A brain-friendly guide-Head First JavaScript

It used to be that when you were a Notes developer, you could pretty much ignore web stuff if you wanted to. Not anymore. At the very least, you need to have a solid basic understanding of HTML and JavaScript. To help out with the JavaScript end of things, I'd like to recommend Head First JavaScript, by Michael Morrison.If you've ever read a Head First title, you'll know what I mean when I say this is one of the most entertaining and easy ways to acquire a new skill set.

Table of Contents:

1. The Interactive Web: Reacting to the Virtual World
2. Storing Data: Everything Has Its Place
3. Exploring The Client: Browser Spelunking
4. Decision Making: If There's a Fork in the Road, Take It
5. Looping: At the Risk of Repeating Myself
6. Functions: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
7. Forms and Validation: Getting the User to Tell All
8. Wrangling the Page: Slicing and Dicing HTML with the DOM
9. Creating Custom Objects: Objects as Frankendata
10. Kill Bugs Dead: Good Scripts Gone Wrong
11. Dynamic Data: Touchy-Feely Web Applications

For starters, you should think of this as a tutorial book, not a long-term reference volume. While you're going to be reviewing certain sections repeatedly as you gain experience with the code and techniques, you won't find an exhaustive list of parameters for each type of JavaScript object. There are plenty of other VERY large books that will give you all that information. But as a tutorial guide that gives people of all skill levels a chance at success, this book is excellent.
Chapters 1 through 6 give you a solid foundation as to the syntax and usage of the basic language features and constructs. You'll cover looping, operators, variables, and all the other core information you need to know to write a JavaScript program. But unlike other guides and tutorials that can be rather dry, the Head First method has you involving all your senses as you work with the material... puzzles, questions, off-beat diagrams, you name it. You could almost read it as a non-fiction book for entertainment, and learn the material in spite of yourself.
For me, chapters 7 through the end were the most valuable. I have the core JavaScript syntax down, but I often don't intuitively sense what I can do or how I can manipulate a document with it. Chapter 7 shows you how you can validate a form using JavaScript. Think of this as your JavaScript replacement for QuerySave LotusScript or Field Validation @command logic. Chapter 8 is probably where you'll finally figure out how to make those web pages do things that shouldn't be possible. You'll learn how to parse the Document Object Model and make decisions on what should or shouldn't be changed on a page based on what's actually on the screen. Add to that a chapter that shows some good techniques for debugging, and you have a book that should be useful to the vast majority of Domino developers who came from the client world and still have to work at the web stuff.
It's true that you'll have to "adapt" some of this information to the Domino Designer client. For instance, you'll be able to put functions in numerous places, and it might take you awhile to figure out the best place to locate your code. But ultimately, it's still all JavaScript code, and the key is being able to know what it can do for you and how to write it.
So, if you're chomping at the bit to start working with Ajax in your Domino applications but the JavaScript part is slowing you down, grab A brain-friendly guide-Head First JavaScript. Or even if you're just looking to build a web-only Domino application that doesn't rely on using Notes constructs for logic, this book will give you the knowledge you need to make that happen. Either way, getting a copy of Head First JavaScript will open up your programming world to a number of new possibilities...

Download free JavaScript ebook: A brain-friendly guide-Head First JavaScript