Practical Dojo Projects (Expert's Voice in Web Development)

The era of professional JavaScript development has arrived! Gone are the days when writing all the client–side code for your applications by hand yourself was the norm. Gone are the days when scrounging around the Internet to find a snippet of code to do something you need could lead to either decent code or utter garbage that you'd surely regret using later. No, writing high–quality JavaScript these days is a whole lot easier with the advent of top–notch libraries that save you time and effort, and one that stands out from most others is Dojo. Dojo is a library like few others: written by some of the best JavaScript coders around today, providing nearly everything you'll need to write modern rich Internet applications, all in one place. From Ajax to widgets, to client–side persistence and language extensions, and many points in between, Dojo has it all. In __Practical Dojo Projects__, you'll learn all about what Dojo has to offer. You'll see it in action in the form of five fully functional applications, which include * A contact manager for storing info for all the important people in your life * A code cabinet: a place to store, index, and get code snippets from * A stock tracker to keep track of your stock portfolio * A message forum for open discussions on topics you define * Even a fun little game! By the time you've finished reading, you'll have a firm grasp on what Dojo is all about, and you'll have the preparation you need to begin to use it yourself in your own projects. See you inside!

The era of professional JavaScript development has arrived! Gone are the days when writing all the client–side code for your applications by hand yourself was the norm. Gone are the days when scrounging around the Internet to find a snippet of code to do something you need could lead to either decent code or utter garbage that you’d surely regret using later.

No, writing high–quality JavaScript these days is a whole lot easier with the advent of top–notch libraries that save you time and effort, and one that stands out from most others is Dojo.

Dojo is a library like few others: written by some of the best JavaScript coders around today, providing nearly everything you’ll need to write modern rich Internet applications, all in one place. From Ajax to widgets, to client–side persistence and language extensions, and many points in between, Dojo has it all.

In Practical Dojo Projects, you’ll learn all about what Dojo has to offer. You’ll see it in action in the form of five fully functional applications, which include

• A contact manager for storing info for all the important people in your life
• A code cabinet: a place to store, index, and get code snippets from
• A stock tracker to keep track of your stock portfolio
• A message forum for open discussions on topics you define
• Even a fun little game!

By the time you’ve finished reading, you’ll have a firm grasp on what Dojo is all about, and you’ll have the preparation you need to begin to use it yourself in your own projects. See you inside!

What you’ll learn

• Uncover the fundamentals of Dojo, its core, Dojo Widgets, and DojoX.
• Build sophisticated JavaScript/Ajax–based applications starting with a Dojo contact manager.
• Create a code cabinet, a place to store snippets of code for later reuse using Dojo and Dojo Offline (based on Google Gears).
• See how to build an interactive and fun came application using Dojo.
• Build a stock watcher application, which allows you to enter ticker symbols and will show you real–time updates using some available web service; show net gain/loss over various time periods (hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly) with various charts and graphs.
• Take Dojo into social networking by building a messaging forums application.

Who this book is for

Web application developers, senior projects leads, and application architects.

I’ve been developing software for a long time, by anyone’s count: over 25 years, about 15 or so of that “professionally” (meaning 15 years or so I’ve been getting paid to pretend I know what I’m doing). I’ve been doing web development specifically for something like 10 or so of those years. I can say, with all honesty, that I was ahead of the curve a number of times. I was writing what we all now call RIAs back around 1998 (two of the apps I wrote in that time frame are still in production, amazingly). I was one of those people who invented Ajax way back then, but didn’t think it was anything special and didn’t come up with a cute name for it, and hence I am not the one rich and famous for coining an acronym! None of this is especially important, and I’m not even trying to impress you by saying any of it. I’m just setting the foundation for being able to honestly say this: I’ve seen a lot. I’ve done a lot of client-side development. I’ve seen the evolution from doing absolutely everything yourself, dealing with all the complexities and cross-browser issues, to where we are today, where you basically don’t write anything from scratch anymore, you find a good library (or combination of libraries) and proceed from there. This is the same evolution that every other programming language and/or platform has taken; it’s just the natural way of things. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction to Dojo....Pages 3-39 Dojo Core....Pages 41-114 Dijit....Pages 115-156 DojoX....Pages 157-211 Front Matter....Pages 213-213 That Human Touch: Contact Manager and Client-Side Persistence....Pages 215-263 A Place for Your Stuff: Dojo Code Cabinet....Pages 265-328 Idiot Blob: The Game!....Pages 329-377 When the Yellow Pages Just Isn’t Cool Enough: Local Business Search....Pages 379-440 Back Matter....Pages 441-454