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Dojo: The Definitive Guide [Paperback]

Matthew A. Russell
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

List Price: $39.99
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Book Description

June 24, 2008 0596516487 978-0596516482 1

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:

  • Get a concise introduction to Dojo that's good for all 1.x versions
  • 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 of out-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.


Frequently Bought Together

Dojo: The Definitive Guide + Mastering Dojo: JavaScript and Ajax Tools for Great Web Experiences (Pragmatic Programmers) + The Dojo Toolkit: Visual QuickStart Guide
Price for all three: $70.19

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Editorial Reviews

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; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0596516487
  • ISBN-13: 978-0596516482
  • Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a computer scientist and author who is passionate about open source, data mining, and web application technologies.

I've also worked extensively with the government as well as the private sector in and out of uniform to ensure that complex software is delivered on time and under budget in the midst of even the most difficult of circumstances. I can help you implement elegant end-to-end solutions to difficult problems involving spartan resources, nebulous requirements, high pressure, and messy data.

You can read more about me (and contact me) at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ptwobrussell

Customer Reviews

The book makes the Dojo easy to use and easy to understand. Robert H. Burroughs  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
The examples are error prone and just do not work. Opinion  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The First Book of Its Kind June 21, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Dojo Mojo July 1, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A must Have for Dojo Developers September 30, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Good intro, but a bit outdated
This book sadly needs updating. It corresponds to a version that has been replaced by the newer stuff. . .
Published 3 months ago by Dan P
1.0 out of 5 stars cant really complaint since i only paid 2.35 for used
this author introduces API but doesnt really go into them. fine, he basically tell you to check online. kinda wonder why we need to buy this book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by anonymous
2.0 out of 5 stars Ask Felgall - Book Review
This book is well written and covers the material in a consistent way but it gives me the impression that the JavaScript library that it is describing how to use leaves much to be... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Stephen Chapman
1.0 out of 5 stars Examples and Explanations are Incomplete
I was trying to create a Dojo Tree object from a large JSON string that I was generating at runtime on a server. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Timothy Rogers
4.0 out of 5 stars Covers all you need to know for getting started with a serious Dojo...
Content was what I expected. There are a few more typos than I hoped for in an O'Reilly book, but the examples are clear enough
.
Published 24 months ago by JoshN
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Decent Book
I kind of wish it wasn't so out of date but for dojo 1.1/1.2 this is a great guide (Dojo is now on 1.6 I think)
Published on September 17, 2010 by Benjamin Bronson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but dated
I concur with all the excellent reviews here, but it only covers Dojo 1.1 and we are now at 1.4 and so much has changed, I can't even get his examples working. Read more
Published on May 25, 2010 by Mark Galbreath
3.0 out of 5 stars Not comparable to Javascript the definitive guide
This book covers most of the main dojo/dijit components - but is quite lacking with regards to the dojox area. As a "Definitive" guide - these topics should be covered in depth. Read more
Published on April 30, 2009 by J. McGroarty
2.0 out of 5 stars bad examples and error prone
This book doesn't do justice to an otherwise excellent series. The examples are error prone and just do not work. Usually a technical book provides the complete source code. Read more
Published on April 10, 2009 by Opinion
4.0 out of 5 stars Useful
This book does a good job of being a helpful reference manual with just a little extra.

Anyone who has worked/struggled at all in depth with Dojo will tell you one of... Read more
Published on March 23, 2009 by RRPeterson
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