JavaScript 101

JAVASCRIPT 101
YOGEV AHUVIA

www.netcraft.co.il

Prototype
Closure
DOM
JavaScript Interactivity
Performance
Validations

Events
1995 HTML
Security
Ajax
Browser
jQuery

Effects
Animations
Dynamic Netscape

OVERVIEW
let’s talk about the roots

Developed by Brendan Eich at Netscape

Came to add interactivity to the web

Version 1.0 released in 1995

.JS
First appeared in Netscape 2.0

Second, Internet Explorer 3.0

Industry standard since 1997

Prototype-Oriented language

Not compiled; interpreted

6 OVERVIEW
7 1 var myString = ‘javascript’;

Code Example
2 var myArray = [1, 2.5, ’3’, [myString, ‘ rules’]];

8 3 for (var i = 0; i < myArray.length; i++) {
var arrayElement = myArray[i];
console.log(myArray[i]);

9 }
>
>
1
2.5

10
> 3
> javascript, rules

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6 OVERVIEW
7 1 function factorial(n) {

Code Example
if (n == 0) {

8
return 1;
}
return n * factorial(n - 1);

9
};
2 var myObject = {
myProperty1 : factorial(3),

10
myProperty2 : ‘name’,
myProperty3 : {},
myProperty4 : function() {

11
alert(‘hello world’);
}
};

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3 myObject.myProperty4();

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CORE CONCEPTS
what does it offer?

1 DOM
• An API for browser documents

• Describes the hierarchy of objects that form a document

• Cross browser and language independent

• Allows adding, removing or updating elements on the model

• Browsers parse HTML into a DOM tree

• Once parsed into objects, each object can be referenced

1 DOM
document

<html>

<head> <body>

<title> [href] <a> <h1>

“My Page” “Click” “Header”

6 1 DOM
7 1 var element = document.createElement('h1');

Code Example
2 var text = document.createTextNode(‘My Title’);

8 3
4
element.appendChild(text);
document.body.appendChild(element);

9 http://www.javascript101.com/examples/

My Title

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2 OBJECTS
• Similar to classes in Object-Oriented programming

• Collection of properties (similar to associative array)

• Objects are being cloned, not initialized

• Every object has a (single) prototype

2 OBJECTS
a

<a.prototype properties>

x 10

__proto__ a.prototype

...

__proto__ ...

6 2 OBJECTS
7 1 var a = {

Code Example
x: 10

8
};
2 a.x += 5;
3 a[‘x’]; =15

9 4 a.__proto__; =Prototype of Object
5 a.__proto__.__proto__; =null

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3 PROTOTYPE-ORIENTED
• Simpliﬁed concept of Object-Oriented programming

• Mostly always based on dynamically-typed languages

• Objects are created on run-time either from scratch or by cloning

• Variables are not of a certain type, but the values that are stored
in them are

3 PROTOTYPE-ORIENTED
b a

y 20 x 10

__proto__ calc <func>

__proto__

c Object.prototype

y 30 ...

__proto__ __proto__ null

6 3 PROTOTYPE-ORIENTED
7 1 var a = {

Code Example
x: 10,

8
calculate: function(z) {
return this.x + this.y + z;
}

9
};
2 var b = {
y: 20,

10
__proto__: a
};
3 var c = {

11
y: 30,
__proto__: a
};

12 4 b.calculate(30);
5 a.calculate(40);
=60
=NaN

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4 FUNCTIONS
• In JavaScript, functions are ﬁrst class objects, like any other object

• They have properties (as objects)

• Can be assigned, passed as arguments, returned and manipulated

• Reference to a function can be invoked using the () operator

• Can be nested in other functions

• Implements Closure

6 4 FUNCTIONS
7 1 function MyFunc(a,b)

Code Example
{

8
return a*b;
};
2 MyFunc(2,3); =6

9 3 function MyFunc(a,b,c)
{
var MyInnerFunc = function(param) {

10 };
a -= param;

MyInnerFunc(c);

11
return a*b;
};
4 MyFunc(2,3,1); =3

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5 TIMING EVENTS
• Execute code after speciﬁed amount of time

• Time with a reference to a function or anonymous function inline

• Can canceling the timer before time end

• Used for animations, load balancing, validations and timeouts

• Breaks code execution top-down order

6 5 TIMING EVENTS
7 1 var delay = 3000; // milliseconds

Code Example
2 function timedFunc() {

8 };
alert(‘It has been ‘+(delay/1000)+‘ seconds...’);

3 setTimeout(timedFunc, delay);

9 4 setTimeout(function() {
delay = 5000;
timedFunc();

10 }, delay); 3000ms

5

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6 5 TIMING EVENTS
7 1 var counter = 10;

Code Example
2 var delay = 1000;

8 3 function countdown() {
if (counter == 0) {
clearTimeout(timerHandle);

9 }
console.log(counter);
counter--;

10 }
4 var timerHandle = setInterval(countdown, delay);

