Pro Javascript Techniques by John Resig was a very in depth look at Javascript and its capabilities. I loved this book for the simple fact that the first chapter started by introducing you to objects in Javascript. No time was wasted on the basics, you were diving in deep right from the beginning. Also, even though John is the creator and lead developer of the jQuery Javascript library, this book was not about pushing his framework. He did a great job of introducing many of the different frameworks and listing their strengths and purposes.

The entire book had you building a library of usable scripts that allow for great portability while using Javascript in your applications (or even your personal website). Each chapter discussed the scripts, their functionality, their support, and giving great details to how they worked. Most chapters also gave you examples of the scripts in a working environment. A quick breakdown looks like this:

The first part of the book discussed Object Oriented Javascript. This included information related to creating your own objects and extending the core javascript objects. He then moved on to discussing testing of your code and how to package it for distribution. This is especially helpful for those working in an environment with multiple developers/programmers. Thankfully, he discussed unobtrusive DOM scripting, which still may be new to some developers. The first part closed with discussions related to AJAX and browser support, both of which we would see more of later. All of part one was a brief introduction to what we would read through the rest of the book

Part two discussed Object Orient Javascript in more detail. This included things such as basics of objects, object creation, references, overloading, scope, and closures. I found this chapter to provide a solid foundation for the rest of the chapters to come, as well as very descriptive related to objects. The next few chapters discussed creating reusable code and shined some light on several of the libraries available. Also, we got a glimpse into the wonderful world of debugging javascript and were introduced to some great tools to help you as you build.

Part three dives into unobtrusive Javascript and intricate details related to the DOM and how to manipulate the DOM. Once we learn how to properly manipulate and traverse the DOM, we move on to attaching events to elements. All of this was discussed in light of progressive enhancement and making sure content is always available. The last three chapters of this section discussed Javascript and CSS, how to improve forms (which is also a topic for another discussion), and a practical example of building an image gallery.

Part four pushes ahead to AJAX. The first chapters discussed the history of AJAX and some of its common uses. With a foundation of understanding what AJAX is, the next chapters were spent with practical examples of enhancing your blog (quick access to all posts dynamically on scroll), building an autocomplete search field, and creating an AJAX Wiki. I found that the blog and autocomplete were a little more valuable than the Wiki.

The final part looks to the future of Javascript. This section was very educational as we move forward. This is very important to be aware of what will be available in the near (hopefully) future.

The appendixes were extremely valuable, and I will use it as a quick reference as I begin developing more Javascript. A full listing of the DOM reference, Events reference, and the Browsers.

Overall, this book was an incredible read and is highly recommended for those who want to take their Javascript skills to the next level.

Pro JavaScript Techniques by John Resig is probably the best resource on the language I've encountered to date. I'm one of those web developers who has had something of a mental block when it comes to JavaScript. Despite its ubiquity, it always seemed like a toy language to me. It didn't help that JavaScript's syntax plays a bit fast and loose to my tastes, and that virtually all of the other resources on the language I've encountered barely scratched the surface on what the language can actually do. If you're like me - familiar with the basics, but knowing that you're not proficient enough to use it in a professional setting - then this book is for you.

First, the bad news. Like all aPress books I've encountered, this one suffers from a few small, but glaring, editing errors. Small things - variable names that change between examples for no good reason, in-text refrences to things the author didn't mention (no doubt something missed between drafts), that sort of thing - crop up. It's not enough to break the book, but it is annoying.

Also, the first section of the book moves at break-neck speed. While some of it is review, for those of us who have been toiling in web tutorials and older books, a few re-reads are necessary to truly understand what's going on. Thankfully, Resig addresses things in a logical manner, so each topic flows nicely into the next, making returning to those parts as painless as possible.

Finally, in the chapter where he discusses public, private, and privledged object properties and methods, he completely glosses over how private properties and methods function. Instead, he merely tells the user to visit Douglas Crockford's site on the matter. It's a bit of a cop-out, and I figure that since I'm spending ~$30 on the book, the least he can do is briefly condence Crockford's ideas.

All that said, though, the positives outweigh the negatives by far.

Despite the quick pacing of the book, the information (ignoring editing inconsistencies) is delivered in a straightforward manner. Resig addresses most, if not all, of those little things which are important in the real world (testing/debugging, how to work with libraries, how to ensure your code doesn't interfere with someone else's code, etc), but are often ignored in other resources.

