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Lecture 5 Javascript

notes for javascript from cs50

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6 views

Lecture 5 Javascript

notes for javascript from cs50

Uploaded by

dim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 5

 Introduction
 JavaScript
 Events
 Variables
 querySelector
 DOM Manipulation
o JavaScript Console
o Arrow Functions
o TODO List
 Intervals
 Local Storage
 APIs
o JavaScript Objects
o Currency Exchange
Introduction
 So far, we’ve discussed how to build simple web pages using
HTML and CSS, and how to use Git and GitHub in order to
keep track of changes to our code and collaborate with others.
We also familiarized ourselves with the Python programming
language, started using Django to create web applications,
and learned how to use Django models to store information in
our sites.
 Today, we’ll introduce a new programming language:
JavaScript.
JavaScript
Let’s begin by revisiting a diagram from a couple of lectures ago:

Recall that in most online interactions, we have a client/user that


sends an HTTP Request to a server, which sends back an HTTP
Response. All of the Python code we’ve written so far using Django
has been running on a server. JavaScript will allow us to run code on
the client side, meaning no interaction with the server is necessary
while it’s running, allowing our websites to become much more
interactive.

In order to add some JavaScript to our page, we can add a pair


of <script> tags somewhere in our HTML page. We use <script> tags
to signal to the browser that anything we write in between the two
tags is JavaScript code we wish to execute when a user visits our
site. Our first program might look something like this:

alert('Hello, world!');
The alert function in JavaScript displays a message to the user which
they can then dismiss. To show where this would fit into an actual
HTML document, here’s an example of a simple page with some
JavaScript:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
<script>
alert('Hello, world!');
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello!</h1>
</body>
</html>

Events
One feature of JavaScript that makes it helpful for web programming
is that it supports Event-Driven Programming.
Event-Driven Programming is a programming paradigm that centers
around the detection of events, and actions that should be taken
when an event is detected.

An event can be almost anything including a button being clicked,


the cursor being moved, a response being typed, or a page being
loaded. Just about everything a user does to interact with a web
page can be thought of as an event. In JavaScript, we use Event
Listeners that wait for certain events to occur, and then execute
some code.

Let’s begin by turning our JavaScript from above into


a function called hello:

function hello() {
alert('Hello, world!')
}
Now, let’s work on running this function whenever a button is
clicked. To do this, we’ll create an HTML button in our page with
an onclick attribute, which gives the browser instructions for what
should happen when the button is clicked:

<button onclick="hello()">Click Here</button>


These changes allow us to wait to run parts of our JavaScript code
until a certain event occurs.

Variables
JavaScript is a programming language just like Python, C, or any
other language you’ve worked with before, meaning it has many of
the same features as other languages including variables. There are
three keywords we can use to assign values in JavaScript:

 var: used to define a variable globally


var age = 20;

 let: used to define a variable that is limited in scope to the


current block such as a function or loop
let counter = 1;

 const: used to define a value that will not change


const PI = 3.14;
For an example of how we can use a variable, let’s take a look at a
page that keeps track of a counter:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Count</title>
<script>
let counter = 0;
function count() {
counter++;
alert(counter);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello!</h1>
<button onclick="count()">Count</button>
</body>
</html>
querySelector
In addition to allowing us to display messages through alerts,
JavaScript also allows us to change elements on the page. In order
to do this, we must first introduce a function
called document.querySelector. This function searches for and returns
elements of the DOM. For example, we would use:

let heading = document.querySelector('h1');


to extract a heading. Then, to manipulate the element we’ve
recently found, we can change its innerHTML property:

heading.innerHTML = `Goodbye!`;
Just as in Python, we can also take advantage of conditions in
JavaScript. For example, let’s say rather than always changing our
header to Goodbye!, we wish to toggle back and forth
between Hello! and Goodbye!. Our page might then look something
like the one below. Notice that in JavaScript, we use === as a
stronger comparison between two items which also checks that the
objects are of the same type. We typically want to
use === whenever possible.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Count</title>
<script>
function hello() {
const header = document.querySelector('h1');
if (header.innerHTML === 'Hello!') {
header.innerHTML = 'Goodbye!';
}
else {
header.innerHTML = 'Hello!';
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello!</h1>
<button onclick="hello()">Click Here</button>
</body>
</html>
DOM Manipulation
Let’s use this idea of DOM manipulation to improve our counter
page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Count</title>
<script>
let counter = 0;
function count() {
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>0</h1>
<button onclick="count()">Count</button>
</body>
</html>
We can make this page even more interesting by displaying an alert
every time the counter gets to a multiple of ten. In this alert, we’ll
want to format a string to customize the message, which in
JavaScript we can do using template literals. Template literals
requre that there are backticks (`) around the entire expression and
a $ and curly braces around any substitutions. For example, let’s
change our count function
function count() {
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;

if (counter % 10 === 0) {
alert(`Count is now ${counter}`)
}
}

Now, let’s look at some ways in which we can improve the design of
this page. First, just as we try to avoid in-line styling with CSS, we
want to avoid in-line JavaScript as much as possible. We can do this
in our counter example by adding a line of script that changes
the onclick attribute of a button on the page, and removing
the onclick attribute from within the button tag.