11 >
>
>
>
10
9
8
7

12
> 6
> 5
> 4
> 3
> 2

13
> 1
> 0

14

6 SCOPES
• Scope are contexts of variables

• Every object has a link to the scope chain; local ﬁrst, then parents
and ﬁnally - global

• Nested functions can use their variables and also their parents

• Closure architecture allows a function to carry its scope to
another context

6 SCOPES
global scope

x 10

<global properties> parent scope

__parent__ null y 20

__parent__ current scope

z 30

__parent__

6 6 SCOPES
7 1 var x = 10; // global scope

Code Example
2 (function parentScope() {

8 var y = 20;
(function currentScope() {
var z = 30;

9 console.log(x+y+z); =60
})();
})();

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6 6 SCOPES
7 1 var myNamespace = {};

Code Example
2 myNamespace.myClass = function(myParam) {

8 };
this.myMember = myParam;

3 myNamespace.myClass.prototype.myFunc = function() {

9 };
console.log(this.myMember + ‘ world!’);

4 var myInstance = new myNamespace.myClass(‘hello’);

10 5 myInstance.myFunc(); =hello world!

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7 CLOSURE
• Functions can be nested keeping their original context

• Mostly implemented in scripting languages

• The closured function saves the scope chain of its parent

• Allows functions to access their parent scope variables as they
were on the moment they were closured

• Efﬁcient when looping and using delegate function

7 CLOSURE
function scope
y 30
__parent__
[context].x 20
10 20

global scope
x 10 parent scope
<global properties> x 20
__parent__ null __parent__

6 7 CLOSURE
7 1 var x = 20;

Code Example
2 function outer() {

8 var x = 10;
return function inner() {
console.log(x); =10

9 };
};
3 var returnedFunction = outer();

10 4 returnedFunction();

11
5 function globalFunc() {
console.log(x);
};

12
6 (function(functionArgument) {
var x = 10;
functionArgument(); =20
})(globalFunc);

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8 CALLBACKS
• Passing functions as arguments for later use

• Allows running a background worker

• Not freezing User Interface

• Keeping original scope

9 EVENTS
• Elements on page can ﬁre events

• Bind JavaScript functions to handle those events

• Respond to speciﬁc user actions

• Some events aren’t directly caused by the user (e.g. page load)

6 9 EVENTS
7 1 var element = document.getElementById(‘myButton’);

Code Example
2 function myButtonClick() {

8 };
alert(‘myButton was clicked!’);

3 element.onclick = myButtonClick;

9 4 window.onload = function() {
var newElem = document.createElement(‘button’);
newElem.addEventListener(‘click’, myButtonClick);

10 };
document.body.appendChild(newElem);

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10 AJAX
• Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

• Usually being done with XMLHttpRequest object

• Exchange data asynchronously between browser and server

• Update page elements without refreshing the page

• Data is mostly transferred in JSON format

6 10 AJAX
7 1 function updatePage(str) {

Code Example
document.getElementById(‘res’).innerHTML = str;

8
};
2 function doAjaxMagic(url) {
var self = this;

9 self.xmlHttpReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
self.xmlHttpReq.open('GET', url, true);
self.xmlHttpReq.onreadystatechange = function() {

10
if (self.xmlHttpReq.readyState == 4) {
updatePage(self.xmlHttpReq.responseText);
}

11
}
};
3 doAjaxMagic(‘http://www.example.com/ajax.html’);

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THE ENGINE BEHIND
let’s showcase the environment

Browser Layout Engine JavaScript Engine

Google Chrome WebKit V8

Mozilla Firefox Gecko SpiderMonkey

Internet Explorer Trident JScript

Apple Safari WebKit JavaScript Core

Opera Presto Carakan

INTERPRETING
• Browsers treat each <script> tag is a separate program

• JavaScript program is parsed and interpreted at run-time

• Modern browsers compile parts of the scripts for performance

• Interpreting can happen on-load or on-demand

• JavaScript engine is contained in the browser layout engine

SECURITY
• Cannot read or write ﬁles on the machine (except cookies)

• Cannot interact with frames of a different domain

• Cannot read the user’s history

• Cannot detect user interaction outside the top frame

• JavaScript code cannot be hidden or encrypted

• Miniﬁcation and Obfuscation

Performance Factors

Inline method vs calling function 40% 70% 99.9% 20%

Use literals vs instantiate 60% 10% 15% 20%

For loop vs while loop 0% 0% 0% 0%

Cache globals vs uncache globals 70% 40% 2% 0%

No try catch vs try catch 90% 17% 0% 96%

EXTENSION LIBRARIES
wrappers and implementations

JQUERY
simplify cross-browser scripting of html

NODE.JS
highly scalable web-servers

HEAVY APPLICATIONS
javascript mvc frameworks

MOBILE LIBRARIES
touch-optimized web frameworks

USER INTERFACE
interaction, animations and effects

FURTHER READING
learn the basics, then enjoy the advances

JavaScript 101

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