Scriptin’ with JavaScript and Ajax is the third in a series of books aimed at introducing designers and programmers to the process of developing browser-based interfaces. The first, Stylin’ with CSS, focuses on the structure and styling of content, and the second, Codin’ for the Web, focuses on the three-tier architecture of browser, middleware, and database that are the core components of almost every Web site.

The focus of this third book is JavaScript, and a JavaScript-based programming technique called Ajax that dramatically improves communication between the user’s browser and the Web server. The goal of this book is to teach you how to use JavaScript and Ajax to develop sophisticated and responsive user interfaces for today’s Web sites and online applications. Ajax has given a new purpose to JavaScript, and virtually all of today’s successful sites and online applications use JavaScript and Ajax extensively.

JavaScript is the brains of your Web page—it enables you to modify a document’s structure, styling, and content in response to user actions without requesting new pages from the server. Scriptin' with JavaScript and Ajax teaches you how to master this powerful and elegant language so you can develop intuitive user interactions that take the user experience to new levels of sophistication and responsiveness. Today’s application-like Web experiences (such as Salesforce.com and Google Maps) and Web 2.0 sites (such as Flickr.com and Twitter) are powered by JavaScript and Ajax. Using the techniques shown in this book, you will be able to start creating similar experiences in the sites you design. Scriptin' with JavaScript and Ajax will teach you how to:

• Start developing with JavaScript fast!

• Write lightweight but powerful object-oriented code

• Modify the Document Object Model

• “Progressively enhance” your pages with JavaScript to provide the highest levels of accessibility to all users

• Learn sophisticated techniques for making your pages respond to user actions

• Use the downloadable Scriptin’ library of helper functions to speed development and ensure cross-browser compatibility

• Use Ajax scripting techniques to update specific areas of the page with data from the server

• Create powerful interface interactions, such as sliding panels and tree menus

• Evaluate frameworks such as jQuery and Prototype to find the best one for your needs

• Build an online application that looks and responds like a regular desktop application

• Easily adapt the Scriptin’ code examples for use in your own projects—download them at www.scriptinwithajax.com