document.querySelector('button').onclick = count;
One thing to notice about what we’ve just done is that we’re not
calling the count function by adding parentheses afterward, but
instead just naming the function. This specifies that we only wish to
call this function when the button is clicked. This works because, like
Python, JavaScript supports functional programming, so functions
can be treated as values themselves.

The above change alone is not enough though, as we can see by


inspecting the page and looking at our browser’s console:
This error came up because when JavaScript searched for an
element using document.querySelector('button'), it didn’t find anything.
This is because it takes a small bit of time for the page to load, and
our JavaScript code ran before the button had been rendered. To
account for this, we can specify that code will run only after the
page has loaded using the addEventListener function. This function
takes in two arguments:

1. An event to listen for (eg: 'click')


2. A function to run when the event is detected (eg: hello from
above)
We can use the function to only run the code once all content has
loaded:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
// Some code here
});
In the example above, we’ve used an anonymous function, which is
a function that is never given a name. Putting all of this together,
our JavaScript now looks like this:

let counter = 0;

function count() {
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;

if (counter % 10 === 0) {
alert(`Count is now ${counter}`)
}
}

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelector('button').onclick = count;
});
Another way that we can improve our design is by moving our
JavaScript into a separate file. The way we do this is very similar to
how we put our CSS in a separate file for styling:

1. Write all of your JavaScript code in a separate file ending in .js,


maybe index.js.
2. Add a src attribute to the <script> tag that points to this new
file.
For our counter page, we could have a file called counter.html that
looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Count</title>
<script src="counter.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>0</h1>
<button>Count</button>
</body>
</html>
And a file called counter.js that looks like this:

let counter = 0;

function count() {
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;

if (counter % 10 === 0) {
alert(`Count is now ${counter}`)
}
}

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelector('button').onclick = count;
});
Having JavaScript in a separate file is useful for a number of
reasons:

Visual appeal: Our individual HTML and JavaScript files


become more readable.
 Access among HTML files: Now we can have multiple HTML
files that all share the same JavaScript.
 Collaboration: We can now easily have one person work on the
JavaScript while another works on HTML.
 Importing: We are able to import JavaScript libraries that other
people have already written. For example Bootstrap has their
own JavaScript library you can include to make your site more
interactive.
Let’s get started on another example of a page that can be a bit
more interactive. Below, we’ll create a page where a user can type
in their name to get a custom greeting.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
<script>
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelector('form').onsubmit = function() {
const name = document.querySelector('#name').value;
alert(`Hello, ${name}`);
};
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input autofocus id="name" placeholder="Name" type="text">
<input type="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>
Some notes about the page above:

 We use the autofocus field in the name input to indicate that the
cursor should be set inside that input as soon as the page is
loaded.
 We use #name inside of document.querySelector to find an
element with an id of name. We can use all the same selectors
in this function as we could in CSS.
 We use the value attribute of an input field to find what is
currently typed in.
We can do more than just add HTML to our page using JavaScript,
we can also change the styling of a page! In the page below, we use
buttons to change the color of our heading.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Colors</title>
<script>
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelectorAll('button').forEach(function(button) {
button.onclick = function() {
document.querySelector("#hello").style.color =
button.dataset.color;
}
});
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1 id="hello">Hello</h1>
<button data-color="red">Red</button>
<button data-color="blue">Blue</button>
<button data-color="green">Green</button>
</body>
</html>
Some notes on the page above:

 We change the style of an element using


the style.SOMETHING attribute.
 We use the data-SOMETHING attribute to assign data to an
HTML element. We can later access that data in JavaScript
using the element’s dataset property.
 We use the querySelectorAll function to get an Node List (similar
to a Python list or a JavaScript array) with all elements that
match the query.
 The forEach function in JavaScript takes in another function,
and applies that function to each element in a list or array.
JavaScript Console

The console is a useful tool for testing out small bits of code and
debugging. You can write and run JavaScript code in the console,
which can be found by inspecting element in your web browser and
then clicking console. (The exact process may change frome browser
to browser.) One useful tool for debugging is printing to the console,
which you can do using the console.log function. For example, in
the colors.html page above, I can add the following line:

console.log(document.querySelectorAll('button'));
Which gives us this in the console:
Arrow Functions

