Students will learn the fundamentals of JavaScript as a web programming language, including basic programming concepts as they apply to using and writing JavaScript. The focus is on learning to create interactivity using JavaScript with text and graphics. This course lays the foundation for continuing with JavaScript in the Intermediate JavaScript course, and features current web-standards compliant techniques for using JavaScript.

It's expected that students will have varying levels of skill and experience with scripting, so both a basic assignment and an advanced assignment will be offered each week for students to choose from in order to meet course requirements.

Students who have used pre-written scripts will find this a useful course to learn the underlying concepts of the JavaScript language and web scripting - and you'll learn to write your own scripts!

Applicable Job Roles: web designers, webmasters, web programmers, and web application developers.

• JavaScript as a Web programming language
• The script element
• Creating variables in JavaScript
• Using alert and confirm boxes
• Using prompt to access user input
• Basic script debugging

• Strings and numbers in JavaScript
• Converting strings to numbers - parseInt, parseFloat, and Number
• Using conditional statement - if, else if, and else
• Understanding switch
• Creating for and while loops

• JavaScript functions
• JavaScript objects
• Using the Array object
• Creating single-dimensional arrays
• Understanding the Math object
• Using random numbers

• Understanding the Date object
• Displaying date and time on your pages
• Using international time
• Creating a timer
• Using inline event handlers
• Using the String object
• Manipulating string data

• Basic events and event handlers
• Using the traditional event registration model
• Event capturing and event bubbling

• Understanding the Browser Object Model (BOM)
• Browser object detection techniques
• Simple and complex rollovers
• Open, move, and resize new windows

• Understanding the Document Object Model (DOM)
• HTML documents as family trees
• HTMLdocuments as node trees
• Basic DOM objects, methods, and properties

• JavaScript best practices
• Graceful degradation
• Progressive enhancement
• Separating structure, presentation, and behavior