Dojo: Using the Dojo JavaScript Library to Build Ajax Applications (Paperback)

~ James E. Harmon (Author)
Key Phrases: using dojo, menu widget, content pane, Tutorial Step, Location Use, Function Method Signature (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

About the Author

James E. Harmon is the President and Senior Instructor at Object Training Group in Chicago. He is an experienced developer who spent a majority of his career building large scale online applications at Accenture and for several other Web-centric consulting firms. He now specializes in training Java Developers to be more productive by using the latest technologies and frameworks.

 

The book’s web site is http://www.ObjectTrainingGroup.com/dojobook.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (June 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132358042
• ISBN-13: 978-0132358040
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #526,700 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A weak introduction to Dojo, June 26, 2008

By	somename - See all my reviews

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I was a little disappointed in this book, but before I go on to the reasons let me explain what I am looking for. I am not new to programming, web development, or writing fairly complicated applications with Javascript. I am already fairly familiar with toolkit such as Ext and Dojo before the version jump. I was hoping this book would be a good reference and guide to working with the features of Dojo. I am not as interested in "dojoifying" web pages as I am in creating Javascript applications that heavily integrate with Dojo. This book may be decent for a web developer that wants an introduction to adding Dojo to web pages, but for a software engineer that wants to really get in depth in Dojo this book seems fairly week to me.

The book has 316 pages and is broken down into 3 sections.

Section I is called "Dojo a Tutorial." This walks the reader through a standard web form implemented without Dojo and then the process of switching to Dojo Widgets and simple client/server communication. (63 pages)

Section II is "Dojo Widgets." This section is a decent reference to many widgets including the layout widgets which get their own chapter. It includes HTML Markup Examples and Javascript constructor examples. I really like these, but they usually seem to be very basic. It also has nice pictures of many of the widgets and layouts to help you understand what they are. I like this section, but unfortunately it is limited to the core features of each widget. The examples are pretty bare, and many of the non-essential features are left out. I do see this being one of the more useful parts of the book, but I really wish there was more depth to it. (121 pages)

Section III is "Dojo in Detail."
This contains a lot more of the meat of the book, but everything remains pretty lightweight. Some examples and references are given to the Dojo API and various helper function included in Dojo. There is some talk of JSON, event handling, XMLHttpRequests, and testing. This is all good stuff, but it really lacks depth. Everything just seems to brush against the surface. It still is essential and will help someone get started, but I don't think it will take you very far beyond that. (112 pages)


I have only had this book a few days now. I am really glad that books on Dojo are starting to come out. I haven't yet received any of the other new Dojo books, so I can't compare them. This book is alright for getting started and for a light reference to common features. My big complaint is the lack of depth.

I wish there were more examples and more details of the features and internals of Dojo. A chapters on making your own widgets instead of a 3/4 page mostly irrelevant section would have been nice. More details on customizing and overriding Dojo's CSS to make your application look the way you want it to would have been great. I think Dojo's grid feature deserves a chapter since it is something that so many applications can take advantage of. There are many things of this sort that the book either left out or just lightly touched.

Overall I'm giving this 2 stars. It's alright, but it's not what I need. I don't think this book contains nearly enough depth to help people far along into building Ajax Applications. It is a good intro and a reference to basic features. It can be helpful to a web developer looking to add some Dojo functionality to a site. For the serious user though this book really doesn't have enough content to take you very far into using Dojo.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Intro, September 18, 2008

By	E. Peck "JR Peck" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a nice intro. It is in three parts and runs a little contrary to the normal flow in a book like this. The first section is a hands on tutorial, the middle section is reference and the last section contains definitions, more of an introduction and information on using capabilities that are not tied to widgets.

There's a sentence in chapter 15 that mentions using widgets later. This makes me think that editors moved around the order of the book - because in most computer books the stuff in the third section would be first.

I personally liked this change. It got me in and running immediately on using some code. I didn't need to work through a bunch of explanation first. The widget documentation is o.k. I guess, though not really necessary. I would have enjoyed more in depth examples and explanations.

I think this book would best serve someone new to javascript and libraries of this type. It gives enough to help a beginner get going and be immediately successful, so that they don't give up. A more experienced developer might be frustrated with the repetition between the sections and the high-level overview on most material.

But for anyone who wants to learn a new technology and doesn't want to get bogged down in a massive volume that covers every single bit of minutiae - this is a good start.

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful tool packed with shortcuts and special methods for handling JavaScript problems, November 9, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Dojo offers web developers and designers a fine JavaScript tool for developing Ajax applications, and here's a developer's technical guide to Dojo and its growing applications. Chapters come from an expert Web designer and focus on tweaking existing applications and pages using Dojo, adding Ajax features and Dojo's user interface, and showing how to use its components effectively. The result is a powerful tool packed with shortcuts and special methods for handling JavaScript problems, making for a powerful reference recommended for any applications library.