In addition to the traditional function notation we’ve seen already,


JavaScript now gives us the ability to use Arrow Functions where we
have an input (or parentheses when there’s no input) followed
by => followed by some code to be run. For example, we can alter
our script above to use an anonymous arrow function:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
document.querySelectorAll('button').forEach(button => {
button.onclick = () => {
document.querySelector("#hello").style.color = button.dataset.color;
}
});
});
We can also have named functions that use arrows, as in this
rewriting of the count function:

count = () => {
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;

if (counter % 10 === 0) {
alert(`Count is now ${counter}`)
}
}
To get an idea about some other events we can use, let’s see how
we can implement our color switcher using a dropdown menu
instead of three separate buttons. We can detect changes in
a select element using the onchange attribute. In JavaScript, this is a
keyword that changes based on the context in which it’s used. In
the case of an event handler, this refers to the object that triggered
the event.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Colors</title>
<script>
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelector('select').onchange = function() {
document.querySelector('#hello').style.color = this.value;
}
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1 id="hello">Hello</h1>
<select>
<option value="black">Black</option>
<option value="red">Red</option>
<option value="blue">Blue</option>
<option value="green">Green</option>
</select>

</body>
</html>

There are many other events we can detect in JavaScript including


the common ones below:

 onclick
 onmouseover
 onkeydown
 onkeyup
 onload
 onblur
 …
TODO List

To put together a few of the things we’ve learned in this lecture,


let’s work on making a TODO list entirely in JavaScript. We’ll start by
writing the HTML layout of the page. Notice below how we leave
space for an unorderd list, but we dont yet add anything to it. Also
notice that we add a link to tasks.js where we’ll write our JavaScript.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Tasks</title>
<script src="tasks.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Tasks</h1>
<ul id="tasks"></ul>
<form>
<input id="task" placeholder = "New Task" type="text">
<input id="submit" type="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>
Now, here’s our code which we can keep in tasks.js. A few notes on
what you’ll see below:

 This code is slightly different from the code in lecture. Here,


we only query for our submit button and input task field once
in the beginning and store those two values in the
variables submit and newTask.
 We can enable/disable a button by setting its disabled attribute
to false/true.
 In JavaScript, we use .length to find the length of objects such
as strings and arrays.
 At the end of the script, we add the line return false. This
prevents the default submission of the form which involves
either reloading the current page or redirecting to a new one.
 In JavaScript, we can create HTML elements using
the createElement function. We can then add those elements
to the DOM using the append function.
// Wait for page to load
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {

// Select the submit button and input to be used later


const submit = document.querySelector('#submit');
const newTask = document.querySelector('#task');

// Disable submit button by default:


submit.disabled = true;

// Listen for input to be typed into the input field


newTask.onkeyup = () => {
if (newTask.value.length > 0) {
submit.disabled = false;
}
else {
submit.disabled = true;
}
}

// Listen for submission of form


document.querySelector('form').onsubmit = () => {

// Find the task the user just submitted


const task = newTask.value;

// Create a list item for the new task and add the task to it
const li = document.createElement('li');
li.innerHTML = task;

// Add new element to our unordered list:


document.querySelector('#tasks').append(li);

// Clear out input field:


newTask.value = '';

// Disable the submit button again:


submit.disabled = true;

// Stop form from submitting


return false;
}
});

Intervals
In addition to specifying that functions run when an event is
triggered, we can also set functions to run after a set amount of
time. For example, let’s return to our counter page’s script, and add
an interval so even if the user doesn’t click anything, the counter
increments every second. To do this, we use
the setInterval function, which takes as argument a function to be
run, and a time (in milliseconds) between function runs.

let counter = 0;

function count() {
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;
}

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelector('button').onclick = count;

setInterval(count, 1000);
});

Local Storage
One thing to notice about all of our sites so far is that every time we
reload the page, all of our information is lost. The heading color
goes back to black, the counter goes back to 0, and all of the tasks
are erased. Sometimes this is what we intend, but other time’s we’ll
want to be able to store information that we can use when a user
returns to the site.

