www.it-ebooks.info JavaScript Step by Step, Second Edition Steve Suehring www.it-ebooks.info Published with the authorization of Microsoft Corporation by: O’Reilly Media, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, California 95472 Copyright © 2010 Steve Suehring Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without express written permission of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Printed and bound in the United States of America. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 M 5 4 3 2 1 0 Microsoft Press titles may be purchased for educational, business or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://my.safaribooksonline.com). 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The information contained in this book is provided without any express, statutory, or implied warranties. Neither the author, O’Reilly Media, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, nor their respective resellers or distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by such information. Acquisitions and Development Editor: Russell Jones Production Editor: Holly Bauer Production Services: Online Training Solutions, Inc. Technical Reviewer: Michael Bazarewsky Indexing: Potomac Indexing, LLC Cover: Karen Montgomery Illustrator: Robert Romano 978-0-735-64552-3 www.it-ebooks.info To Chris —Steve Suehring www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info   v Contents at a Glance Part I JavaWhat?TheWhere,Why,andHowofJavaScript 1 JavaScript Is More Than You Might Think                    3 2 Developing in JavaScript                                  19 3 JavaScript Syntax and Statements                          49 4 Working with Variables and Data Types                     61 5 Using Operators and Expressions                          99 Part II ApplyingJavaScript 6 Controlling Flow with Conditionals and Loops              119 7 Working with Functions                                 147 8 Objects in JavaScript                                    163 9 The Browser Object Model                               181 Part III IntegratingJavaScriptintoDesign 10 The Document Object Model                             203 11 JavaScript Events and the Browser                        223 12 Creating and Consuming Cookies                         239 13 Working with Images in JavaScript                        253 14 Using JavaScript with Web Forms                         275 15 JavaScript and CSS                                      297 16 JavaScript Error Handling                                313 Part IV AJAXandServer-SideIntegration 17 JavaScript and XML                                     331 18 JavaScript Applications                                  341 19 A Touch of AJAX                                        345 20 A Bit Deeper into AJAX                                  367 www.it-ebooks.info vi Contents at a Glance Part V jQuery 21 An Introduction to JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks      383 22 An Introduction to jQuery                               387 23 jQuery Effects and Plug-Ins                              415 www.it-ebooks.info   vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements                                                 xvii Introducing JavaScript Step by Step, Second Edition                     xix Getting Help                                                       xxii Part I JavaWhat?TheWhere,Why,andHowofJavaScript 1 JavaScript Is More Than You Might Think                    3 A Brief History of JavaScript                                             3 Enter Internet Explorer 30                                         4 And Then Came ECMAScript                                       4 So Many Standards                                              5 The DOM                                                       5 What’s in a JavaScript Program?                                         6 JavaScript Placement on Your Webpage                                  7 What JavaScript Can Do                                               10 What JavaScript Can’t Do                                              10 JavaScript Can’t Be Forced on a Client                              10 JavaScript Can’t Guarantee Data Security                           11 JavaScript Can’t Cross Domains                                   11 JavaScript Doesn’t Do Servers                                     12 Tips for Using JavaScript                                               12 Where JavaScript Fits                                            14 Which Browsers Should the Site Support?                          15 What’s New in ECMAScript Version 5?                                   16 New Array Methods                                             16 New Controls on Object Properties                                16 New JSON Object                                               16 Changes to the Date Object                                      17 Microsoft is interested in hearing your feedback so we can continually improve our books and learning resources for you. To participate in a brief online survey, please visit: www.microsoft.com/learning/booksurvey/ What do you think of this book? We want to hear from you! www.it-ebooks.info viii Table of Contents A New Strict Mode                                              17 Browser Support                                                17 Exercises                                                            17 2 Developing in JavaScript                                  19 JavaScript Development Options                                       19 Conguring Your Environment                                         20 Writing JavaScript with Visual Studio 2010                               20 Your First Web (and JavaScript) Project with Visual Studio 2010       24 Using External JavaScript Files with Visual Studio 2010               28 Writing JavaScript with Eclipse                                         33 Your First Web (and JavaScript) Project with Eclipse                  33 Using External JavaScript Files with Eclipse                          38 Writing JavaScript Without an IDE                                      41 Your First Web (and JavaScript) Project with Notepad                41 Using External JavaScript Files Without an IDE                      44 Debugging JavaScript                                                 46 Exercises                                                            47 3 JavaScript Syntax and Statements                          49 A Bit of Housekeeping                                                49 Case Sensitivity                                                 49 White Space                                                    50 Comments                                                     51 Semicolons                                                     51 Line Breaks                                                     53 Placing JavaScript Correctly                                       53 JavaScript Statements                                                 54 What’s in a Statement?                                           