is a complete reference for core JavaScript. It documents every class, object, constructor, method, function, property, and constant defined by JavaScript 1.5 and ECMAScript Version 3.

Part IV is a reference for client-side JavaScript, covering legacy web browser APIs, the standard Level 2 DOM API, and emerging standards such as the XMLHttpRequestobject and the canvas tag.

More than 300,000 JavaScript programmers around the world have made this their indispensable reference book for building JavaScript applications.

""A must-have reference for expert JavaScript programmers...well-organized and detailed."" -- Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript

Chapter 1. Introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript Myths, Versions of JavaScript, Client-Side JavaScript, JavaScript in Other Contexts, Client-Side JavaScript: Executable Content in Web Pages, Client-Side JavaScript Features, JavaScript Security, Example: Computing Loan Payments with JavaScript, Using the Rest of This Book, Exploring JavaScript

Part I: Core JavaScript
Chapter 2. Lexical Structure
Character Set, Case Sensitivity, Whitespace and Line Breaks, Optional Semicolons, Comments, Literals, Identifiers, Reserved Words

Chapter 3. Data Types and Values
Numbers, Strings, Boolean Values, Functions, Objects, Arrays, null, undefined, The Date Object, Regular Expressions, Error Objects, Primitive Data Type Wrapper Objects

Chapter 4. Variables
Variable Typing, Variable Declaration, Variable Scope, Primitive Types and Reference Types, Garbage Collection, Variables as Properties, Variable Scope Revisited

Chapter 5. Expressions and Operators
Expressions, Operator Overview, Arithmetic Operators, Equality Operators, Relational Operators, String Operators, Logical Operators, Bitwise Operators
Assignment Operators, Miscellaneous Operators

Chapter 6. Statements
Expression Statements, Compound Statements, if, else if, switch, while, do/while, for, for/in, Labels, break, continue, var, function, return, throw, try/catch/finally
with, The Empty Statement, Summary of JavaScript Statements

Chapter 7. Functions
Defining and Invoking Functions, Functions as Data, Function Scope: The Call Object, Function Arguments: The Arguments Object, Function Properties and Methods

Chapter 8. Objects
Objects and Properties, Constructors, Methods, Prototypes and Inheritance, Object-Oriented JavaScript, Objects as Associative Arrays, Object Properties and Methods

Chapter 9. Arrays
Arrays and Array Elements, Array Methods

Chapter 10. Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions
Defining Regular Expressions, String Methods for Pattern Matching, The RegExp Object

Chapter 11. Further Topics in JavaScript
Data Type Conversion, By Value Versus by Reference, Garbage Collection, Lexical Scoping and Nested Functions, The Function( ) Constructor and Function Literals, Netscape's JavaScript 1.2 Incompatibilities


Part II: Client-Side JavaScript
Chapter 12. JavaScript in Web Browsers, The Web Browser Environment, Embedding JavaScript in HTML, Execution of JavaScript Programs,

Chapter 13. Windows and Frames
Window Overview, Simple Dialog Boxes, The Status Line, Timeouts and Intervals, Error Handling, The Navigator Object, The Screen Object, Window Control Methods, The Location Object, The History Object, Multiple Windows and Frames

Chapter 14. The Document Object
Document Overview, Dynamically Generated Documents, Document Color Properties, Document Information Properties, Forms, Images, Links, Anchors
Applets, Embedded Data

Chapter 15. Forms and Form Elements
The Form Object, Defining Form Elements, Scripting Form Elements, Form Verification Example

Chapter 16. Scripting Cookies
An Overview of Cookies, Storing Cookies, Reading Cookies, Cookie Example

Chapter 17. The Document Object Model
An Overview of the DOM, Using the Core DOM API, DOM Compatibility with Internet Explorer 4, DOM Compatibility with Netscape 4, Convenience Methods: The Traversal and Range APIs

Chapter 18. Cascading Style Sheets and Dynamic HTML
Styles and Style Sheets with CSS, Element Positioning with CSS, Scripting Styles, DHTML in Fourth-Generation Browsers, Other DOM APIs for Styles and Style Sheets

