Coding with JavaScript For Dummies

Go from beginner to builder quickly with this hands-on JavaScript guide

Coding with JavaScript For Dummies provides easy, hands-on instruction for anyone looking to learn this popular client-side language. No experience? No problem! This friendly guide starts from the very beginning and walks you through the basics, then shows you how to apply what you’ve learned to real projects. You’ll start building right away, including web page elements and simple applications, so you can immediately see how JavaScript is used in the real world. Online exercises allow you to test your code and expand your skills, and the easy-to-follow instruction provides step-by-step guidance toward understanding the JavaScript syntax, applications, and language.

JavaScript enhances static web pages by providing dynamic elements that can adapt and react to user action. It’s a need-to-know tool for aspiring web designers, but anyone can benefit from understanding this core development language. Coding with JavaScript For Dummies takes you from beginner to builder quickly as you:

• Learn what JavaScript does, how it works, and where to use it
• Master the core elements of JavaScript and immediately put it to work
• Build interactive web elements and try out your code online
• Create basic applications as you apply JavaScript to the app development workflow

Anytime a website responds to your movement around the screen, that’s JavaScript. It makes websites more functional, more beautiful, and more engaging, and your site visitors will demand nothing less. If you want to build a better website, you need JavaScript. If you need JavaScript, Coding with JavaScript For Dummies gets you started off quickly and painlessly, with plenty of hands-on practice.

Table of Contents

Part I: Getting Started with JavaScript

Chapter 1: The World’s Most Misunderstood Programming Language

Chapter 2: Writing Your First JavaScript Program

Chapter 3: Working with Variables

Chapter 4: Understanding Arrays

Chapter 5: Working with Operators, Expressions, and Statements

Chapter 6: Getting into the Flow with Loops and Branches

Part II: Organizing Your JavaScript

Chapter 7: Getting Functional

Chapter 8: Making and Using Objects

Part III: JavaScript on the Web

Chapter 9: Controlling the Browser with the Window Object

Chapter 10: Manipulating Documents with the DOM

Chapter 11: Using Events in JavaScript

Chapter 12: Integrating Input and Output

Chapter 13: Working with CSS and Graphics

Part IV: Beyond the Basics

Chapter 14: Searching with Regular Expressions

Chapter 15: Understanding Callbacks and Closures

Chapter 16: Embracing AJAX and JSON

Part V: JavaScript and HTML5

Chapter 17: HTML5 APIs

Chapter 18: jQuery

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 19: Ten JavaScript Frameworks and Libraries to Learn Next

Chapter 20: Ten Common JavaScript Bugs and How to Avoid Them

Chapter 21: Ten Online Tools to Help You Write Better JavaScript

bout the Author

Chris Minnick is an accomplished author, trainer, and web developer who has worked on web and mobile projects for both small and major businesses. Eva Holland is an experienced writer and trainer who has designed and taught online, in-person, and video courses. They are cofounders of WatzThis?