↑
Main Page

availHeight

The

screen

object typically contains the following properties (although, as usual, many browsers add

their own properties):

availHeight

— the height of the screen (in pixels) available for use by windows. This takes

into account the space needed by operating system elements such as the Windows taskbar.

availWidth

— the width of the screen (in pixels) available for use by windows

colorDepth

— the number of bits used to represent colors. For most systems, this is 32.

height

— the height of the screen in pixels

width

— the width of the screen in pixels

The

availHeight

and

availWidth

properties are useful when determining the new size for a window.

For example, to fill up the user ’s screen, you could use this code:

window.moveTo(0, 0);

window.resizeTo(screen.availWidth, screen.availHeight);

Besides that, most of this data is used in conjunction with site traffic tools to determine the graphical

capabilities of users.

Summary

This chapter introduced using JavaScript inside of Web browsers. It covered how to include JavaScript

code in both HTML and SVG pages, explaining the differences between the two. It also discussed how

XHTML has changed how JavaScript is included in HTML pages and the best way to prepare for the

future in this regard.

Later in the chapter, you learned about the Browser Object Model and the various objects it supplies.

You learned that the

window

object is the center of the JavaScript universe, and all the other BOM objects

are actually just properties of

window

The chapter explained how to manipulate browser windows and frames, moving and resizing them

using JavaScript. Using the

location

object, you learned how to access and alter a window’s location

and, using the

history

object, how to go back and forward to pages the user has already visited.

Finally, you learned how to retrieve information about a user’s Web browser and screen by using the

navigator

and

screen

objects.

157

JavaScript in the Browser

08_579088 ch05.qxd 3/28/05 11:37 AM Page 157