JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook

Rating:
Summary: Practical and Very Useful
Review: As the title says, this is a cookbook - containing examples and solutions for features and problems a JavaScript programmer may need from time to time.

It is much more than just a collection of cut and paste JavaScript code, although you can use it that way if you want to. It contains lucid and concise explanation of what is going on in each recipe. That is immensely useful if you want to customize the scripts.

The receipes range from fairly simple to quite complex, and at about 150, they are most likely to meet all your needs. They are arranged according to a theme (broswer based customization, style sheets, frames etc). The organization helps you to find what you are looking for very fast and put the solution to immediate use. A discussion at the begining of every chapter is very helpful too.

Whether you do a lot of client side scripting for web applications or are just looking for an occassional script to enhance you web pages, this book is extremely useful. Don't reinvent the wheel, just buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Indispensable
Review: As the title says, this is a Cookbook of JavaScript recipes. While it does devote a few chapters at the beginning to the basics of JavaScript, do not expect a book to teach you the basics of JavaScript. However, you can expect the contents to cover a reasonable number of common situations and solutions for enhancing web pages.

The author covers topics including: navigation menus (mouseovers and expandable trees), graphic layering, frames, positioning and dynamic content. In addition, he offers a chapter on style sheets that provides a wonderful resource for this often neglected topic.

Throughout the book the author presents each topic with an overview, followed by selected problems, solutions, code samples and code walk throughs. The prose is concise and well written.

For additional reference on JavaScript, try JavaScript: The Definitive Guide.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book from Danny Goodman
Review: Danny Goodman is the author of "JavaScript Bible", probably the most popular book on JavaScript as it went through 5 editions, the last one being the Gold edition published in 2001. I have used JavaScript Bible extensively and intensively, often longing for a cross-index of recipes for solving problems. This new book by the author addresses that need in the form of a cookbook, one carefully written and eminently readable. Not only does he give clear recipes, he also discusses some history and background, lists which browser version is required, both for Netscape and Internet Explorer, then weighs the pros and cons of different approaches.

The recipes range from the mundane, like opening a window, to the more esoteric for positioning page elements or creating dynamic contents. Even if one does not plan to use a recipe, it is still enlightening to see how JavaScript or some feature of it is brought to bear on solving a particular problem. Most cookbooks assume you already know the subject quite well, then launch on intricate discussions often discouraging to neophytes. Here, the way Danny Goodman writes, the clarity of his style, and the completeness of his coverage, make this book well suited to every reader level. If your JavaScript knowledge is only nascent, you will be enlightened with this book. If you are a JavaScript "expert", be surprised that you will still learn many new techniques.

Rating:
Summary: It's the truth
Review: I've been doing web development almost 7 days a week for the last five years. This book is a delight and would have saved me countless hours if it had been available sooner.

Straightforward, clean, concise, thorough, basically what everone else is saying. The parts of the book with slightly deeper javascript programming will be best appreciated by those who have a background in at least one programming/scripting language; they are clearly explained and excellent but sometimes idiomatic in their brevity.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent compilation of useful code snippets.
Review: I've had the book two days and it has paid for itself a couple times over already. I wish I'd had it about two weeks earlier.

If you 1) already know a programming language such as C (or really, any procedural language for that matter), 2) are new to Javascript and 3) need to do some web programming with Javascript, this book is great. Before I bought it, I tried to figure out some of the stuff myself
(ie common Javascript problems: 'data validation in a textbox in a form','setting the focus','opening a new window','jumping back to the parent window',etc)
by using my Javascript language reference book and looking up the problem on the web. I'd usually find a solution, but if I would have had this book at the time I could have just looked it up and saved myself a load of time.

I'd almost recommend it before a Javascript reference (but you'll eventually need one of those anyway).

So, it will come in the most handy for someone relatively new to Javascript who needs to get up to speed quickly on common Javascript tasks, but will also remain useful even to an expert as a reference book of often needed useful code snippets.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent compilation of useful code snippets.
Review: I've had the book two days and it has paid for itself a couple times over already. I wish I'd had it about two weeks earlier.

