Head First HTML5 Programming

Head First HTML5 Programming

by Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson
Released October 2011
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449390549

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Book description

HTML has been on a wild ride. Sure, HTML started as a mere markup language, but more recently HTML’s put on some major muscle. Now we’ve got a language tuned for building web applications with Web storage, 2D drawing, offline support, sockets and threads, and more. And to speak this language you’ve got to go beyond HTML5 markup and into the world of the DOM, events, and JavaScript APIs.

Now you probably already know all about HTML markup (otherwise known as structure) and you know all aboutCSS style (presentation), but what you’ve been missing is JavaScript (behavior). If all you know about are structure and presentation, you can create some great looking pages, but they’re still just pages. When you add behavior with JavaScript, you can create an interactive experience; even better, you can create full blown web applications.

Head First HTML5 Programming is your ultimate tour guide to creating web applications with HTML5 and JavaScript, and we give you everything you need to know to build them, including: how to add interactivity to your pages, how to communicate with the world of Web services, and how to use the great new APIs being developed for HTML5.

Here are just some of the things you’ll learn in Head First HTML5 Programing:

  • Learn how to make your pages truly interactive by using the power of the DOM.
  • Finally understand how JavaScript works and take yourself from novice to well-informed in just a few chapters.
  • Learn how JavaScript APIs fit into the HTML5 ecosystem, and how to use any API in your web pages.
  • Use the Geolocation API to know where your users are.
  • Bring out your inner artist with Canvas, HTML5’s new 2D drawing surface.
  • Go beyond just plugging a video into your pages, and create custom video experiences.
  • Learn the secret to grabbing five megabytes of storage in every user’s browser.
  • Improve your page’s responsiveness and performance with Web workers.
  • And much more.

