JavaScript Basics

Beginner

Approx. 3 weeks

Assumes 6hrs/wk (work at your own pace)

Join thousands of students Course Summary

We're here to help you get you started with JavaScript! In the twenty plus years since its inception, JavaScript has become the lingua franca of the web, that's to say, it's become the main tool to create interactive content on the Internet.

In this course, you'll explore the JavaScript programming language by creating an interactive version of your résumé. You’ll learn the JavaScript programming fundamentals you need while building new elements and sections to enhance your résumé.

This course is also a part of our Front-End Web Developer Nanodegree.

Why Take This Course?

Today, front-end developers work with web designers to create the interactive experiences that make the web the addictive playground we know and love. As the size and influence of the web have expanded, so has the importance of ensuring a website offers users an unforgettable experience.

Perhaps your end goal is to create a HTML5 game, code the front-end for an app idea you have, or maybe you want to use one of the growing set of libraries that let you compile code written in another language or for another platform down to JavaScript. With JavaScript, you can do all these things and more.

Project

You will create an interactive résumé that you can share to the world and show your growing skills at the time.

Having a good résumé is a key component of securing a better job. We'll give you the template styles and code to create a modern and mobile friendly résumé (also called a curriculum vitae/CV outside the United States) that you can modify and customize.

Prerequisites and Requirements

We expect that you have some experience programming in another language, such as Python, and can describe concepts like loops, functions and objects. Our Intro to Computer Science and Programming Fundamentals with Python courses are great places to get started.

While we do describe the underlying principles behind basic programming techniques, this course focuses on implementing the principles with JavaScript rather than the principles themselves.

HTML and CSS are not required, however, knowledge of CSS will help you customize your résumé project.

See the Technology Requirements for using Udacity.

What Will I Learn? Projects P2: Interactive Resume You will develop an interactive resume application that reads your resume content from a JSON file and dynamically displays that content within a provided template. You will use objects, functions, conditionals, and control structures to compose the content that will display on the resume. P6: Make Effective Data Visualization Create a data visualization from a data set that tells a story or highlights trends or patterns in the data. Use either dimple.js or d3.js to create the visualization. Your work should be a reflection of the theory and practice of data visualization, such as visual encodings, design principles, and effective communication. Syllabus Lesson 1: Getting Up and Running

Learn about the tools we'll be using throughout the course and begin modifying web pages with a little bit of code.

• Introduction of résumé project
• Components of the résumé
• Introduction to browser developer tools
• Running commands on the console
• Appending elements to the page

Lesson 2: Data Types

Dig deeper into JavaScript as we introduce you to the building blocks of the language as you write more complex code using variables and advanced data structures like JSON, Objects, and Arrays.

• Variables
• Strings
• Evaluating values
• Arrays
• Objects
• JSON
• Validating JSON

Lesson 3: Flow Control

Finish the résumé while you learn how to make your code more modular and reusable by using conditional statements, loops, and functions.

• Conditional statements
• For and while loops
• Functions
• Encapsulation