If you 1) already know a programming language such as C (or really, any procedural language for that matter), 2) are new to Javascript and 3) need to do some web programming with Javascript, this book is great. Before I bought it, I tried to figure out some of the stuff myself
(ie common Javascript problems: 'data validation in a textbox in a form','setting the focus','opening a new window','jumping back to the parent window',etc)
by using my Javascript language reference book and looking up the problem on the web. I'd usually find a solution, but if I would have had this book at the time I could have just looked it up and saved myself a load of time.

I'd almost recommend it before a Javascript reference (but you'll eventually need one of those anyway).

So, it will come in the most handy for someone relatively new to Javascript who needs to get up to speed quickly on common Javascript tasks, but will also remain useful even to an expert as a reference book of often needed useful code snippets.

Rating:
Summary: More than recipes, a great learning experience
Review: It's a sad reality, but the vast majority of the JavaScript and DHTML available is ugly, hard to, read, inflexible, poorly structured and full of kludges... This makes a cookbook written by such a talented technical writer as Goodman more welcomed than ever, his writing style is, as always, pleasant and engaging, and his attention to browser compatibility issues worth a special mention. Unlike many other cookbook I read in the past, I really enjoy all the discussions that goes along with the recipes, this isn't only a book you may want to open in search for a solution, read it, use it wisely and it may turn itself into a great learning experience

Rating:
Summary: Great writer and thus a great book
Review: Not only does Danny Goodman know what he's talking about, he's also a great writer. I've read books where the author may know what the heck he/she's talking about, but can't write worth a damn. Or writes well but doesn't know anything, or none of the above (let's face it - there are many authors like that).

Not Danny. He knows his stuff inside and out, and his knowledge is only surpassed by his ability to write. This is probably the best book I've read on a subject that has always been a thorn in my side (can't do without it; pain to do with it). In fact, this is probably one of the best technical books I've read. And I have a shelf full of O'Reilly books, Oracle Press, MS Press, etc.

Thanks to this book, I'm using Javascript for many things I previously did with server side scripting. I can't tell you how many times I had obscure questions about such and such only to have it answered on one of the pages in this book. Not only did the book answer my rather obscure questions completely, but I was able to find the answer quickly because it's damn well organized.

And his recipes are not only great as reference but as tutorials as well. This book is a keeper. Kudos to Danny. Hope he makes a million bucks with this book!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Essential JavaScript Reference
Review: On several occasions I have needed a quick answer to a common development problem... how to bring a window into the foreground; detect the browser type; block double-clicks (so that forms aren't submitted multiple times by accident); etc. This book has answers to all of these questions and more.

In addition, the book has code and explanations for various kinds of DHTML solutions. I have already used the code in this book on two separate projects, saving me several hours of development time and effort. The code samples are excellent and easy to configure, and Danny's explanations are clear and concise. Don't reinvent the wheel, just plugin these code samples and get on with your project. If you need the code to work slightly differently (as I've needed on several occasions), no worries! The code samples are concise and readable, so it's relatively easy to customize the code for your needs.

This book is essential for any true JavaScript developer. It's made a welcome addition to my professional library.

Rating:
Summary: A must-have book...
Review: Review
In order to be proficient in a technology, you need to have a solid reference manual for it. Often this need can be filled very well with the "Nutshell" series by O'Reilly. But if you're like me, you also want to have a good source of examples and explanations of how to do basic things. This book fills that role extremely well for JavaScript and DHTML.

Danny Goodman is well known for his JavaScript Bible. The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook complements that title to show both beginners and experienced developers different ways to use the language. As someone who isn't quite as adept at JavaScript as he should be, I find this book invaluable in giving me code that I can immediately use and build on. Between the working examples and a good technical reference, you can go far.

Each section in the chapter presents a problem, a solution, and a discussion of the issue. You're told what browser versions will support this approach, and you are also pointed to other sections in the book that relate to the same issue. It's a useful approach to presenting the material that gets quick results. Goodman also includes JavaScript subroutines that accomplish functions that are commonly needed but aren't something you can do in a couple lines of code. Great code to use for your own applications.

For Notes/Domino/Websphere developers, all the information in this review applies. If you are getting started in web development, get this book along with a good JavaScript reference book. Between the two of them, you will have all that you need to start producing solid web applications.

Conclusion
I highly recommend this book for both JavaScript/DHTML beginners and pros. The beginners will learn how to effectively use the languages, and the pros will pick up a few tricks that they didn't know before.