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Table of contents

  1. Head First HTML5 Programming building web apps with javascript
  2. Dedication
  3. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
  4. Advance Praise for Head First HTML5 Programming
  5. Praise for other books from Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Robson
  6. Authors of Head First HTML5 Programming
  7. How to Use this Book: Intro
    1. Who is this book for?
      1. Who should probably back away from this book?
    2. We know what you’re thinking
    3. And we know what your brain is thinking
    4. Metacognition: thinking about thinking
    5. Here’s what WE did:
    6. Here’s what YOU can do to bend your brain into submission
    7. Read me
    8. Software requirements
    9. The technical review team
    10. Acknowledgments
    11. Even more Acknowledgments!
    12. Safari® Books Online
  8. 1. Getting to Know HTML5: Welcome to Webville
    1. Would the REAL HTML5 please stand up...
    2. How HTML5 really works...
    3. What can you do with JavaScript?
    4. Writing Serious JavaScript
    5. Writing Serious JavaScript Revisited...
  9. 2. Introducing JavaScript and the DOM: A Little Code
    1. The Way JavaScript Works
    2. What can you do with JavaScript?
    3. Declaring a variable
      1. Three steps of creating a variable
    4. How to name your variables
      1. Rule#1: Start your variables with a letter, an underscore or a dollar sign
      2. Rule #2: Then you can use any number of letters, numeric digits, underscores or dollar signs
      3. Rule #3: Make sure you avoid all of JavaScript’s reserved words
    5. Getting Expressive
    6. Doing things over and over...
    7. Make decisions with JavaScript
    8. Making more decisions... and, adding a catchall
    9. How and where to add JavaScript to your pages
    10. How JavaScript interacts with your page
    11. How to bake your very own DOM
    12. A first taste of the DOM
    13. Test drive the planets
    14. You can’t mess with the DOM until the page has fully loaded
      1. Reload the page
    15. So, what else is a DOM good for anyway?
    16. Can we talk about JavaScript again? Or, how to store multiple values in JavaScript
      1. How to create an array
      2. Adding another item to the array
      3. Using your array items
      4. Know the size of your array, or else
    17. The Phrase-O-Matic
  10. 3. Events, Handlers and All that Jazz: A Little Interaction
    1. Get ready for Webville Tunes
    2. Getting started...
      1. Give it a test drive
    3. But nothing happens when I click “Add Song”
    4. Handling Events
    5. Making a Plan...
    6. Getting access to the “Add Song” button
    7. Giving the button a click handler
      1. Putting it to a test...
    8. A closer look at what just happened...
    9. Getting the song name
    10. How do we add a song to the page?
    11. How to create a new element
    12. Adding an element to the DOM
    13. Put it all together...
    14. ...and take it for a test drive
    15. Review—what we just did
    16. How to add the Ready Bake Code...
    17. Integrating your Ready Bake Code
      1. Test drive the saved songs
  11. 4. JavaScript Functions and Objects: Serious JavaScript
    1. Expanding your vocabulary
    2. How to add your own functions
      1. Create a checkGuess function
    3. How a function works
    4. Local and Global Variables
      1. Know the difference or risk humiliation
    5. Knowing the scope of your local and global variables
    6. The short lives of variables
    7. Oh, did we mention functions are also values?
    8. What you can do with functions as values
    9. Did someone say “Objects”?!
    10. Thinking about properties...
    11. How to create an object in JavaScript
    12. Some things you can do with objects
    13. Let’s talk about passing objects to functions
      1. Putting Fido on a diet....
    14. Our next showing is at....
    15. Testing at the drive-in
    16. Objects can have behavior too...
    17. Meanwhile back at Webville Cinema...
    18. But we know that can’t be quite right...
    19. Let’s get the movie parameter out of there...
    20. Now what?
    21. Adding the “this” keyword
    22. A test drive with “this”
    23. How to create a constructor
    24. Now let’s use our constructor
    25. How does this really work?
    26. Test drive your constructor right off the factory floor
    27. What is the window object anyway?
    28. A closer look at window.onload
    29. Another look at the document object
    30. A closer look at document.getElementById
    31. One more object to think about: your element objects
  12. 5. Making Your HTML Location Aware: Geolocation
    1. Location, Location, Location
    2. The Lat and Long of it...
    3. How the Geolocation API determines your location
    4. Just where are you anyway?
    5. Test drive your location
    6. What we just did...
    7. How it all fits together
    8. Revealing our secret location...
    9. Writing the code to find the distance
    10. Location-enabled test drive