Chapter 19. Events and Event Handling
Basic Event Handling, Advanced Event Handling with DOM Level 2, The Internet Explorer Event Model, The Netscape 4 Event Model

Chapter 20. Compatibility Techniques
Platform and Browser Compatibility, Language Version Compatibility, Compatibility with Non-JavaScript Browsers

Chapter 21. JavaScript Security
JavaScript and Security, Restricted Features, The Same-Origin Policy, Security Zones and Signed Scripts

Chapter 22. Using Java with JavaScript
Scripting Java Applets, Using JavaScript from Java, Using Java Classes Directly, LiveConnect Data Types, LiveConnect Data Conversion, JavaScript Conversion of JavaObjects, Java-to-JavaScript Data Conversion


Part III: Core JavaScript Reference
Chapter 23. Core JavaScript Reference, Sample Entry, arguments[ ], Arguments, Arguments.callee, Arguments.length, Array, Array.concat( ), Array.join( ), Array.length, Array.pop( ), Array.push( ), Array.reverse( ), Array.shift( ), Array.slice( ), Array.sort( ), Array.splice( ), Array.toLocaleString( ), Array.toString( ), Array.unshift( ), Boolean, Boolean.toString( ), Boolean.valueOf( ), Date, Date.getDate( ), Date.getDay( ), Date.getFullYear( ), Date.getHours( ), Date.getMilliseconds( ), Date.getMinutes( ), Date.getMonth( ), Date.getSeconds( ), Date.getTime( ), Date.getTimezoneOffset( ), Date.getUTCDate( ), Date.getUTCDay( ), Date.getUTCFullYear( ), Date.getUTCHours( ), Date.getUTCMilliseconds( ), Date.getUTCMinutes( ), Date.getUTCMonth( ), Date.getUTCSeconds( ), Date.getYear( ), Date.parse( ), Date.setDate( ), Date.setFullYear( ), Date.setHours( ), Date.setMilliseconds( ), Date.setMinutes( ), Date.setMonth( ), Date.setSeconds( ), Date.setTime( ), Date.setUTCDate( ), Date.setUTCFullYear( ), Date.setUTCHours( ), Date.setUTCMilliseconds( ), Date.setUTCMinutes( ), Date.setUTCMonth( ), Date.setUTCSeconds( ), Date.setYear( ), Date.toDateString( ), Date.toGMTString( ), Date.toLocaleDateString( ), Date.toLocaleString( ) , Date.toLocaleTimeString( ), Date.toString( ), Date.toTimeString( ), Date.toUTCString( ), Date.UTC( ), Date.valueOf( ), decodeURI( ), decodeURIComponent( ), encodeURI( ), encodeURIComponent( ), Error, Error.message, Error.name, Error.toString( ), escape( ), eval( ), EvalError, Function,  Function.apply( ), Function.arguments[], Function.call( ), Function.caller, Function.length, Function.prototype, Function.toString( ), Global, Infinity, isFinite( ), isNaN( ), Math, Math.abs( ), Math.acos( ), Math.asin( ), Math.atan( ), Math.atan2( ), Math.ceil( ), Math.cos( ), Math.E, Math.exp( ), Math.floor( ), Math.LN10, Math.LN2, Math.log( ), Math.LOG10E, Math.LOG2E, Math.max( ), Math.min( ), Math.PI, Math.pow( ), Math.random( ), Math.round( ), Math.sin( ), Math.sqrt( ), Math.SQRT1_2 , Math.SQRT2, Math.tan( ), NaN, Number, Number.MAX_VALUE, Number.MIN_VALUE, Number.NaN, Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY,  Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY, Number.toExponential( ), Number.toFixed( ), Number.toLocaleString( ), Number.toPrecision( ), Number.toString( ), Number.valueOf( ), Object, Object.constructor, Object.hasOwnProperty( ), Object.isPrototypeOf( ), Object.propertyIsEnumerable( ), Object.toLocaleString( ),  Object.toString( ), Object.valueOf( ), parseFloat( ), parseInt( ), RangeError, ReferenceError, RegExp, RegExp.exec( ), RegExp.global, RegExp.ignoreCase, RegExp.lastIndex, RegExp.source, RegExp.test( ), RegExp.toString( ), String, String.charAt( ), String.charCodeAt( ), String.concat( ), String.fromCharCode( ), String.indexOf( ), String.lastIndexOf( ), String.length, String.localeCompare( ), String.match( ), String.replace( ), String.search( ), String.slice( ), String.split( ), String.substr( ), String.substring( ), String.toLocaleLowerCase( ), String.toLocaleUpperCase( ), String.toLowerCase( ), String.toString( ), String.toUpperCase( ), String.valueOf( ), SyntaxError, TypeError, undefined, unescape( ), URIError


