"JAVASCRIPT BIBLE" covers client-side and server-side scripting features of JavaScript but the frame of reference throughout is from Netscape's implementation of the language. Although this book doesn't demand that you should have a great deal of programming experience behind you, the more Web pages you've created with HTML, the easier you will find it to understand how JavaScript interacts with the familiar elements you normally place in your pages. "JavaScript Bible" has essentially 4 different sections.

Section I of "JavaScript Bible" book begins with the comparison of JavaScript with Java and discusses its role within the rest of World Wide Web (WWW). The Web browser and scripting world have undergone significant changes since JavaScript arrived first on the scene. This part is devoted to addressing challenges facing scripters who must develop applications for both single and cross-platform browser audiences amid rapidly changing standard efforts. JavaScript brings programming power within reach of anyone familiar with HTML, even when the server is a back box at the other end of a telephone line. This section discusses how JavaScript blends with other Web authoring technologies, history of JavaScript, and difference between JavaScript language and document objects, developing a cross-platform strategy and setting up your authoring environment.

Section II of "JavaScript Bible" book provides you with a gradual path through browser internals, basic programming skills, and genuine JavaScript scripting. Exercises at the end of each lesson are given to help reinforce what you have just learnt and challenges you to use your new knowledge. It teaches you how to script multiple frame environments and even create the mouse rollover image swapping effect that is popular in a lot of Web pages these days. This section introduces programming fundamentals including data types, operators, control structures, repeat loops, functions, curly braces and arrays. You will also learn how programs make decisions and why a program must sometimes repeat statements over and over. This part discusses window and document objects in detail and defines how to access window properties, methods and also how the browser creates the objects. Forms and form elements, Dynamic HTML, core language objects like String, Math, Date and Images are described in detail.

Section III of "JavaScript Bible" book provides in-depth coverage of the JavaScript language. Most of the chapters of this section focus on specific objects in document. This also provides a complete coverage of other core language facilities, such as control structures, functions and every other part of JavaScript. With wide range of language and browser versions encompassing JavaScript, each language entry includes a compatibility chart so you can see which browsers support the term. User interaction is a vital aspect of client-side JavaScript scripting, and most of the communication between script and user takes place by way of the Document object and its components Netscape's document object model does not allow a lot of content manipulation after a page has loaded. The items that can be modified instantly include text object values, text area object values, images and select objects list contents. This section discusses Location, History objects, Document, Link, Anchor, Layer, Applet, Form and text-related objects in detail.

Section IV of "JavaScript Bible" book deals with practical aspects of JavaScript, such as client side form data validation, blending Java applets into pages, Navigator 4's new event model and about security issues for JavaScript enabled applications. Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML) is covered in three chapters of this section. This section will show you the same DHTML application optimized for each type of deployment i.e. for Netscape Navigator 4, Internet Explorer 4 and both browsers at the same time. Debugging scripts is the focus of this part with tips on understanding error messages, building your own debugging tools, and using Netscape's debugger. A survey of third party authoring tools rounds out this implementation-heavy part of the book. This part introduces data-entry validations, combining validation functions, a library of filter functions and how to design filters. The last part discusses identifying the type of error plaguing a script, interpreting error messages, preventing problems before they occur. Some debugging tools are now available for the latest browsers. Because the debuggers must work so closely with the internal workings of the browser, the tools so far have come from the browser makers themselves. While the last chapter of this section shows how Netscape's script debugger works, most of the discussion is of value even if you debug your scripts the "old-fashioned" way - by understanding the error messages.