JavaScript the Definitive Guide

Part tutorial and part reference, this book not only helps you develop new JavaScript skills by building on your basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and the Web in general, but also serves as a detailed reference for the more experienced web developers among you. Furthermore, the fifth edition now includes advanced material on the latest developer topics, such as scripting Flash with JavaScript, HTTP and Ajax, DOM, SVG, XML, web services, and remote scripting. Like all O'Reilly "Definitive Guides", this book provides the most comprehensive reference section on the market, documenting every object, property, method, event handler, function and constructor used by client-side JavaScript. The new edition has also been revamped to cover the latest browsers, language updates, extensions, and JavaScript standards. No wonder, it's the top-selling JavaScript book of all time. No other book comes close.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction to JavaScript 1.1 What Is JavaScript? 1.2 Versions of JavaScript 1.3 Client-Side JavaScript 1.4 JavaScript in Other Contexts 1.5 Exploring JavaScript Part I. Core JavaScript 2. Lexical Structure 2.1 Character Set 2.2 Case Sensitivity 2.3 Whitespace and Line Breaks 2.4 Optional Semicolons 2.5 Comments 2.6 Literals 2.7 Identifiers 2.8 Reserved Words 3. Datatypes and Values 3.1 Numbers 3.2 Strings 3.3 Boolean Values 3.4 Functions 3.5 Objects 3.6 Arrays 3.7 null 3.8 undefined 3.9 The Date Object 3.10 Regular Expressions 3.11 Error Objects 3.12 Type Conversion Summary 3.13 Primitive Datatype Wrapper Objects 3.14 Object-to-Primitive Conversion 3.15 By Value Versus by Reference 4. Variables 4.1 Variable Typing 4.2 Variable Declaration 4.3 Variable Scope 4.4 Primitive Types and Reference Types 4.5 Garbage Collection 4.6 Variables as Properties 4.7 Variable Scope Revisited 5. Expressions and Operators 5.1 Expressions 5.2 Operator Overview 5.3 Arithmetic Operators 5.4 Equality Operators 5.5 Relational Operators 5.6 String Operators 5.7 Logical Operators 5.8 Bitwise Operators 5.9 Assignment Operators 5.10 Miscellaneous Operators 6. Statements 6.1 Expression Statements 6.2 Compound Statements 6.3 if 6.4 else if 6.5 switch 6.6 while 6.7 do/while 6.8 for 6.9 for/in 6.10 Labels 6.11 break 6.12 continue 6.13 var 6.14 function 6.15 return 6.16 throw 6.17 try/catch/finally 6.18 with 6.19 The Empty Statement 6.20 Summary of JavaScript Statements 7. Objects and Arrays 7.1 Creating Objects 7.2 Object Properties 7.3 Objects as Associative Arrays 7.4 Universal Object Properties and Methods 7.5 Arrays 7.6 Reading and Writing Array Elements 7.7 Array Methods 7.8 Array-Like Objects 8. Functions 8.1 Defining and Invoking Functions 8.2 Function Arguments 8.3 Functions as Data 8.4 Functions as Methods 8.5 Constructor Functions 8.6 Function Properties and Methods 8.7 Utility Function Examples 8.8 Function Scope and Closures 8.9 The Function( ) Constructor 9. Classes, Constructors, and Prototypes 9.1 Constructors 9.2 Prototypes and Inheritance 9.3 Simulating Classes in JavaScript 9.4 Common Object Methods 9.5 Superclasses and Subclasses 9.6 Extending Without Inheriting 9.7 Determining Object Type 9.8 Example: A defineClass( ) Utility Method 10. Modules and Namespaces 10.1 Creating Modules and Namespaces 10.2 Importing Symbols from Namespaces 10.3 Module Utilities 11. Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions 11.1 Defining Regular Expressions 11.2 String Methods for Pattern Matching 11.3 The RegExp Object 12. Scripting Java 12.1 Embedding JavaScript 12.2 Scripting Java Part II. Client-Side JavaScript 13. JavaScript in Web Browsers 13.1 The Web Browser Environment 13.2 Embedding Scripts in HTML 13.3 Event Handlers in HTML 13.4 JavaScript in URLs 13.5 Execution of JavaScript Programs 13.6 Client-Side Compatibility 13.7 Accessibility 13.8 JavaScript Security 13.9 Other Web-Related JavaScript Embeddings 14. Scripting Browser Windows 14.1 Timers 14.2 Browser Location and History 14.3 Obtaining Window, Screen, and Browser Information 14.4 Opening and Manipulating Windows 14.5 Simple Dialog Boxes 14.6 Scripting the Status Line 14.7 Error Handling 14.8 Multiple Windows and Frames 14.9 Example: A Navigation Bar in a Frame 15. Scripting Documents 15.1 Dynamic Document Content 15.2 Document Properties 15.3 Legacy DOM: Document Object Collections 15.4 Overview of the W3C DOM 15.5 Traversing a Document 15.6 Finding Elements in a Document 15.7 Modifying a Document 15.8 Adding Content to a Document 15.9 Example: A Dynamically Created Table of Contents 15.10 Querying Selected Text 15.11 The IE 4 DOM 16. Cascading Style Sheets and Dynamic HTML 16.1 Overview of CSS 16.2 CSS for DHTML 16.3 Scripting Inline Styles 16.4 Scripting Computed Styles 16.5 Scripting CSS Classes 16.6 Scripting Stylesheets 17. Events and Event Handling 17.1 Basic Event Handling 17.2 Advanced Event Handling with DOM Level 2 17.3 The Internet Explorer Event Model 17.4 Mouse Events 17.5 Key Events 17.6 The onload Event 17.7 Synthetic Events 18. Forms and Form Elements 18.1 The Form Object 18.2 Defining Form Elements 18.3 Scripting Form Elements 18.4 Form Verification Example 19. Cookies and Client-Side Persistence 19.1 An Overview of Cookies 19.2 Storing Cookies 19.3 Reading Cookies 19.4 Cookie Example 19.5 Cookie Alternatives 19.6 Persistent Data and Security 20. Scripting HTTP 20.1 Using XMLHttpRequest 20.2 XMLHttpRequest Examples and Utilities 20.3 Ajax and Dynamic Scripting 20.4 Scripting HTTP with