Part IV: Client-Side JavaScript Reference
Chapter 24. Client-Side JavaScript Reference
Sample Entry, Anchor, Applet, Area, Button, Button.onclick, Checkbox, Checkbox.onclick, Document, Document.all[], Document.captureEvents( ), Document.clear( ), Document.close( ), Document.cookie, Document.domain, Document.elementFromPoint( ), Document.getSelection( ), Document.handleEvent( ), Document.lastModified, Document.links[], Document.open( ), Document.releaseEvents( ), Document.routeEvent( ), Document.URL, Document.write( ), Document.writeln( ), Element, Event, FileUpload, FileUpload.onchange, Form, Form.elements[], Form.onreset, Form.onsubmit, Form.reset( ), Form.submit( ), Form.target, Frame, getClass( ), Hidden, History, History.back( ), History.forward( ), History.go( ), HTMLElement ,HTMLElement.contains( ), HTMLElement.getAttribute( ), HTMLElement.handleEvent( ), HTMLElement.insertAdjacentHTML( ), HTMLElement.insertAdjacentText( ), HTMLElement.onclick, HTMLElement.ondblclick, HTMLElement.onhelp, HTMLElement.onkeydown, HTMLElement.onkeypress, HTMLElement.onkeyup, HTMLElement.onmousedown, HTMLElement.onmousemove, HTMLElement.onmouseout, HTMLElement.onmouseover, HTMLElement.onmouseup, HTMLElement.removeAttribute( ), HTMLElement.scrollIntoView( ), HTMLElement.setAttribute( ), Image, Image.onabort, Image.onerror, Image.onload, Input, Input.blur( ), Input.click( ), Input.focus( ) , Input.name, Input.onblur, Input.onchange, Input.onclick, Input.onfocus, Input.select( ), Input.type, Input.value, JavaArray, JavaClass, JavaObject, JavaPackage, JSObject, JSObject.call( ), JSObject.eval( ), JSObject.getMember( ), JSObject.getSlot( ), JSObject.getWindow( ), JSObject.removeMember( ), JSObject.setMember( ), JSObject.setSlot( ), JSObject.toString( ), Layer, Layer.captureEvents( ), Layer.handleEvent( ), Layer.load( ), Layer.moveAbove( ), Layer.moveBelow( ), Layer.moveBy( ), Layer.moveTo( ), Layer.moveToAbsolute( ), Layer.offset( ), Layer.releaseEvents( ), Layer.resizeBy( ), Layer.resizeTo( ), Layer.routeEvent( ), Link, Link.onclick, Link.onmouseout, Link.onmouseover, Link.target, Location, Location.reload( ), Location.replace( ), MimeType, Navigator, Navigator.javaEnabled( ), Navigator.plugins.refresh( ), Option, Password, Plugin, Radio, Radio.onclick, Reset, Reset.onclick, Screen, Select, Select.onchange, Select.options[], Style, Submit, Submit.onclick, Text, Text.onchange, Textarea, Textarea.onchange, URL, Window, Window.alert( ), Window.back( ), Window.blur( ) , Window.captureEvents( ), Window.clearInterval( ), Window.clearTimeout( ), Window.close( ), Window.confirm( ), Window.defaultStatus, Window.focus( ), Window.forward( ), Window.handleEvent( ), Window.home( ), Window.moveBy( ), Window.moveTo( ), Window.name, Window.navigate( ),  Window.onblur, Window.onerror, Window.onfocus, Window.onload, Window.onmove, Window.onresize, Window.onunload, Window.open( ), Window.print( ), Window.prompt( ), Window.releaseEvents( ), Window.resizeBy( ), Window.resizeTo( ), Window.routeEvent( ), Window.scroll( ), Window.scrollBy( ), Window.scrollTo( ), Window.setInterval( ), Window.setTimeout( ), Window.status, Window.stop( )