One way we can do this is by using Local Storage, or storing


information on the user’s web browser that we can access later. This
information is stored as a set of key-value pairs, almost like a
Python dictionary. In order to use local storage, we’ll employ two
key functions:
 localStorage.getItem(key): This function searches for an entry in
local storage with a given key, and returns the value
associated with that key.
 localStorage.setItem(key, value): This function sets and entry in
local storage, associating the key with a new vlaue.
Let’s look at how we can use these new functions to update our
counter! In the code below,

// Check if there is already a vlaue in local storage


if (!localStorage.getItem('counter')) {

// If not, set the counter to 0 in local storage


localStorage.setItem('counter', 0);
}

function count() {
// Retrieve counter value from local storage
let counter = localStorage.getItem('counter');

// update counter
counter++;
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = counter;

// Store counter in local storage


localStorage.setItem('counter', counter);
}

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
// Set heading to the current value inside local storage
document.querySelector('h1').innerHTML = localStorage.getItem('counter');
document.querySelector('button').onclick = count;
});
APIs
JavaScript Objects
A JavaScript Object is very similar to a Python dictionary, as it allows
us to store key-value pairs. For example, I could create a JavaScript
Object representing Harry Potter:

let person = {
first: 'Harry',
last: 'Potter'
};
I can then access or change parts of this object using either bracket
or dot notation:

One way in which JavaScript Objects are really useful is in


transferring data from one site to another, particularly when
using APIs

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a structured form


communication between two different applications.

For example, we may want our application to get information from


Google Maps, Amazon, or some weather service. We can do this by
making calls to a service’s API, which will return structured data to
us, often in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) form. For example, a
flight in JSON form might look like this:

{
"origin": "New York",
"destination": "London",
"duration": 415
}
The values within a JSON do not have to just be strings and numbers
as in the example above. We can also store lists, or even other
JavaScript Objects:

{
"origin": {
"city": "New York",
"code": "JFK"
},
"destination": {
"city": "London",
"code": "LHR"
},
"duration": 415
}

Currency Exchange

To show how we can use APIs in our applications, let’s work on


building an application where we can find exchange rates between
two currencies. Throughout the exercise, we’ll be using
the European Central Bank’s Exchange Rate API. By visiting their
website, you’ll see the API’s documentation, which is generally a
good place to start when you wish to use an API. We can test this
api by visiting the URL: https://api.exchangeratesapi.io/latest?
base=USD. When you visit this page, you’ll see the exchange rate
between the U.S. Dollar and many other currencies, written in JSON
form. You can also change the GET parameter in the URL
from USD to any other currency code to change the rates you get.

Let’s take a look at how to implement this API into an application by


creating a new HTML file called currency.html and link it to a
JavaScript file but leave the body empty:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Currency Exchange</title>
<script src="currency.js"></script>
</head>
<body></body>
</html>
Now, we’ll use something called AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript
And XML, which allows us to access information from external pages
even after our page has loaded. In order to do this, we’ll use
the fetch function which will allow us to send an HTTP request.
The fetch function returns a promise. We won’t talk about the details
of what a promise is here, but we can think of it as a value that will
come through at some point, but not necessarily right away. We
deal with promises by giving them a .then attribute describing what
should be done when we get a response. The code snippet below will
log our response to the console.

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
// Send a GET request to the URL
fetch('https://api.exchangeratesapi.io/latest?base=USD')
// Put response into json form
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
// Log data to the console
console.log(data);
});
});

One important point about the above code is that the argument
of .then is always a function. Although it seems we are creating the
variables response and and data, those variables are just the
parameters of two anonymous functions.

Rather than simply logging this data, we can use JavaScript to


display a message to the screen, as in the code below:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
// Send a GET request to the URL
fetch('https://api.exchangeratesapi.io/latest?base=USD')
// Put response into json form
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {

// Get rate from data


const rate = data.rates.EUR;

// Display message on the screen


document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = `1 USD is equal to $
{rate.toFixed(3)} EUR.`;
});
});
Now, let’s make the site a bit more interactive by allowing the user
to choose which currency they would like to see. We’ll start by
altering our HTML to allow the user to input a currency:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Currency Exchange</title>
<script src="currency.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input id="currency" placeholder="Currency" type="text">
<input type="submit" value="Convert">
</form>
<div id="result"></div>
</body>
</html>
Now, we’ll make some changes to our JavaScript so it only changes
when the form is submitted, and so it takes into account the user’s
input. We’ll also add some error checking here:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
document.querySelector('form').onsubmit = function() {

// Send a GET request to the URL


fetch('https://api.exchangeratesapi.io/latest?base=USD')
// Put response into json form
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
// Get currency from user input and convert to upper case
const currency =
document.querySelector('#currency').value.toUpperCase();

// Get rate from data


const rate = data.rates[currency];

// Check if currency is valid:


if (rate !== undefined) {
// Display exchange on the screen
document.querySelector('#result').innerHTML = `1 USD is equal to $
{rate.toFixed(3)} ${currency}.`;
}
else {
// Display error on the screen
document.querySelector('#result').innerHTML = 'Invalid Currency.';
}
})
// Catch any errors and log them to the console
.catch(error => {
console.log('Error:', error);
});
// Prevent default submission
return false;
}
});

That’s all for this lecture! Next time, we’ll work on using JavaScript
to create even more engaging user interfaces!

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