The structure of javacript can be difficult if you have never worked with object oriented programming (OOP). It's different in that rather than calling a function and passing it a variable, you create an object, and call the function off the object. If that makes no sense, then it is going to take a while to figure out exactly how it works. But once you do, it's pretty straightforward, and actually fairly easy to use. I have ended up using a lot of OOP in PHP as well by defining classes, because I like the functionality of it.
As for your initial problem, well there is nothing mind-blowingly difficult in there, but nor is it particularly easy. It will take a good solid grasp of javascript to get it working.