JavaScript (and its frameworks such as jQuery) and HTML (along with its style sheet language CSS) have become the unlikely stars of the software world. Due to their monopoly position in web browsers, and the fact web browsers have spread from PCs to phones, tablets and TVs; their status will continue to grow and grow. Despite their success, many software engineers are apprehensive about JavaScript and HTML. This apprehensiveness is not completely unfounded; both JavaScript and HTML were rushed in their early years, and driven by commercial rather than engineering interests. As a result, many dubious features crept into these languages. Due to backwards compatibility concerns, most of these features still remain. In addition, many software engineers have used these languages without ever learning them. JavaScript and HTML have low barriers to entry, and this, along with their similarity to other languages, led many software engineers to conclude that there really was nothing much to learn. If you have not used JavaScript and HTML for a number of years, or if you are a programmer or software engineer using other languages, you may be surprised at what they now offer. Browser based web applications are now capable of matching or exceeding the sophistication and scale of traditional desktop applications. In order to create complex web applications however, it is essential to learn these languages. This book takes the point of view that once you have a strong grasp of the fundamentals, the details will take care of themselves. It will not present you with long lists of APIs, or intricate details of every attribute, these can be found in reference manuals. It will focus on the details of each language that are fundamental to understanding how they work. This book will guide you through the process of developing a web application using HTML5, Javascript, jQuery and CSS. It contains the following content:

1. An introduction to the HTML5 markup language, and how it differs from HTML4 and XHTML.
2. An introduction to JavaScript, including an in-depth look at its use of objects and functions, along with the design patterns that support the development of robust web applications.
3. An introduction to jQuery selection, traversal, manipulation and events.
4. An in-depth look at the Web storage and IndexedDB APIs for client side data storage.
5. A guide to implementing offline web applications with the Application Cache API.
6. An introduction to the ways JavaScript can interact with the users file-system using the FileReader API.
7. The use of Web Workers in a web application to execute algorithms on background threads.
8. An introduction to AJAX, and the jQuery API supporting AJAX.
9. An introduction to Server Sent Events and Web Sockets. All subjects are introduced in the context of a sample web application. This book is intended for anyone with at least a superficial knowledge of HTML and programming.