    11. Mapping your position
    12. How to add a Map to your Page
      1. Getting ready to create a map...
    13. Displaying the Map
    14. Test drive your new heads-up display
    15. Sticking a Pin in it...
    16. Testing the marker
    17. Meanwhile back at the Geolocation API...
    18. Can we talk about your accuracy?
    19. Accuracy Test
    20. “Wherever you go, there you are”
      1. How we’re going to track your movements
    21. Getting the app started
    22. Reworking our old code...
      1. Writing the watchLocation handler
      2. Writing the clearWatch handler
      3. We still need to make a small update to displayLocation...
    23. Time to get moving!
    24. You’ve got some Options...
      1. Can we talk about your accuracy, again?
    25. The world of timeouts and maximum age...
    26. How to specify options
    27. Let’s finish this app!
    28. Integrating our new function
    29. And one more time...
  13. 6. Talking to The Web: Extroverted Apps
    1. Mighty Gumball wants a Web app
    2. A little more background on Mighty Gumball
    3. Just a quick start...
      1. Turn the engine over...
    4. So how do we make requests to web services?
    5. How to make a request from JavaScript
    6. Move over XML, meet JSON
    7. A quick example using JSON
    8. Let’s get to work!
      1. Writing an onload handler function
    9. Displaying the gumball sales data
    10. Watch Out, Detour Ahead!
    11. How to set up your own Web Server
    12. How to set up your own Web Server, continued
    13. Back to the code
    14. Let’s test this already!
    15. Impressing the client...
    16. Reworking our code to make use of JSON
    17. The Home Stretch...
    18. Moving to the Live Server
    19. A Live Test Drive...
    20. It’s a cliffhanger!
    21. Remember, we left you with a cliffhanger? A bug
    22. So, what do we do now?!
    23. What Browser Security Policy?
      1. Acceptable Behavior for JavaScript code
      2. Unacceptable Behavior for JavaScript code
    24. So, what are our options?
    25. Meet JSONP
    26. But what is the “P” in JSONP for?
    27. Let’s update the Mighty Gumball web app
    28. Test drive your new JSONP-charged code
    29. Improving Mighty Gumball
    30. Step 1: Taking care of the script element...
    31. Step 2: Now it’s time for the timer
    32. A time-driven test drive
    33. Step 3: Reimplementing JSONP
      1. First, let’s set up the JSONP URL
      2. Next, let’s create a new script element
      3. How do we insert the script into the DOM?
      4. Now let’s write the code to insert the script into the DOM
    34. We almost forgot: watch out for the dreaded browser cache
    35. One more TIME test drive
    36. How to remove duplicate sales reports
    37. Updating the JSON URL to include the lastreporttime
    38. Test drive lastReportTime
    39. A Special Message from Chapter 7...
  14. 7. Bringing Out Your Inner Artist: The Canvas
    1. Our new start-up: TweetShirt
    2. Checking out the “comps”
    3. Let’s drop in on the TweetShirt crew...
    4. How to get a canvas into your web page
    5. Test drive your new canvas
    6. How to see your canvas
    7. Drawing on the Canvas
    8. A little Canvas test drive...
    9. A closer look at the code
    10. Failing gracefully
    11. TweetShirt: the Big Picture
    12. First, let’s get the HTML in place
    13. Now, let’s add the <form>
    14. Time to get computational, with JavaScript
    15. Writing the drawSquare function
    16. Time for a test drive!
      1. Why are we seeing the old squares and the new squares when we preview?
    17. Add the call to fillBackgroundColor
      1. Another quick test drive to make sure our new fillBackgroundColor function works...
    18. Meanwhile, back at TweetShirt.com...
      1. And, a couple of hours later...
    19. Drawing with Geeks
    20. Breaking down the arc method
    21. A little taste of using the arc
    22. I say degree, you say radian
    23. Back to writing the TweetShirt circle code
    24. Writing the drawCircle function...
      1. ...and test drive!
    25. Welcome back...
    26. Getting your tweets
    27. Test driving Tweets
    28. Giving drawText a spin
    29. Completing the drawText function
    30. A quick test drive and then LAUNCH!
    31. Yet another test drive
      1. So you have a path! Now what?
  15. 8. Not Your Father’s TV: Video ...With Special Guest Star “Canvas”
    1. Meet Webville TV
    2. The HTML, let’s get it done...
    3. Plug that set in and test it out...
    4. How does the video element work?
    5. Closely inspecting the video attributes...
    6. What you need to know about video formats
    7. The contenders
    8. How to juggle all those formats...
    9. How to be even more specific with your video formats
    10. I was told there would be APIs?
    11. A little content “programming” on Webville TV
    12. Implementing Webville TV’s playlist
    13. So what’s up with that event handler code?
    14. How to write the “end of video” handler
    15. Another test drive...
