Need to learn JavaScript fast? This best-selling reference's visual format and step-by-step, task-based instructions will have you up and running with JavaScript in no time. In this completely updated edition of our best-selling guide to JavaScript, leading Web and computing experts Tom Negrino and Dori Smith use crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you to all of today's JavaScript essentials. Along the way, you'll find extensive coverage of Ajax and XML techniques, current browsers (Opera, Safari, Firefox), and more. Visual QuickStart Guide–the quick and easy way to learn! *Easy visual approach uses pictures to guide you through JavaScript and show you what to do. *Concise steps and explanations get you up and running in no time. *Page for page, the best content and value around. *Companion Web site at www.javascriptworld.com offers sample scripts, updates, and more!

Pretty darned definitive Plenty of useful examples, including counter-examples Shows how to migrate existing code, not just start from scratch Scriptaculous labs are excellent, and are available for download Okay, all the labs are excellent JavaScript haters beware! Prototype, Scriptaculous, and yes, this excellent book about these two JavaScript libraries, could change your mind. After reading Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action, you are in danger of saying to yourself, "Hey, I'd like to try some of this stuff out," and, before you even realize it, you're writing JavaScript, getting stuff done, and maybe even enjoying it. This book should rightly be considered the bible of Prototype and Scriptaculous. Just download and run the source code for the book (available online for free), for a real taste of what this book offers.

We (TM)ve assembled seven of the greatest minds in modern JavaScript to teach you the most inspirational techniques you (TM)ll ever use. From creating impressive mashups and stunning, dynamic graphics, to more subtle user-experience enhancements, you (TM)re about to be amazed by the true potential of this powerful language. Create a slick Google Maps and Flickr mashup. Build your own fully accessible 3D maze. Create stunning vector graphics using the canvas element. Have some fun with draggable and sortable table columns. Give your site some extra personality with client-side badges. Write better code faster using metaprogramming techniques. Become a debugging expert using pro-level Firebug tricks. If you have some experience as JavaScript developer and want to take your JavaScript skills to the next level, without sacrificing web accessibility or best practice, this book is a must-have additional to your web design library.

Get the edge you need to deliver exceptional user experiences with Google™ Web Toolkit Applications, a guidebook that provides web developers with core information and instructions for creating rich web applications. Whether you’re a developer who needs to build a high-performance front end for Java, PHP, or Ruby applications, or to integrate with external web services, this resource from expert Google Web Toolkit (GWT) developer Ryan Dewsbury delivers the in-depth coverage you’ll need.

In this valuable book, insider Ryan Dewsbury provides instructions for using the robust tool set and gets you on your way to creating first-class web applications by providing a comprehensive overview of GWT technology. In addition, he shares his “in-the-trenches” insights on

• Building elegant and responsive user interfaces with Cascading Style Sheets and GWT’s Widgets and Panels

• Creating seamless user experiences through asynchronous communication with HTTP, REST, JSON/JSONP, and RPC Interoperating with web standards–such as XML, RSS, and Atom–and web services–such as Google Maps, Amazon Books, Yahoo! Search, Flickr, and Blogger

• Overcoming browser security restrictions, such as HTTP’s two-connection limit and the Same-Origin policy

• Accelerating development, using software engineering, code generation, internationalization, application patterns, and Java tools

• Deploying for optimal performance with resource compression and caching

• Building five non-trivial applications: a gadget application with a rich drag-and-drop interface, a multi-search application that makes requests to many search engines, a blog editor application for managing entries across multiple blogs, a web-based instant messenger, and a database manager for a traditional web page

Cutting-Edge GWT: Advanced Recipes for Java Developers.

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java development framework for building Ajax-enabled web applications. Instead of the hodgepodge of technologies that developers typically use for Ajax–JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and XMLHttpRequest–GWT lets developers implement rich client applications with pure Java, using familiar idioms from the AWT, Swing, and SWT. GWT goes beyond most Ajax frameworks by making it easy to build desktop-like applications that run in the ubiquitous browser, where the richness of the user interface is limited only by the developer’s imagination.

This book focuses on the more advanced aspects of GWT that you need to implement real-world applications with rich user interfaces but without the heavy lifting of JavaScript and other Ajax-related technologies. Each solution in this practical, hands-on book is more than a recipe. The sample programs are carefully explained in detail to help you quickly master advanced GWT techniques, such as implementing drag-and-drop, integrating JavaScript libraries, and using advanced event handling methodologies.

