Web API Cookbook

JavaScript gives web developers great power to create rich interactive browser experiences, and much of that power is provided by the browser itself. Modern web APIs enable web-based applications to come to life like never before, supporting actions that once required browser plug-ins. Some are still in an experimental stage, but many are ready for use today.

With this hands-on cookbook, author Joe Attardi helps you explore the powerful APIs available in modern browsers and guides you through the specific tasks that they unlock. Because these features are web standards, there is comprehensive documentation available from trusted resources such as MDN Web Docs. The knowledge you’ll gain is transferable across different companies and projects.

• Learn the breadth of functionality available in modern browser APIs
• Explore future APIs that are still in an experimental stage
• Discover newer elements, such as dialog that replaces the need for a third-party library
• Build more powerful and interactive web applications using native APIs
• Understand the permissions model used by the browser to unlock functionality such as geolocation and push notifications

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Asynchronous APls

Chapter 2. Simple Persistence with the Web Storage API

Chapter 3. URLs and Routing

Chapter 4. Network Requests

Chapter 5. lndexedDB

Chapter 6. Observing DOM Elements

Chapter 7. Forms

Chapter 8. The Web Animations API

Chapter 9. The Web Speech API

Chapter 10. Working with Files

Chapter 11. Internationalization

Chapter 12. Web Components

Chapter 13. UI Elements

Chapter 14. Device Integration

Chapter 15. Measuring Performance

Chapter 16. Working with the Console

Chapter 17. CSS

Chapter 18. Media

Chapter 19. Closing Thoughts

Who This Book Is For

• This book is intended for software developers with some experience with JavaScript who want to get the most out of the web platform.
• It assumes that you have a good knowledge of the JavaScript language itself: syntax, language features, and standard library functions. You should also have a working knowledge of the DOM APIs used for building interactive, browser-based JavaScript applications.
• There is a wide range of recipes in this book; there’s something for developers of all skill and experience levels.

What’s in This Book

• Each chapter contains a set of recipes—code examples for accomplishing a specific task. Each recipe has three sections:
• Problem – Describes the problem the recipe solves.
• Solution – Contains code and explanation that implements the recipe solution.
• Discussion – A deeper discussion of the topic. This section may contain additional code examples and comparisons with other techniques.

About the Author

Joe Attardi has over 18 years of front-end software development experience and has built many browser-based applications in that time. He has built rich front-end experiences for companies such as Nortel, Dell, Constant Contact, Salesforce, and Synopsys and specializes in JavaScript and TypeScript development.