Dojo: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

by Matthew A. Russell (Author)
Key Phrases: node list, dark roasts, simulating classes, Name Type Comment, Function Extension, Hello World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Of all the Ajax-specific frameworks that have popped up in recent years, one clearly stands out as the industrial strength solution. Dojo is not just another JavaScript toolkit -- it's the JavaScript toolkit -- and Dojo: The Definitive Guide demonstrates how to tame Dojo's extensive library of utilities so that you can build rich and responsive web applications like never before. Dojo founder Alex Russell gives a foreword that explains the "why" of Dojo and of this book. Dojo provides an end-to-end solution for development in the browser, including everything from the core JavaScript library and turnkey widgets to build tools and a testing framework. Its vibrant open source community keeps adding to Dojo's arsenal, and this book provides an ideal companion to Dojo's official documentation. Dojo: the Definitive Guide gives you the most thorough overview of this toolkit available, showing you everything from how to create complex layouts and form controls closely resembling those found in the most advanced desktop applications with stock widgets, to advanced JavaScript idioms to AJAX and advanced communication transports. With this definitive reference you get: A concise introduction to Dojo that covers everything through the version 1.1 release Well-explained examples, with scores of tested code samples, that let you see Dojo in action A comprehensive reference to Dojo's standard JavaScript library (including fundamental utilities in Base, Dojo's tiny but powerful kernel) that you'll wonder how you ever lived without An extensive look at additional Core features, such as animations, drag-and-drop, back-button handling, animations like wipe and slide, and more Exhaustive coverage ofout-of-the-box Dijits (Dojo widgets) as well as definitive coverage on how to create your own, either from scratch or building on existing ones An itemized inventory of DojoX subprojects, the build tools, and the DOH, Dojo's unit-testing framework that you can use with Dojo -- or anywhere else If you're a DHTML-toting web developer, you need to read this book -- whether you're a one-person operation or part of an organization employing scores of developers. Dojo packs the standard JavaScript library you've always wanted, and Dojo: The Definitive Guide helps you transform your ideas into working applications quickly by leveraging design concepts you already know.

About the Author
Matthew A. Russell is a computer scientist who currently lives in Franklin, TN. Hacking and writing are two activities essential to his renaissance man regimen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596516487
• ISBN-13: 978-0596516482
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,129 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #13 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax
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  #22 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Web Development > Programming > JavaScript

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Book of Its Kind, June 21, 2008

By	Robert H. Burroughs (Rhinebeck NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm up against a deadline for a web application. The going is slow when you
have to hand-carve the HTML, JavaScript, CSS and PHP. Dojo saves you at least
two-thirds of the work, so I'm very grateful for it. But it takes some getting
used to, and the on-line documentation is, well, succinct.

Russell's book came along just in time. It's a lifesaver.

The Introduction alone is worth the price. I found out about
some invaluable Web development debugging tools that I'd never seen before.
Russell provides a clear, concise explanation of some very important JavaScript
notions: Closures, Context, and Anonymous Functions. And all of this before
we even get to the toolkit!

The book makes the Dojo easy to use and easy to understand. There's a wealth
of coding examples, as well as complete lists of objects, methods, and so forth.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dojo Mojo, July 1, 2008

By	Kenneth Sall (Columbia, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Matthew Russell has captured what makes Dojo the "magic sauce" of the Ajax world. As he indicates in the book's dedication, Dojo can be your friend in combating browser idiosyncrasies. Since Russell has been an active participant in the Dojo development community for a long time, he's in an excellent position to write from an expert's viewpoint. Another Amazon reviewer has covered the book's contents thoroughly. "Dojo: The Definitive Guide" is very well-organized and covers lots of ground. I appreciate the fact that the author doesn't simply rehash online documentation; instead he provides real insight and coherent explanations. Like most O'Reilly books, the table of contents and index are invaluable in rapidly honing in on a particular subtopic.

To get the most out of this book, you do need to have some web development background (JavaScript, CSS, HTML), but then who else would be purchasing this book? While the book might have benefited from a discussion of Dojo use with YUI, Google Gear, or other toolkits, the author points out this is out of scope. I imagine this saved more than a few trees. (Check out the ongoing efforts of the OpenAjax Alliance if you need to combine multiple frameworks.) I would have preferred access to the code examples packaged in a convenient zip file; perhaps the author will add that to his O'Reilly catalog page (URL given in the preface or just search for "Dojo" at oreilly.com). However, these points do not detract from the thoroughness in which Russell has covered a difficult and rapidly changing topic.

This book is certainly worthy of the fine O'Reilly imprint. The fact that it is edited by the always discerning Simon St. Laurent is definitely a plus. If you are a web developer who needs cross-browser support, you need this book in your library.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must Have for Dojo Developers, September 30, 2008

By	M. Addesa (N Andover, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an outstanding resource for anyone who plans to work with the Dojo Toolkit. Dojo is my personal favorite toolkit for JavaScript development. This book really helps to explain not only the "how to" of Dojo but also the "how come". It is a great reference for Dojo's core functionality, for Dojo's Dijit widgeting system and for the Dojo build system and test harness. It gives great practical advice on how to exploit the power of dojo.query, and provides great coverage of Dojo's data stores for data source abstraction. It has excellent coverage of dojo.fx for animations, it provides an invaluable desktop reference for Dijit. There is also a excellent coverage Dojo's Data Transport apis like XmlHttpRequest, dojo.io.script(Dynamic Script Tag injection for JSONP or JSON with a check string mechanism), as well as the use of iframes for data transport.
If you are working with Dojo this book will make your life a whole lot easier.

One thing you should know before buying this book. It does not have in depth coverage of anything in the Dojox package, so you will not find anything in this book on the Data Grid!

Take a few days and give it a read, then keep it on your desk for reference. You can't go wrong.