    16. How the canPlayType method works
      1. Putting canPlayType to use
      2. Integrating the getFormatExtension function
      3. And test drive...
    17. We need your help!
    18. Step inside the booth, let’s take a look...
    19. Unpacking the Demo Unit
    20. Inspecting the rest of the factory code
      1. And now the JavaScript...
      2. Looking at the button handlers
    21. The setEffect and setVideo handlers
    22. And here are the helper functions
    23. That new demo machine smell...test drive time!
    24. Getting our demo videos ready...
    25. Implementing the video controls
    26. Implementing the rest of the video controls
    27. Another test drive!
    28. Taking care of a loose end...
    29. And another...
    30. Switching test videos
      1. Switch drivers and test drive!
    31. It’s time for special effects
    32. The FX plan
    33. Time to get those effects buttons working
    34. How video processing works
    35. How to process video using a scratch buffer
    36. Implementing a scratch buffer with Canvas
    37. How to position the video and canvases
    38. Writing the code to process the video
    39. How to create the buffer
    40. How to process the buffer
      1. We’ve processed one frame, what next?
    41. Now we need to write some effects
    42. A film noir test drive
    43. The Big Test Drive
    44. If only it were a perfect world...
    45. How to use error events
    46. Test Crash!
    47. Where can you go from here?
  16. 9. Storing Things Locally: Web Storage
    1. How browser storage works (1995 - 2010)
    2. How HTML5 Web Storage works
    3. Note to self...
    4. Time for a test drive!
    5. Were Local Storage and the Array separated at birth?
      1. But wait, there’s more!
    6. Getting serious about stickies
    7. Creating the interface
    8. Now let’s add the JavaScript
    9. Time for another test drive!
    10. Completing the user interface
    11. Yet another test drive!
    12. We need to stop for a little scheduled service
    13. Do-It-Yourself maintenance
    14. We have the technology...
    15. Reworking our app to use an array
      1. Before...
      2. New and improved
    16. Converting createSticky to use an array
    17. What needs to change?
    18. Putting it all together
    19. Putting it all together continued...
    20. Test Drive!
    21. Deleting sticky notes
    22. The deleteSticky function
    23. How do you select a sticky to delete?
    24. How to get the sticky to delete from the event
    25. Delete the sticky from the DOM, too
      1. Okay, test it...
    26. But of course we can!
    27. Update the user interface so we can specify a color
    28. JSON.stringify, it’s not just for Arrays
    29. Using the new stickyObj
    30. Test drive sticky note colors
    31. Now that you know localStorage, how are you going to use it?
  17. 10. Putting JavaScript to Work: Web Workers
    1. The Dreaded Slow Script
    2. How JavaScript spends its time
    3. When single-threaded goes BAD
    4. Adding another thread of control to help
    5. How Web Workers work
    6. Your first Web Worker...
      1. How to create a Web Worker
    7. Writing Manager.js
    8. Receiving messages from the worker
    9. Now let’s write the worker
      1. Writing the worker’s message handler
    10. Serving up a test drive
    11. Virtual Land Grab
    12. Take a look around
    13. How to compute a Mandelbrot Set
    14. How to use multiple workers
    15. Let’s build the Fractal Explorer app
      1. Creating the Fractal Viewer HTML Markup
    16. Creating workers, and giving them tasks...
    17. Writing the code
    18. Getting the workers started
    19. Implementing the worker
    20. A little pit stop...
    21. Time to get back on the road...
    22. Back to the code: how to process the worker’s results
    23. Psychedelic test drive
      1. Handling a click event
    24. Another test drive
    25. Fitting the canvas to the browser window
    26. The anal-retentive chef coder
    27. Time for the final test drive!
    28. Congratulations! You made it to the end
  18. A. Leftovers: The Top Ten Topics (We Didn’t Cover)
    1. #1 Modernizr
      1. Including Modernizr in your page
      2. How to detect support
    2. #2 Audio
      1. A Standard for Audio Encodings
    3. #3 jQuery
    4. #4 XHTML is dead, long live XHTML
    5. #5 SVG
    6. #6 Offline web apps
    7. #7 Web Sockets
    8. #8 More canvas API
    9. #9 Selectors API
    10. #10 But, there’s even more!
      1. Indexed Database API and Web SQL
      2. Drag and Drop
      3. Cross-document Messaging
      4. And we could go on...
    11. The HTML5 Guide to New Construction
    12. Adding style to your new construction with CSS3
  19. B. This isn’t goodbye
  20. Index
  21. About the Authors
  22. Colophon
  23. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Head First HTML5 Programming
  • Author(s): Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson
  • Release date: October 2011
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449390549