Part V: W3C DOM Reference
Chapter 25. W3C DOM Reference, Sample Entry, AbstractView, AbstractView.getComputedStyle( ), Attr, CDATASection, CharacterData, CharacterData.appendData( ), CharacterData.deleteData( ), CharacterData.insertData( ), CharacterData.replaceData( ), CharacterData.substringData( ),
Comment, Counter, CSS2Properties, CSSCharsetRule, CSSFontFaceRule, CSSImportRule, CSSMediaRule, CSSMediaRule.deleteRule( ), CSSMediaRule.insertRule( ), CSSPageRule, CSSPrimitiveValue, CSSPrimitiveValue.getCounterValue( ), CSSPrimitiveValue.getFloatValue( ), CSSPrimitiveValue.getRectValue( ), CSSPrimitiveValue.getRGBColorValue( ), CSSPrimitiveValue.getStringValue( ), CSSPrimitiveValue.setFloatValue( ), CSSPrimitiveValue.setStringValue( ), CSSRule, CSSRuleList, CSSRuleList.item( ), CSSStyleDeclaration, CSSStyleDeclaration.getPropertyCSSValue( ) , CSSStyleDeclaration.getPropertyPriority( ), CSSStyleDeclaration.getPropertyValue( ), CSSStyleDeclaration.item( ), CSSStyleDeclaration.removeProperty( ), CSSStyleDeclaration.setProperty( ), CSSStyleRule, CSSStyleSheet, CSSStyleSheet.deleteRule( ), CSSStyleSheet.insertRule( ), CSSUnknownRule, CSSValue, CSSValueList, CSSValueList.item( ), Document, Document.createAttribute( ), Document.createAttributeNS( ), Document.createCDATASection( ), Document.createComment( ), Document.createDocumentFragment( ), Document.createElement( ), Document.createElementNS( ), Document.createEntityReference( ), Document.createEvent( ), Document.createNodeIterator( ), Document.createProcessingInstruction( ), Document.createRange( ), Document.createTextNode( ), Document.createTreeWalker( ), Document.getElementById( ), Document.getElementsByTagName( ), Document.getElementsByTagNameNS( ), Document.getOverrideStyle( ), Document.importNode( ), DocumentCSS, DocumentEvent, DocumentFragment, DocumentRange, DocumentStyle, DocumentTraversal, DocumentType, DocumentView, DOMException, DOMImplementation, DOMImplementation.createCSSStyleSheet( ), DOMImplementation.createDocument( ), DOMImplementation.createDocumentType( ), DOMImplementation.createHTMLDocument( ), DOMImplementation.hasFeature( ), DOMImplementationCSS, Element, Element.getAttribute( ), Element.getAttributeNode( ), Element.getAttributeNodeNS( ), Element.getAttributeNS( ), Element.getElementsByTagName( ), Element.getElementsByTagNameNS( ), Element.hasAttribute( ), Element.hasAttributeNS( ), Element.removeAttribute( ), Element.removeAttributeNode( ), Element.removeAttributeNS( ), Element.setAttribute( ), Element.setAttributeNode( ), Element.setAttributeNodeNS( ), Element.setAttributeNS( ), ElementCSSInlineStyle, Entity, EntityReference, Event, Event.initEvent( ), Event.preventDefault( ), Event.stopPropagation( ), EventException, EventListener, EventTarget, EventTarget.addEventListener( ), EventTarget.dispatchEvent( ), EventTarget.removeEventListener( ), HTMLAnchorElement, HTMLAnchorElement.blur( ), HTMLAnchorElement.focus( ), HTMLBodyElement, HTMLCollection, HTMLCollection.item( ), HTMLCollection.namedItem( ), HTMLDocument, HTMLDocument.close( ), HTMLDocument.getElementById( ), HTMLDocument.getElementsByName( ), HTMLDocument.open( ), HTMLDocument.write( ), HTMLDocument.writeln( ), HTMLDOMImplementation, HTMLElement, HTMLFormElement, HTMLFormElement.reset( ), HTMLFormElement.submit( ), HTMLInputElement, HTMLInputElement.blur( ), HTMLInputElement.click( ), HTMLInputElement.focus( ), HTMLInputElement.select( ), HTMLOptionElement, HTMLSelectElement, HTMLSelectElement.add( ), HTMLSelectElement.blur( ), HTMLSelectElement.focus( ), HTMLSelectElement.remove( ), HTMLTableCaptionElement, HTMLTableCellElement, HTMLTableColElement, HTMLTableElement, HTMLTableElement.createCaption( ), HTMLTableElement.createTFoot( ), HTMLTableElement.createTHead( ), HTMLTableElement.deleteCaption( ) , HTMLTableElement.deleteRow( ), HTMLTableElement.deleteTFoot( ), HTMLTableElement.deleteTHead( ), HTMLTableElement.insertRow( ), HTMLTableRowElement, HTMLTableRowElement.deleteCell( ) , HTMLTableRowElement.insertCell( ), HTMLTableSectionElement , HTMLTableSectionElement.deleteRow( ), HTMLTableSectionElement.insertRow( ) , HTMLTextAreaElement, HTMLTextAreaElement.blur( ), HTMLTextAreaElement.focus( ), HTMLTextAreaElement.select( ), LinkStyle, MediaList, MediaList.appendMedium( ), MediaList.deleteMedium( ), MediaList.item( ) , MouseEvent, MouseEvent.initMouseEvent( ), MutationEvent, MutationEvent.initMutationEvent( ), NamedNodeMap, NamedNodeMap.getNamedItem( ), NamedNodeMap.getNamedItemNS( ), NamedNodeMap.item( ), NamedNodeMap.removeNamedItem( ), NamedNodeMap.removeNamedItemNS( ), NamedNodeMap.setNamedItem( ), NamedNodeMap.setNamedItemNS( ), Node, Node.appendChild( ), Node.cloneNode( ), Node.hasAttributes( ), Node.ChildNodes( ) , Node.insertBefore( ), Node.isSupported( ), Node.normalize( ), Node.removeChild( ), Node.replaceChild( ), NodeFilter, NodeIterator, NodeIterator.detach( ), NodeIterator.nextNode( ), NodeIterator.previousNode( ), NodeList, NodeList.item( ), Notation, ProcessingInstruction, Range, Range.cloneContents( ), Range.cloneRange( ), Range.collapse( ), Range.compareBoundaryPoints( ), Range.deleteContents( ), Range.detach( ), Range.extractContents( ), Range.insertNode( ), Range.selectNode( ), Range.selectNodeContents( ), Range.setEnd( ), Range.setEndAfter( ), Range.setEndBefore( ), Range.setStart( ), Range.setStartAfter( ), Range.setStartBefore( ), Range.surroundContents( ), Range.toString( ), RangeException, Rect, RGBColor, StyleSheet, StyleSheetList, StyleSheetList.item( ), Text, Text.splitText( ), TreeWalker, TreeWalker.firstChild( ), TreeWalker.lastChild( ), TreeWalker.nextNode( ), TreeWalker.nextSibling( ), TreeWalker.parentNode( ), TreeWalker.previousNode( ), TreeWalker.previousSibling( ), UIEvent, UIEvent.initUIEvent( ), ViewCSS


