JavaScript in the Browser

Overview

Outline

• JavaScript was created to make web pages interactive
  • Load into page (several ways)
  • Trigger execution (also several ways)
  • Manipulate Document Object Model (DOM)
• log_on_load.html
  • Put code directly in <script> tag in head of page
  • Executed as the page loads
  • View output in console tab in browser's developer tools
  • But this is not reliable
    • Code may run while browser is still converting HTML to DOM (or loading other assets)
• show_headings.html finds things in the DOM
  • document refers to the content of the page
  • getElementsByTagName finds nodes match a CSS selector
• But it doesn't show anything
  • Code may run etc.
• show_headings_onload.html is a better approach
  • Define a function
  • Use the onload attribute of body to run it when the body has fully loaded
• emphasize_headings.html modifies the DOM
  • JavaScript changes in-memory representation of page
  • Browser decides what to re-draw and when
• emphasize_multistep.html does the same thing by explicitly manufacturing new nodes
• button_click.html adds a button with an event handler
  • Browser standards define lots of different events you can listen to
  • You provide the function, you browser calls it when something happens
• emphasize_click.html
• show_hide.html controls visibility of elements
  • But now we have to manage state
• async_fetch.html introduces two new ideas
  • Put the code in async_fetch.js
  • Use async and await keywords to wait for things
  • server.py returns RGB color components
  • Use style property rather than setAttribute because style can have many sub-properties