10. JavaScript & Spry
As you learned in your readings for today, JavaScript is "a client-side scripting language that adds interactivity and conditional behavior to Web pages." The term "client-side" means the script for achieving page interactivity is read within the client browser and not from the Web server itself.
The rest of the chapter undoubtedly seemed liked ancient Greek to most of you, which is okay. You don't have to memorize all the lines of code, though if you did, it would be very good for your understanding of how JavaScript works on the Web. However, I do expect you to at least become familiar with the language of JavaScript and how JavaScript routines are structured. So in class this week, we'll review some terminology and walk through the structure of a JavaScript document. Below are links to a few websites specializing in JavaScript:
- JavaScript: How Did We Get Here? - a brief explanation of how JavaScript evolved from the early days of Netscape.
- JavaScript Examples - a variety of example scripts for many different purposes.
- JavaScript Search - search this large collection of JavaScript examples.
With this information, you can write some of your JavaScript applications or use some of GoLive's preformulated scripts known as "actions." Below are descriptions of some of the more popular actions available.
Spry navigation
This week, we'll be focusing on Spry Widgets, Dreamweaver's combination of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS that are used to create a variety of interactive effects, such as navigation menus and collapsible panels. For this lesson, we'll focus on the four styles of widgets shown below used primarily for navigation—menu bars, tabbed panels, accordion panels, and collapsible panels.
Menu bars
xxxxx
- Step 1
- Step 2
- Step 3
Tabbed panels
- Step 1
- Step 2
- Step 3
Accordion panels
- Step 1
- Step 2
- Step 3
Collapsible panels
- Step 1
- Step 2
- Step 3