Essential JavaScript Training

Essential JavaScript provides an introduction to and experience working with the JavaScript programming language in the environment it's used in the most: the browser. JavaScript is simple and elegant, but is often difficult to work with because it's so different from the programming languages most developers are used to working with.

You'll get answers to these questions:

• What is JavaScript, how does it relate to other programming languages, and how do you script your web pages with it?
• How do you traverse and manipulate the DOM and how do you handle events in ways that work in all browsers?
• What is Ajax and how does JavaScript make it possible?
• What are closures and prototypes and other exotic features of JavaScript?

Come and learn how to utilize JavaScript to the max!

DevelopMentor's Essential courses provide two days of instructor-led training for the experienced developer. Gain deep understanding of your development platform. Acquire skills you need to be productive today. Build a solid foundation for more advanced topics.

• Become both familiar with the language and confident enough to work with it in any context
• Learn enough of the DOM API to bend it to your will
• Make communication between the browser and your server possible
• Understand and effectively leverage closures
• Understand how JavaScript's object model differs from the model classical object-oriented programming language

This course covers JavaScript and is intended for web developers who are targeting modern web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE9) on any platform (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android).

Day 1

The JavaScript Programming Language

This module introduces the JavaScript programming language. Its history, syntax, built-in data types, and control flows, will be covered. The parts of JavaScript that developers should avoid will also be discussed but still covered so that you'll know what to do when you encounter them. Even though this module doesn't assume any prior JavaScript knowledge, it doesn't treat you like you've never programmed before and even developers who've worked with the language should be able to walk away from this module with a much more solid understanding of JavaScript fundamentals.

The Document Object Model

The DOM is the API that all JavaScript programmers have to be familiar with in order to do any sort of non-trivial task. Unfortunately, the DOM is also the API that causes the most about of frustration and pain. We'll talk discuss how to traverse the DOM, manipulate it, and handle its events in a cross-browser way. We'll also take a look at the jQuery framework to see how it can make some of these tasks easier, but still requiring you to be familiar with the underlying DOM API it tries to hide.

Ajax

Communicating with remote servers from the browser using JavaScript is what Ajax is all about. We'll learn how to use Microsoft's (now standardized and present in all modern browsers) XMLHttpRequest object to communicate with the server. We'll see how easy it is to dynamically download and inject HTML and JavaScript into our pages as well as send data to and from the server in the ubiquitous JSON format.

Day 2

Functions and Closures

JavaScript treats functions as first-class objects. What does that even mean? This module talks about the refreshing nature of functions in JavaScript and how closures enable a style of expressiveness that can seem completely alien to developers who have only worked with strictly imperative languages. By the end of this module, you'll be familiar with and confident in using functional programming techniques to take your JavaScript skills to the next level.

Objects and Prototypes

JavaScript is a language that's full of objects and yet, seemingly paradoxically, has no classes. Defining constructor functions, inheriting properties from prototypes, and how to manage the elusive "this" reference are covered in this module. We'll see how to simulate classes using prototypes, but will try to reinforce JavaScript's native object model so that those crutches won't be necessary.

Upcoming Dates & Locations