JavaScript Application Cookbook

Anyone interested in serious programming with Javascript should definitely consider "Javascript Application Cookbook" by Jerry Bradembaugh. First and foremost, this book is not for the lighthearted. One should be well versed with programming (Javascript, Java, C, C++) before considering taking on this book. From the very first sample (Online Test), I knew this book would be teaching me a lot of new techniques. Having a web-based application running solely (actually, more like 99%) on Javascript is great. Bradenbaugh is very thorough in his writing, explaining, and guiding readers through various sections of each application. His presentations of the processes and variables used are so helpful when walking through the source code.Right out of the book, there is no need to configure anything except to download the samples. Once you have it saved on your machine, it's time to make things happen. The best thing about the author's walk-through is that he tells you explicitly what is going on, and he offers ways to enhance each application. That's a must when you are looking for ideas from someone with as much knowledge as he has.I see combining several chapters worth of code into a bigger and better application. For example, using the file I/O techniques used in the Online Test application in conjunction with the Slideshow application, one could create a database of images used and allow users to load and save them. Better yet, why not offer something like a shopping cart for your users to select which image to include in a slideshow. The possibilities are endless from the use of this book. If time permits, incorporate other functions and create a true scripting-library. Use the include directive to bring in what is needed to make your application lean and user-friendly.There are some sample chapters of the JavaScript...

The title is 'JavaScript Application Cookbook'. The author says he aimed to provide complete applications in JavaScript to demonstrate its power and in my opinion, he has done this extremely well.If you don't quite have the time to try and build entire applications, or would like to use cross-browser JavaScript to its fullest extent, then this book is highly recommended - kudos to the author. If you're looking for a JScript reference, stick with JavaScript : The Definitive Reference by David Flanagan or the JavaScript Bible by Danny Goodman.

I definately stress that you have some experience with Java script before diving into this book but it is by far one of the best intros I've read. This book guides you through semi-complicated to very complex application designs that would be useful for any web site. The coments on the code are clear and pretty much line by line explainations. This book will be exceptionally useful to the user wanting to refine his/her Java script skills in regards to the web. Its books like this that make O'Reilly what they are.

I must say I don't understand some of you saying this book isn't what you hoped for - you certainly didn't know what you were buying. As for being an "application cookbook" this book does what it's supposed to do and does it well. The application examples include an online test system, a slideshow/image viewer and something I found very useful, a cookie based shopping cart. Even if there isn't really a wide variety of different examples, those provided are advanced enough to show the capabilities of JavaScript at a high level, and gave me ideas on other things I could program myself, using the examples as guidelines while moving along..My impression of the code in the book is that it is clean and hi-qual, it works w/o glitches in 4.x gen browser, which really are what you should be developing for these days.Only gripe is the price.. a little too much maybe.. but I guess I could live with that after saving alot of work cop.. *cough* .. learning from the code in the book :)

When I received my copy of the JavaScript Cookbook, I got exactly what I was looking for - a JAVASCRIPT resource. This is a solid piece of work that not only includes practical web ready applications & code, but also provides clear and concise explanations each step of the way. I found most of these explanations to hold considerable value beyond just the scope of the particular recipe; I had no problem using them to broaden my understanding in the bigger picture of JavaScript. I found Bradenbaugh's book quite helpful and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in expanding their bag of JS tricks with immediate applicability. (I am currently using the client-side search engine application, and have dog-eared a handful of practical JS functions in Chapter 6). However, to all those reviewers below looking to learn Perl, you might want to first read this book's title before you pick it up.