Object-Oriented JavaScript

Create scalable, reusable high-quality JavaScript applications, and libraries

Stoyan Stefanov

• Editore: Packt Publishing
• Anno: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781847194145
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Informatica
• Categoria: Tecnologia dell'informazione

In Detail

Once listed in the "nice to have" sections of job postings, these days the knowledge of JavaScript is a deciding factor when it comes to hiring web developers. And rightly so. Where in the past we used to have the occasional few lines of JavaScript embedded in a web page, now we have advanced libraries and extensible architectures, powering the "fat-client", AJAX-type rich internet applications.

JavaScript is the language of the browser, but it's also heavily employed in many other environments: server-side programming, desktop applications, application extensions and widgets. It's a pretty good deal: you learn one language and then code all kinds of different applications. While this book has one chapter specifically dedicated to the web browser environment including DOM, events, and AJAX tutorials, the rest is applicable to all the other environments too. 

This book treats JavaScript as a serious object-oriented language, showing you how to build robust, maintainable, and powerful libraries and applications. Along the way, we cover many of the recent innovations such as AJAX, JSON, and interesting design and coding patterns. After reading this book, you'll be prepared to ace your JavaScript job interview and even impress with some bits that the interviewer maybe didn't know. You should read this book if you want to be able to take your JavaScript skills to a new level of sophistication.

Create scalable and reusable high-quality JavaScript applications and libraries using the concepts of object-oriented programming

Who this book is for

The book requires no prior knowledge of JavaScript and works from the ground up to give you a thorough grounding in this powerful language. If you do already know some JavaScript, you will find plenty of eye-openers as you discover just what the language can do.

This book takes a do-it-yourself approach when it comes to writing code, because the best way to really learn a programming language is by writing code. You are encouraged to type code into Firebug's console, see how it works and then tweak it and play around with it. There are practice questions at the end of each chapter to help review what you have learned.

Object-Oriented JavaScript

Create scalable, reusable high-quality JavaScript applications, and libraries

Stoyan Stefanov

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Table of Contents

Object-Oriented JavaScript

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What This Book Covers

Conventions

Reader Feedback

Customer Support

Errata

Questions

1. Introduction

A Bit of History

The Winds of Change

The Present

The Future

Object-Oriented Programming

Objects

Classes

Encapsulation

Aggregation

Inheritance

Polymorphism

OOP Summary

Setting up Your Training Environment

Getting the Tools You Need

Using the Firebug Console

Summary

2. Primitive Data Types, Arrays, Loops, and Conditions

Variables

Variables are Case Sensitive

Operators

Primitive Data Types

Finding out the Value Type —the typeof Operator

Numbers

Octal and Hexadecimal Numbers

Exponent Literals

Infinity

NaN

Strings

String Conversions

Special Strings

Booleans

Logical Operators

Operator Precedence

Lazy Evaluation

Comparison

Undefined and null

Primitive Data Types Recap

Arrays

Adding/Updating Array Elements

Deleting Elements

Arrays of arrays

Conditions and Loops

Code Blocks

if Conditions

Checking if a Variable Exists

Alternative if Syntax

Switch

Loops

While Loops

Do-while loops

For Loops

For-in Loops

Comments

Summary

Exercises

3. Functions

What is a Function?

Calling a Function

Parameters

Pre-defined Functions

parseInt()

parseFloat()

isNaN()

isFinite()

Encode/Decode URIs

eval()

A Bonus—the alert() Function

Scope of Variables

Functions are Data

A nonymous Functions

C allback Functions

C allback Examples

Self-invoking Functions

Inner (Private) Functions

Functions that Return Functions

Function, Rewrite Thyself!

Closures

Scope Chain

Lexical Scope

Breaking the Chain with a Closure

Closure #1

Closure #2

A Definition and Closure #3

Closures in a Loop

Getter/Setter

Iterator

Summary

Exercises

4. Objects

From Arrays to Objects

Elements, Properties, Methods

Hashes, Associative Arrays

Accessing Object's Properties

Calling an Object's Methods

Altering Properties/Methods

Using this Value

Constructor Functions

The Global Object

constructor Property

instanceof Operator

Functions that Return Objects

Passing Objects

Comparing Objects

Objects in the Firebug Console

Built-in Objects

Object

Array

Interesting Array Methods

Function

Properties of the Function Objects

Methods of the Function Objects

The arguments Object Revisited

Boolean

Number

String

Interesting Methods of the String Objects

Math

Date

Methods to Work with Date Objects

RegExp

Properties of the RegExp Objects

Methods of the RegExp Objects

String Methods that Accept Regular Expressions as Parameters

search() and match()

replace()

Replace callbacks

split()

Passing a String When a regexp is Expected

Error Objects

Summary

Exercises

5. Prototype

The prototype Property

Adding Methods and Properties Using the Prototype

Using the Prototype's Methods and Properties

Own Properties versus prototype Properties

Overwriting Prototype's Property with Own Property

Enumerating Properties

isPrototypeOf()

The Secret __proto__ Link

Augmenting Built-in Objects

Augmenting Built-in Objects—Discussion

Some Prototype gotchas

Summary

Exercises

6. Inheritance

Prototype Chaining

Prototype Chaining Example

Moving Shared Properties to the Prototype

Inheriting the Prototype Only

A Temporary Constructor—new F()

Uber—Access to the Parent from a Child Object

Isolating the Inheritance Part into a Function

Copying Properties

Heads-up When Copying by Reference

Objects Inherit from Objects

Deep Copy

object()

Using a Mix of Prototypal Inheritance and Copying Properties

Multiple Inheritance

Mixins

Parasitic Inheritance

Borrowing a Constructor

Borrow a Constructor and Copy its Prototype

Summary

Case Study: Drawing Shapes

Analysis

Implementation

Testing

Exercises

7. The Browser Environment

Including JavaScript in an HTML Page

BOM and DOM—An Overv...