In particular, the early chapters (chapters 2 and 3) on dealing with JavaScript objects are well done. While Resig doesn't go into all of the details (most notably with the link to Crockford's site I mentioned earlier), these chapters form the foundation of just about everything you'd want to do with the language. Indeed, these chapters address most of the pitfalls that create those pesky JavaScript errors we've all dealt with before: scope, closures, and context. Understanding how those three concepts work in unison is fundamental towards understanding modern, professional JavaScript as a whole.

Being a JavaScript book, this particular volume visits topics we're most likely all familiar with: DOM scripting, event handling, and even a bit of AJAX. Thanfully, Resig stays true to his mission of creating inobtrusive JavaScript, and keeps his HTML separated from the scripting code. This is a far cry from other self-proclaimed professional tomes that embed their JavaScript function calls within their HTML tags.

To conclude (and reiterate), Pro JavaScript Techniques is the perfect book for those developers caught in the middle. It's a resource aimed at those of us who have had experience with the language, but have never been pointed in the right direction to use it in a professional manner. Despite its annoying flaws, this book fills the rather large gap between beginner's JavaScripting and creating robust AJAX applications. It's worth owning if you ever want to do serious work with the language.

While John Resig clearly understands javaScript very well, he doesn't put as much effort into writing about it. This book starts out well, but mistakes and unclear explanations take over after the second chapter. The problems in the case studies toward the end of the book are even more frustrating than the typos. As someone else already said "if you can debug the mistakes, you don't need the book." Especially troublesome to me is the lack of support from the publisher, no errata and the code downloads are incorrect ( at least some of them don't even function). The book is not a write off, there is very valuable information and advice. I just am very disappointed in the code examples and their explanations. In addition the book evangelizes OOP, but the examples are all procedural causing even further confusion. Because of the problems I have with the book, I am slightly surprised by the number of 4 and 5 star reviews. Maybe not everyone will be as disappointed as I am.

After writing disorganized (yet effective) JavaScript functions for seven years, I really wanted to get more out of the language. I wanted to code more efficiently. As each new project started, I found myself scurrying to find old functions strewn across different computers or servers. Even when I found this code, I would often need to make some significant changes to it.

So, I did what any self-taught front-end developer would do: I hit the online tutorials. Online tutorials didn't really do it for me, though. The good tutorials seemed too short, and I kept reverting back to sloppy coding after a few days.

Then I came across this book.

The examples are excellent in demonstrating how the language can really work for you if you're willing to put the time into it. That being said, this book is not for beginners. This book is probably best for three groups of people:

1) Intermediate JavaScript developers who are ready to finally adopt code reuse and reap the nice things a loosely typed, object-based language can give you.

2) Java/C++ programmers who need to pick up JavaScript for a project. These people are already familiar with OO concepts and will probably have an easier time learning the language from a book like this.

3) Ambitious beginners with a lot of patience.

After only 3 chapters, I started to think about JavaScript in a different way. For the first time ever, I found myself reusing code with little to no change required. My code was easier to read, too.

I'm a big proponent of activities that give back the time you invest. Bad books don't do this. Good ones, like this book, do.

I agree with only one other reviewer who commented on the typos, etc. The demo code does not work until you debug it. The first couple of chapters on Javascript code are very good. The chapters on Forms (8) and Lightbox(9) are so poor I stopped reading. I am a jQuery user and admire Resig's contribution, but this book should be skipped.

Let me begin this review by mentioning, I've never had the desire to write a review for any of my 100+ owned technical literature pieces. John Resig's

Pro JavaScript Techniques (Pro) has inspired me to login and give three thumbs up for this phenomenal book.

Getting into John Resig's brain, author of the innovative library jQuery ([...] has been nothing short of an exciting ride. The author makes Object Orientated JavaScript surprisingly simple to understand, as well as thorough understanding of the DOM, Events models, Ajax and many other contemporary styles of JavaScript as its written by professionals today.

I no longer reference any of my other JavaScript books. Instead opening up John's piece proves valuable over and over when in need of a refresher or a utility function for my web applications.

For any web developer who's serious about writing clean, powerful, unobtrusive JavaScript code -- look no further than John Resig's Pro JavaScript Techniques.

This was an excellent book two years ago, (and still is), but it's now outdated. I bought it based on its nearly five-star rating; I wish I'd done my homework, since I immediately needed to buy other books to supplement this one.

Although slightly dated, Resig's Pro Javascript Techniques does an excellent job explaining many of the basic building blocks of modern javascript libraries: DOM interaction, code minimization techniques, debugging tools, rich interactivity with timed behavior, and basic AJAX techniques for non-blocking server access. This is a very helpful book for anyone wanting a quick and basic overview.

