Dojo Toolkit
Ajax and Javascript effects or widgets are now very popular and most of users have learned how to interact with these dynamic elements on web pages. As new Javascript frameworks and Open Source libraries have emerged, it has become easier to achieve complex effects and solve common browser compatibility issues. Each framework has been built with a philosophy and a particular aim. Most of these can cover simple needs such as widget development, DOM manipulations or simple animations. But when it comes to complex asynchronous programming, events handling, AJAX or Rich Internet Applications (RIA), the Dojo Toolkit is perhaps the best option and the library that offers the most powerful functions, freedom and flexibility.
What is Dojo ?
The Dojo Toolkit is an advanced, open source, cross browser, JavaScript/Ajax library. It is based on object oriented programming and implements the concept of class inheritance in Javascript. Dojo’s primary intent was to offer a platform that would normalize the browser and solve browser compatibility issues. These long-standing issues have made it hard for DHTML to be widely adopted in dynamic web application development.
Dojo offers a modular structure that is divided into 3 main blocks:
It comes as a collection of client-side scripts divided into the 3 blocks: dojo, dijit and dojox. Dojo allows for the same source code to work on different browsers and environments. It enhances several DHTML web standards such as Javascript, HTML or CSS by giving an accessible, unified and efficient implementation to the DOM model, CSS3 pseudo selectors, and other functions missing from current browsers’ implementations. It has a large panel of widgets and features most of popular widgets currently around the web.
| The Dojo core: it’s the engine of the whole library. |
dijit: widget library, a collection of widgets. |
dojoX: extensions, contributed modules, development versions. |
However, dojo is a complex Javascript library and requires solid Javascript development skills. It has a fantastic documentation and tends to spread more and more around the Ajax developer’s community. Nevertheless, it is open source and can be downloaded by anybody who wishes to use its great widgets out of the box.
How do we use it?
To build a rich internet application such as the one on lexdex.com Dojo was probably the best option and the one that offered the most flexibility. Dijit’s large range of widgets allows finding the best accessible method to create flashcards on the Lexdex MyDex dashboard. Dojo handles all Ajax exchanges to server with JSON in order to have users interact with different parts of their dashboard at the same time (asynchronously). Even though Lexdex online flashcards required complex client side and ajax scripting, it did not unleash the full potential of the Dojo Toolkit and still has many features to integrate.
Load content using AJAX |
Build slideshows with text / images |
Replace the right click menu |
Why we use it at Davyin?
There are many reasons for Davyin to adopt the Dojo Toolkit as a library in major client side developments and RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) development. Most of which is perhaps dojo is open source and brings a new life to DHTML and Javascript. It is certainly the most robust and largest Javascript library, but with the increase of client-side solutions such as AIR, Flex, etc… development with dojo is surely sustainable and we believe it has a bright and long future.
Who uses Dojo ?
The list of major corporate websites, community websites, ecommerce website or webservices websites that integrates this framework is very long. Here we chose some of representatives websites using Dojo :
