Javascript FAQ
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is a scripting language widely used for client-side web development.
Where do I find general information about JavaScript?
Online resources:
- JavaScript (Wikipedia)
- JavaScript Tutorial at W3Schools.com
- Sitepoint JavaScript tutorials
Books:
- JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
- JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition by David Flanagan - Really the ultimate reference guide (nearly 1000 pages).
- The JavaScript Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks by James Edwards & Cameron Adams - Promotes accessible JavaScript solutions by following the principles of progressive enhancement and unobtrusive scripting.
How is JavaScript used by Moodle?
- See Category:Javascript.
Where do I find more information about JavaScript in Moodle?
- JavaScript Guidelines by Tim Hunt (work in progress)
- Use of JavaScript in Moodle discussion in the General developer forum
What JavaScript library does Moodle use?
Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI)
Moodle uses the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI).
Online resources:
- Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI)
- YUI in the Moodle documentation
Books:
- YUI 3 Cookbook by Evan Goer
- Maintainable JavaScript by Nicholas C. Zakas
How/Why was YUI chosen for Moodle?
The decision was made in this thread in the General Developer Forum.
yui_module function in Moodle 2.0
See JavaScript Cache and YUI Modules and MDL-22920.
What other JavaScript libraries are around?
- A nice comparison chart: Evaluation of JavaScript Libraries
jQuery
jQuery is another popular JavaScript library, used among others by Drupal, Joomla and WordPress.
Online resources:
Books:
- jQuery in Action by Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz
- Learning jQuery by Karl Swedberg and Jonathan Chaffer
- jQuery Reference Guide by Jonathan Chaffer and Karl Swedberg
Moodle Docs
What does AJAX mean?
AJAX means "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML". It is a group of interrelated web development techniques used to create interactive web applications or rich Internet applications. Although XML is included in the acronym, AJAX is not a single technology but a group of technologies. In reality with modern JS, this tends to be JSON which is much more lightweight and easy to produce in PHP than XML.
See AJAX (Wikipedia) for general information and AJAX for information on AJAX and Moodle.
See also Firebug > Debugging AJAX with Firebug.
See also
- Frank Ralf/JavaScript1 compares different solutions (plain JavaScript, YUI, and jQuery) to a simple enhancement to a form.
- Using jQuery with Moodle 2.0
- Javascript and YUI 3 FAQ
