Introduction to Javascript

Javascript

Introduction

by Amit Tyagi

What Is JavaScript?

 Executes in Host Environment ( mostly
Browser).
 Interpreted language.
 Major use cases are:
a. making web pages dynamic (animations,
RICH UI)
b. form validation
c. background communication with server
(AJAX) etc.
d. ….

History

 Initially LiveScript from Netscape.
 JScript from Microsoft.
 ECMA introduced ECMAScript for
standardized Scripting language.
 Current Version is 5.1 of ECMA-262.

The Core (ECMAScript)

 ECMA-262 describes it like this:
“ECMAScript can provide core scripting capabilities
for a variety of host environments, and therefore the
core scripting language is specified...apart from any
particular host environment.”
ECMAScript
|
----------------------------------------
| | |
JavaScript Actionscript ScriptEase

The Document Object Model (DOM)

 The Document Object Model (DOM) is an
application programming interface (API) for
HTML as well as XML.

DOM

<html>
<head>
<title>Sample Page</
title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World!</p>
</body>
</html>

The Browser Object Model (BOM)

 BOM deals with the browser window and
frames.
 All function and properties starting inside
window object.
 Internet Explorer extends the BOM to include
the ActiveXObject class, which can be used
to instantiate ActiveX objects through
JavaScript.

How to include JS in a web page

Inside <script> tags
<script>
var a = 10;
alert(a);
</script>
Within external file
<script src=“page.js“
type=“text/javascript” ></script>

Syntax

 Mostly like C and java.
 Everything is case-sensitive.
 Variables are loosely typed.
 End-of-line semicolons are optional.
 Comments are the same as in Java, C, and
Perl.

Variables

 var test = "hi“, test2, $number;
 Variable declaration is optional.

Keywords

break else new var
case finally return void
catch for switch while
continue function this with
default if throw
delete in try
do instanceof typeof

Reserved Words

abstract enum int short
boolean export interface static
byte extends long super
char final native synchronized
class float package throws
const goto private transient
debugger implements protected volatile
double import public

Statements

 The if statement
– if (condition) statement1 else statement2
 do-while
– do { statements } while (condition )
 While
– while (condition) { statements}
 for
– for (initialization; condition; post-loop-expression)
{ statements}
 for-in
for (property in expression) {statements}

Data types

 Primitive values

 Reference values

Primitive values

 undefined
 null
 boolean
 number
 string

Use typeof keyword to check type of variable.

Reference Types

 Classes or Object
 The Object class – similar to java.lang.Object
var car = new Object();

Or
var myClass = function(){};
var myObject = new myClass();

Or JSON way
var myObject = {};

Classes and objects in
javascript

 No class keyword available, instead
constructor function works as class definition.
 Classes and objects are dynamic, can be
altered at runtime.

Builtin Objects

Object Function Array String
Boolean Number Date RegExp
Error EvalError RangeError ReferenceError
SyntaxError TypeError URIError

Function defination

function showInfo(a) {
alert(a);
}

var showInfo = function(a)
{ alert(a);}

var showInfo = new Function(“a”,
“alert(a)”);

Functions ( contd.)

 Functions are also object, in fact everything
is an object in JavaScript
 Functions can return any data type,
‘undefined’ if none specified.

Functions scope

By default in window scope
this points to current object’s scope, defaults
to window

Can be altered using call and apply method
func.call(any_scope, [arg1,
arg2, ..]);
func.apply(any_scope, arg1,
arg2,..);

Using function as Class

var Policy = function(name) {
this.policyName = name;
}
var pol1 = new Policy(“AccessPolicy”);
var pol2 = new Policy(“AuthenticationPolicy”);

console.log(pol1.policyName); // AccessPolicy
console.log(pol2.policyName); //
AuthenticationPolicy

Variables scope

1. Start from local scope and ends till global
scope.

Prototype property

Every function has a prototype property
Every object’s scope chain fall backs to constructor
function’s prototype.
var func = function() {this.a=10; }
func.prototype.a = 20;
var obj = new func();
console.log(obj.a); // 10
delete obj.a;
console.log(obj.a); // 20

Prototype facts

 Prototype object is common across all
instances of the function( class)
 Prototype is dynamic, any changes made in
prototype gets reflected in all object
instances instantly.

__proto__ and constructor

var func = function() { }
func.prototype.a = 10;
var obj = new func();
obj.a; // 10
obj.__proto__.a ; // 10
obj.constructor.prototype.a; // a

Using prototype to create class

var funcA = function() {this.a = 10;}
funcA.prototype.b = 20;
funcA.prototype.doSomething = function()
{ }

var objA = new funcA();
funcA.prototype.c = 30;
console.log(objA);

Prototype chaining

var A = function(){};

var B = function(){};
B.prototype = new A();
B.prototype.constructor
= B;

var X = new B();

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation
Array []
Object {“key”:”value, ….}

var obj = {};
obj.a = 10;
obj.doSomething = function(){};

Using JSON to create object and
class

var myClass = function (arg1) {
var _property1 = 20;
var _method = function() {};
return {
public_property:arg1,
public_method:function() {
_method();
}
};
}
var myObject = new myClass(10);

AJAX

Asynchronous JavaScript And ( Advanced)
XML
XMLHttpRequest Object

XMLHttpRequest – cross browser Support

if (typeof XMLHttpRequest == "undefined") {

XMLHttpRequest = function () {
try { return new
ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP.6.0"); } catch
(e) {}
try { return new
ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP.3.0"); } catch
(e) {}
try { return new
ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } catch
(e) {}
throw new Error("This browser does not support

Ajax example

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.onreadystatechange =
function() {
if(xhr.readyState == 4){
alert(xhr. responseText);
}
};
xhr.open("GET","page.xml",true);
xhr.send(null);

Event Handling

Event propagation and event Bubbling

IE only support event
bubbling

Adding event Handlers

Mozilla compatible browsers
[elementObject].addEventListener(“event_h
andler”, handlerFunction, boolCapture);
[elementObject].removeEventListener(“even
t_handler”, handlerFunction,
boolCapture);
IE
[elementObject].attachEvent(“event_handle
r”, handlerFunction);
[elementObject].detachEvent(“event_handle
r”, handlerFunction);

Timing functions

setTimeout– calls only once
var timeoutVar =
setTimeout( function_to_call,
milliseconds);
clearTimeout(timeoutVar);

setInterval – calls repeatedly
var intervalVar =
setInterval( function_to_call,
milliseconds);
clearInterval(intervalVar);

DOM API

document.getElementById
document.getElementsByTagName

document.createElement
document.appendChild

elementObject.innerHTML

Introduction to Javascript

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