Part VI: Class, Property, Method, and Event Handler Index
Chapter 26. Class, Property, Method, and Event Handler Index

The Final Word (incl review of critics)

As you may know, this book is considered THE Javascript book. What's makes the book worthwhile is it's fine discussion of Javascript's innerworkings. If you really want learn how Javascript's objects, functions, and data type handling work, then this is the book for you. The criticisms of this book fall into three catagories: 1) "Not for beginners". Yes, this book is not intended for people who have never studied object oriented programming. But that doesn't make it a 2 star book! Even beginners, if they are serious enough, will eventually need some clues about how Javascript really works. 2) "It's outdated". Again, yes; the reference section, and some of the browser dependant discussion is clearly outdated; BUT that still does not make this an outdated book! The author's in-depth explanation of Javascript innerworkings may never become outdated, and that alone is what makes this book worthwhile. 3) "Not enough examples". This is the only criticism that Iactually agree with, and therefore the 4, instead of 5 stars. Not only can this book benefit from additional small examples, but the author's explanations are sometimes lacking, or even worse, missing. On a few examples, he basically says, "This is worthy of study. Go ahead and study it." Sorry, I expect more from my books, than a grumpy professor in a university lecture hall, nearing the end of class.

Mr. Raymond Ovanessian
23 September, 2000

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The best Javascript reference

This is the best Javascript reference available.The book is divided into three sections. The first covers "Core Javascript", defining the language itself with only occasional references to how you might use it in a browser. This initially seemed to me to be a roundabout way to approach the language--why wouldn't you want to explain it by examples in a web page? However, after becoming more familiar with the language I think it was absolutely the right decision, since it avoids confusing the document object model (see below for more about that) with the language itself, a confusion common among beginners.At the end of the first section (which developers experienced in other languages can skim, but shouldn't skip) you know what Javascript code looks like and how to do assignments, define functions, and so on. The second section, "Client-side Javascript", is where examples start to show up that you can really run in a test page of your own. The examples are good and there are plenty of them.The heart of the second section is the discussion of the document object model. After some introductory discussion, covering windows and frames and some of the more common Javascript tasks, there's an overview of the DOM. Subsequent chapters cover it in more detail. This organization makes it pretty easy to find what you need without even resorting to the index. For example, I find the forms chapter, and the chapter on how to use cookies to save state, to be very useful, and easy to find information in.Finally, there's a reference section at the back. This is the most valuable section once you're well on your way with the language, and is what I now use most of all. It's comprehensive and clearly written.The book does have one weakness, which has been noted by other reviewers here: it doesn't have a "cookbook" section, showing you how to do common tasks with Javascript. This is a serious omission because of the nature of Javascript usage. Very often a webmaster for a small non-profit or a small business will decide they want to do a rollover, or add an alert for form validation failures, or something similar. Users like this need something equivalent to the "Perl Cookbook"; a "How to . . ." section that gives you an example close to what you need.Despite this caveat, however, this is still the best book around: an excellent reference, and a great way to learn the language.

Mike Christie
27 April, 2000

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Wow - THE best Javascript book available!

I purchased the Netscape One Developer's Guide thinking it would provide answers to my Javascript questions - it answered very few, unfortunately. The 'Guide' doesn't begin to approach the ease of use, thoroughness or amount of information contained in "Javascript: The Definitive Guide". Javascript is as completely covered as it can be (with the free-flowing nature of WWW specifications, its hard to keep track of all the changes). I found the descriptions and examples informative, clear and concise and kinda fun sometimes. The layed back nature of the writing won't scare off novice coders/web developers and yet doesn't turn off more advanced developers. The book is cut in half - the first provides an introduction into Javascript and discusses its more important subjects while the second is a complete reference section for Javascript 1.2. It specifically treats the differences between Netscape and Internet Explorer whereas the Netscape One guide left that up to the reader to figure out - an oversight which relegates the Netscape One Developer's Handbook to the dusty bookshelf (way in the back). If you're doing web development and need to use Javascript - this is probably the only book you'll need. If you're doing web development and you're not using Javascript - you NEED this book - it will show you what you can do with simple client-side scripts.

Scott Cherkofsky
23 August, 1998