JavaScript Application Cookbook (Paperback)

The "cookbook" approach is designed to take a common web site feature, like a search engine, and code a common JavaScript routine that would do that. You can then take the code in the book and use it with very little modification. In most cases, you would learn from the code as you are implementing it, and from there you can enhance the function to better suit your particular needs. You get the best of both worlds... You are quickly able to implement a function you are getting paid to build, and you are learning at the same time.

I liked the piece on context-sensitive help files. Nothing is really complex or visually impressive. But it's core functionality that you can implement quickly, it's useful for the end user, and you can build on that technique both in your current and future applications.

For Notes/Domino developers, you'll find a lot you can use here. Being that Domino functionality often translates to the web, you may find that a pure JavaScript implementation of a feature may not be the fastest or easiest way to build something for your application. You'll need to examine the functionality you need for your application and determine the best way to do it. But even if you choose to use Domino to accomplish some task, seeing the way to do it in JavaScript can help you expand your horizons and consider different approaches.

Conclusion
I would recommend this book as a practical supplement to a good "how to" and a good reference book. If you're just starting to learn JavaScript, you may want to leave this one alone for awhile.

The code could be better (as could anyone's). There is a strong focus on using local variables instead of global and the naming conventions make following the logic from one function to the next a little difficult. This, however, does not diminish the value of the concepts presented.

To use the book, you "MUST" download the files. Not only are they a lot easier to read, you can comment them extensively as you go and pick up logic bits.

An inportant suggestion is to not blow through the example application too quickly. If you take the time to take them apart, modify them and reassemble, you will pick up much more than just running them reading the code and moving on.

I wish there were more books that presented the business functionality of javascript and how it can be used to handle many of the things that are being passed to server-side processing.

I bought it, used it and would buy it again...