A good web development framework anticipates what you need to do and makes those tasks easier and more efficient; jQuery practically reads your mind. Developers of every stripe-hobbyists and professionals alike-fall in love with jQuery the minute they've reduced 20 lines of clunky JavaScript into three lines of elegant, readable code. This new, concise JavaScript library radically simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages.

jQuery in Action, like jQuery itself, is a concise tool designed to make you a more efficient and effective web developer. In a short 300 pages, this book introduces you to the jQuery programming model and guides you through the major features and techniques you'll need to be productive immediately. The book anchors each new concept in the tasks you'll tackle in day-to-day web development and offers unique lab pages where you immediately put your jQuery knowledge to work.

There are dozens of JavaScript libraries available now, with major companies like Google, Yahoo and AOL open-sourcing their in-house tools. This book shows you how jQuery stacks up against other libraries and helps you navigate interaction with other tools and frameworks.

Advanced JavaScript 3rd Edition is an in-depth examination of the most important features of JavaScript. The book assumes readers have a basic understanding of web development, but includes a review of JavaScript fundamentals in Chapters 1 through 3. This book gives the reader a comprehensive look at the fundamentals of JavaScript by examining objects, arrays, date and time functions, math, and all the essentials that are needed for complex yet robust JavaScript scripts. Topics are thoroughly examined with several complete examples.

As a web developer, you’ll already know that JavaScript™ is a powerful language, allowing you to add an impressive array of dynamic functionality to otherwise static web sites. But there is more power waiting to be unlocked–JavaScript is capable of full object-oriented capabilities, and by applying OOP principles, best practices, and design patterns to your code, you can make it more powerful, more efficient, and easier to work with alone or as part of a team.

With Pro JavaScript Design Patterns, you’ll start with the basics of object-oriented programming in JavaScript applicable to design patterns, including making JavaScript more expressive, inheritance, encapsulation, information hiding, and more. With that covered, you can kick-start your JavaScript development in the second part of the book, where you’ll find detail on how to implement and take advantage of several design patterns in JavaScript, including composites, decorators, façades, adapters, and many more.

Each chapter is packed with real-world examples of how the design patterns are best used and expert advice on writing better code, as well as what to watch out for. Along the way you’ll discover how to create your own libraries and APIs for even more efficient coding.

Even if you weren’t intimidated before, that tidbit is probably enough to make you reach for the Excedrin. Just reach for Ajax For Dummies instead. With screen shots, actual code and explanations, and live Web sites where you can see Ajax applications doing their thing, it will have you using Ajax to create Web applications that look an act like desktop applications in no time. With Ajax, you can speed up and clean up your Web applications. Shoppers at your online store can fill their carts without waiting for multiple page refreshes. Searchers on your sites can get instant results on the same page.

This guide takes you on a tour of how Ajax is used today, complete with examples of Ajax applications in action, such as an Ajax-enabled Yahoo! search or an Ajax-based chat application. Then it gives you basics on using JavaScript. After that you dive in and get info on:

• Writing some Ajax, interactive mouseovers using Ajax, passing data to the server with GET or POST, and more
• Connecting to Google for a live search
• Using free Ajax frameworks so you don’t have to start from scratch, including Ajax Gold (written specifically for this book), AJAXLib, and grabbing XML with libXmlRequest
• All kinds of Ajax techniques, such as using Ajax for drag-and-drop operations, pop-up menus, downloading images behind the scenes, and more
• Using SACK (simple AJAX code kit), decoding XML with Sarissa, and creating visual effects with Rico
• Handling XML int Ajax Applications
• Working with cascading style sheets (CCS) in Ajax, including setting up the styles, displaying a menu, styling text, handling colors and backgrounds, and more
• Working with Ajax and PHP

Complete with a companion Web site, free Ajax frameworks, and sample code you can use, Ajax for Dummies is your friendly guide to creating truly user-friendly Web sites!

I'm a fan of Java-based frameworks (such as Echo 2) and was looking forward to this book on ZK as a nice introduction to the framework.

The book is slim but delivers on exactly the kind of content I was hoping for. It starts with a great overview, and then has a few real world examples.

I would have loved to see more information on working in pure Java (richlets), but otherwise found the content to be great for the size.

The only oddity is that my copy appears to have been printed off a screen-resolution PDF - all of the text, images, etc. look worse than if I ran it off on my home laser printer. I'm going to chalk this up to an oddity of how this particular edition was run off, but I would hope that this is a rare QC issue that would be quickly fixed.