That said, this book, given its date, does not spend much time covering closures, execution context (e.g. this), and the Object prototypal chain which have today become pre-requisites for OO design techniques such as encapsulation and inheritance. If you are looking for the truly advanced javascript techniques, don't look here. Because of that, I'm expecting (and hoping) that Resig's next work (Secrets of the Javascript Ninja) will provide a more thorough treatment of the subject.

Nachdem ich mich die letzten Jahre mit 3 anderen (unbrauchbaren) Javascript Büchern herumgeschlagen habe

ist Pro Javascript endlich ein Lichtblick.

Man sollte etwas Programmiererfahrung mitbringen (in Javascript oder

auch nur in anderen Programmiersprachen) und dann gibt einem das Buch

in den ersten Kapiteln alles nötige um sauberen objekt-orientierten

Code zu schreiben.

Mir fehlten allerdings kleine Übersichtszeichnungen zu den jeweiligen Themen,

denn ein gutes Bild ist oftmals mehr Wert als tausend Worte.

Hinweise zur Javascript Dokumentation (z.B. mit JsDoc) fehlen,

dies ist aber wegen fehlender Typsicherheit (kein compiler) wesentlich.

Probably one of the better javascript books out there. Most of the stuff mentioned in the book should be common knowledge for most seasoned developers so if you have surpassed the point of writing your own javascript framework for web applications than you might be looking for something much more advance but if you have written a lot of javascript like plugins for websites or even if you are new at javascript but have some knowledge on programming, than you will learn a lot from this book. 10/10

AJAXを意識した最近のJavaScript言語を学ぶに当りすばらしい良書である。

著者は有名なJavaScriptライブラリのjQueryの開発者である。

内容は基礎的なJavaScriptの言語仕様の説明は省いているものの、JavaScript言語の特徴についてポイントを抑えて一通り説明している。

当然JavaScriptのオブジェクト指向についても詳しく説明されている。

その上で、DocumentObjectModel、イベント、CSSについて一通り説明していく。

これらの説明も単なる仕様の説明ではなく、利用する場合の注意点やそれに対する対応策といった流れの説明になっている。

対応策については豊富なサンプルコードが付いておりそのまま活用することも容易である。

本書の後半はAJAXの説明となっており、前述で説明したテクニックを活用しながらAJAXアプリケーションの構築の仕方について説明する。

LiveSearchやBlogの拡張方法などの具体的な内容も充実している。

また、有名なPrototype.jsなどの各種JavaScriptライブラリの活用方法も載っている。

これだけの内容でありながらページ数は３００ページ程度と非常に読みやすい。

総論して、AJAXを学びたい・あわせてJavaScriptのスキルも磨きたいと考えている方には最良といえる。

目次立ては以下のとおり

Part1 Introducing Modern JavaScript

　　chapter1 Modern JavaScript Programming

Part2 Professional JavaScript Development

　　chapter2 Object-Oriented JavaScript

　　chapter3 Creating Reusable Code

　　chapter4 Tools for Debugging and Testing

Part3 Unobtrusive JavaScript

　　chapter5 The Document Object Model

　　chapter6 Events

　　chapter7 JavaScript and CSS

　　chapter8 Improving Forms

　　chapter9 Building an Image Gallery

Part4 Ajax

　　chapter10 Introduction to Ajax

　　chapter11 Enhancing Blogs with Ajax

　　chapter12 Autocomplete Search

　　chapter13 An Ajax Wiki

Part5 The Future of JavaScript

　　chapter14 Where Is JavaScript Going?

Part6 Appendixes

Obwohl das Buch doch schon recht alt ist (dessen sollte man sich also bewusst sein wenn man das Buch liest), so findet man doch viele Erklärungen für grundlegende Dinge in der JavaScript Welt. Ein großer Pluspunkt sind die Links im Buch um sich in gewisse Themen zu vertiefen.

Für alle die sich näher mit JavaScript beschäftigen wollen und mehr als nur ein paar Funktionen schreiben wollen, ist das Buch absolut zu empfehlen.

I am reading this book and about to finish it in 2 days.

It is too simple for me. I think it is for developer who has no javascript at all.

And it is old. In Javascript world, ExtJS,dojo,GWT ,there a lot popular frameworks.

They distributed a lot into js world to make it more OO. But this book hardly mention them.