Dojo: Using the Dojo JavaScript Library to Build Ajax Applications

Dojo offers Web developers and designers a powerful JavaScript toolkit for rapidly developing robust Ajax applications. Now, for the first time, there’s a complete, example-rich developer’s guide to Dojo and its growing library of prepackaged widgets. Reviewed and endorsed by the Dojo Foundation, the creators of Dojo, this book brings together all the hands-on guidance and tested code samples you need to succeed.

Expert Web developer James E. Harmon begins by demonstrating how to “Ajax-ify” existing applications and pages with Dojo, adding Ajax features such as client- and server-side validation as quickly and nondisruptively as possible. Next, he presents in-depth coverage of Dojo’s user interface, form, layout, and specialized Widgets, showing how they work and how to use them most effectively. Among the Widgets, he covers in detail: Date Pickers, Rich Text Editors, Combo Boxes, Expandable Outlines, and many others.

In conclusion, Harmon introduces the Dojo toolkit’s powerful capabilities for simplifying Ajax development. He thoroughly explains Dojo’s helper functions, shortcuts, and special methods, illuminating each feature with examples of the JavaScript problems it can solve. This section’s far-ranging coverage includes strings, JSON support, event handling, Ajax remoting, Dojo and the DOM, testing, debugging, and much more. All source code examples are provided on a companion Web site, including source code for a complete tutorial case study application.

Table of Contents

Part I: A Dojo Tutorial
Chapter 1 Understanding Dojo: A Tutorial
Chapter 2 Using Dojo for Client-side Validation
Chapter 3 Using Dojo to Work with the Server
Chapter 4 Using Dojo Widgets
Chapter 5 Processing Forms with Dojo

Part II: Dojo Widgets
Chapter 6 Introduction to Dojo Widgets
Chapter 7 Dojo Form Widgets
Chapter 8 Dojo Layout Widgets
Chapter 9 Other Specialized Dojo Widgets

Part III: Dojo in Detail
Chapter 10 What Is Dojo?
Chapter 11 Technical Description of Dojo
Chapter 12 Objects and Classes
Chapter 13 Strings and JSON
Chapter 14 Events and Event Handling
Chapter 15 Ajax Remoting
Chapter 16 Working with the DOM
Chapter 17 Testing and Debugging