54 The Two Types of JavaScript Statements                            55 Reserved Words in JavaScript                                          55 A Quick Look at Functions                                             56 JavaScript’s New Strict Mode                                           59 Exercises                                                            60 www.it-ebooks.info Table of Contents ix 4 Working with Variables and Data Types                     61 Data Types in JavaScript                                               61 Working with Numbers                                          62 Working with Strings                                            66 Booleans                                                       71 Null                                                           71 Undened                                                      71 Objects                                                        72 Arrays                                                          73 Dening and Using Variables                                          73 Declaring Variables                                              74 Variable Types                                                  74 Variable Scope                                                  75 The Date Object                                                 82 Using the RegExp Object                                              91 The Syntax of Regular Expressions                                 92 References and Garbage Collection                                96 Learning About Type Conversions                                      97 Number Conversions                                            97 String Conversions                                               98 Boolean Conversions                                            98 Exercises                                                            98 5 Using Operators and Expressions                          99 Meet the Operators                                                   99 Additive Operators                                                   99 Multiplicative Operators                                              100 Bitwise Operators                                                   101 Equality Operators                                                   102 Relational Operators                                                 104 The in Operator                                                105 The instanceof Operator                                         105 Unary Operators                                                    106 Incrementing and Decrementing                                 106 Converting to a Number with the Plus Sign                        107 Creating a Negative Number with the Minus Sign                  107 Negating with bitwise not and logical not                          107 www.it-ebooks.info [...]... www.it-ebooks.info xvii www.it-ebooks.info Introducing JavaScript Step by Step, Second Edition Much has changed since the first edition of JavaScript Step by Step was written in 2007 The underlying JavaScript specification received a major update; Microsoft released Windows Internet Explorer 8—and now 9 (which is about to be released as I write this); JavaScript development frameworks have matured and are now ubiquitous;... This second edition of JavaScript Step by Step builds on the foundation laid down by the first edition The underlying architecture of the JavaScript language is largely the same, but its use has become pervasive, increasing hugely even in just the last three years With that in mind, the layout and coverage of the book have also remained largely the same, with two notable exceptions: this edition places... n Understand the history of JavaScript n Recognize the parts of a JavaScript program n Use the javascript pseudo-protocol n Understand where JavaScript fits within a webpage n Understand what JavaScript can and cannot do n Understand some of the changes in the latest standard related to JavaScript A Brief History of JavaScript JavaScript isn’t Java There! With that clarification out of the way,... JavaScript placed within the tags executes as it is encountered by the browser, which is helpful when you need to write to the document by using a JavaScript function, as follows (the function calls are shown in boldface type): A Web Page Title // JavaScript Goes Here document.write("hello");... Where, Why, and How of JavaScript What JavaScript Can Do JavaScript is largely a complementary language, meaning that it’s uncommon for an entire application to be written solely in JavaScript without the aid of other languages like HTML and without presentation in a web browser Some Adobe products support JavaScript, but JavaScript is primarily used for web-related programming JavaScript is also the... about what JavaScript can do—the focus of this book—you need to understand what JavaScript can’t do, but note that neither discussion is comprehensive What JavaScript Can’t Do Many of the operations JavaScript can’t perform are the result of JavaScript s usage being somewhat limited to a web browser environment This section examines some of the tasks JavaScript can’t perform and some that JavaScript. .. JavaScript Chapter 1: JavaScript Is More Than You Might Think Chapter 2: Developing in JavaScript Chapter 3: JavaScript Syntax and Statements Chapter 4: Working with Variables and Data Types Chapter 5: Using Operators and Expressions www.it-ebooks.info 1 www.it-ebooks.info Chapter 1 JavaScript Is More Than You Might Think After reading this chapter, you’ll be able to: n Understand the history of JavaScript. .. The Relationship Between JavaScript and CSS 300 Setting Element Styles by ID 300 Setting Element Styles by Type 304 Setting CSS Classes with JavaScript 306 Retrieving Element Styles with JavaScript 307 Modifying Style Sheets with JavaScript ... each other JavaScript fits within tags inside the and/or tags of a webpage, as in this example: A Web Page Title // JavaScript Goes Here // JavaScript can go here too www.it-ebooks.info 8 Part I  JavaWhat? The Where, Why, and How of JavaScript. .. 391 Selecting Elements by ID 391 Selecting Elements by Class 391 Selecting Elements by Type 392 Selecting Elements by Hierarchy 392 Selecting Elements by Position 393 Selecting Elements by Attribute . xix Introducing JavaScript Step by Step, Second Edition Much has changed since the rst edition of JavaScript Step by Step was written in 2007 The underlying JavaScript. popular This second edition of JavaScript Step by Step builds on the foundation laid down by the rst edition The underlying architecture of the JavaScript language