DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript & the Document Object Model (Inglese) Copertina flessibile – 20 set 2005

Why I bought this book: Building dynamic websites looks like fun. The first edition got great reviews. I decided to buy the second edition because it contains some info about HTML5.

My review: I thoroughly enjoyed the book and finished it in a few days. It is a friendly introduction to the DOM, CSS, and Javascript. It was helpful that I already went through the quick W3C online tutorials on HTML, DOM, CSS, and Javascript. That's all you really need as prerequisites. The book explains many issues clearly and in a step-by-step fashion. There are several typos but they were pretty obvious and did not hinder my learning. The code examples are fun.

DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith gives you a very smooth introduction to JavaScript and the DOM. The books is more directed at those who are just beginning JavaScript or have used it in the past but would like more knowledge.

The book itself flows well from chapter to chapter. The beginning chapters give you a foundation to work with during the rest of the book. Jeremy teaches basic constructs of JavaScript programming and how/where they can be used. If you are already a programmer (not necessarily JavaScript), this chapter will be a quick one. It is very informational, yet straight to the point. Once he gets the basics and best practice techniques out of the way - he dives into the DOM and gives several useful examples. This is where it gets good.

Before moving further, I should mention that his best practices are applied all throughout this book - and that includes creating useful and unobtrusive JavaScript. So, with each chapter - he shows the process and then brings it around full circle to an unobtrusive model. For instance, with the image gallery example, he shows that without JavaScript, this process would be useless - and we don't need extra markup on the pages that won't be used. He shows you, step by step (with great code highlighting and screenshots), how to build the image gallery on the fly. This way, if a user HAS JavaScript they can get the better experience. For those without, it degrades gracefully and doesn't add unnecessary code to the markup. This is just one example - but is used on all of his building blocks throughout the book.

There were many times in the book I would question what was being done (from an unobtrusive standards perspective). Each of those questions was immediately answered in the paragraphs or chapters to come. Jeremy does a great job to present the big picture, along with explaining why things were done certain ways. I read this book in two days, simply because it was hard to put down. The last chapters (aside from the reference), were the icing on the cake. This is where he puts all of the pieces together for a fictional website, JayScript and the Domsters. This chapter takes all of the pieces taught throughout the book and puts them in a practical environment. Go ahead, play with the fictional site. It has nice little touches, that, even when JavaScript is disabled has a nice user experience.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you are looking to get your hands dirty with JavaScript and DOM Scripting. The book was an easy read, packed with useful information. Just as with CSS Mastery, each chapter would build on the last - all the way until the end where it was all put together as a whole. Also, I am currently reading "DHTML Utopia", and this book was a great primer to JavaScript techniques. Thanks, Jeremy, for a great, concise, book on a topic that can sometimes scare people away.

DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith turned out to be just what I was looking for. It isn't AJAX. It's JavaScript, from a solid standards based model, that promotes well formed XHTML and CSS. It's good scripting build on top of good code, which is a good thing.

If the book simply promoted "best practices" it would be worthwhile. But this is a very good teaching text, too. The last feature is so rare that I bow to Mr. Keith. So often programming texts are written by and for alpha geeks and are opaque to mere mortals. I can actually understand this book the first time through.

DOM Scripting is written, not to programmers but to designers, albeit designers who are competent hand coders, but designers, none the less. The examples make sense. The projects are ones I actually will use. And terms are described in plain English, with no assumptions of some core, pre-existing knowledge. What makes this book even friendlier is that fact that it isn't a doorstop. At less than 400 pages, including appendices, it's not so intimidating that it will never get read.

If you read and work this book, you will have a solid foundation in client side, interactive web design. If you need to do AJAX, you will have a good handle on how to work its basic tools in your web pages.

If you already know JavaScript and simply want to get current on the DOM, you should find this a quick read and not a reference.

As a experienced javascript user who got her start in the old-school javascript of IE and netscape V3 I knew the landscape had changed since the transition to ECMA script, real CSS support, and better DOM implementations across browsers.

Sometimes when you know an old method it's harder to develop the "good habits" that come with a more evolved version of the language and few resources really help with making that transition and discarding old bad habits and approaches.

DOM Scripting does just that. This approachable text is accessable for the person dabbling in javascript as well as those like me who occassionaly get into involved javascript work and developed skills and habits based on outmoded development model. It covers the concepts clearly and simply without being boring.

If you know some Javascript and want to do some nice DOM scripting this book is a great bootstrap. Another useful tool is Danny Goodman's Javascript Bible book.

This is an outstanding book. I has excellent step-by-step examples, and explains things that I’ve never read in other programming books. The examples might seem a little outdated by todays slick JQuery standards, but you’ll know what you’re doing when you’re done. It’s like being able to build your own Volkswagen Bug from scratch instead of going out and buying the latest Hi-Tech vehicle. The first way means you know where all the pieces fit and you’ll understand how everything works.

It’s not for newbies. Read a decent book on beginning JavaScript before you tackle this one. Also, know HTML and CSS. If you do, I guarantee it’ll be worth it.