Web Coding & Development All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7

Building Reactive Pages with Events

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting to know events

Checking out the different event types

Setting up event listeners

Gleaning info about an event

Trying out a few events

Handle your tools without mittens.

— BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

When you buy a car, no matter how much you paid for it or how technologically advanced it is, the car just sits there unless you do something. (If you’re reading this in a future in which all cars are autonomous, my apologies.) Having a car just sitting there may be fine if it’s a good-looking car, but you're likely to want the car to do something, anything. Here’s a short list of actions you can take to achieve that goal:

• Start the car.
• Put the transmission into gear.
• Press the accelerator.
• Turn on the radio.

The common denominator for all these actions is that they set up a situation to which the car must respond in some way: turning on, engaging the gears, moving, playing sounds. Approached from this angle, the car is a ...