|
| Dojo: The Definitive Guide | 
 enlarge | Author: Matthew A. Russell
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $16.50
You Save: $23.49 (59%)
New (35) Used (8) from $16.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 8983
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0596516487
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780596516482
ASIN: 0596516487
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| 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.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 The First Book of Its Kind June 21, 2008
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
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.
Fills in the necessary blanks on Dojo June 22, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Dojo is a comprehensive JavaScript toolkit that provides a layer of insulation between you and browser inconsistencies by leveraging JavaScript and other web technologies. Dojo is very good in situations where YUI is already being used. Dojo has a standard JavaScript library with a collection of drop-in replacements for customized HTML controls and CSS layout hacks, build tools, and unit tests.
Part 1 of this book is a standard library reference that exposes you to the various nooks and crannies of Base and Core, the parts of the toolkit that comprise a JavaScript standard library. Base contains rich functionality as diverse as AJAX calls, DOM querying based on CSS selector syntax, standardized event propagation, and functional programming utilities like map and filter. Core includes lots of additional features for operations like animations and drag-and-drop. While this can be incredibly useful, these features just aren't as common to all use cases as the features in Base.
Part 2 explores the rest of the toolkit, including complete coverage of Dijit, the rich layer of drop-in replacements for customized HTML controls. Dijit is designed so that it can be used in the markup with little to no programming required, and makes it possible to build attractive web pages that already look and behave much like user interface controls from desktop applications.
Part 2 concludes with a discussion of the build system and unit testing framework provided by Util. The build system includes a highly configurable entry point to ShrinkSafe, a tool that leverages the Rhino JavaScript engine to compress code by as a third or more. DOH stands for the Dojo Objective Harness, and provides a standalone system for unit testing your JavaScript code. This is also discussed here.
This book assumes that you've done some web development with client-side technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. You by no means, however, need to be an expert in any of these skills and you really don't need to know anything at all about what happens on a web server because Dojo is a client-side technology. Just knowing what they are and how they are used is more than enough. As in most O'Reilly applied programming technology books, there are plenty of code examples. The book just doesn't talk about all of this stuff, it actually shows you the technology in action.
If you are an existing web developer or even a hobbyist who is able to construct a very simple web page and apply a little JavaScript and CSS to brighten things up a bit, then you are qualiified to read this book. If you haven't even heard of HTML, JavaScript, or CSS, and have never written any code that works with any of these languages and technologies, then you might want to consider picking up a good introduction on web development before tackling this book.
The following is a detailed table of contents:
Part 1: Base and Core
Chapter 1. Toolkit Overview
Chapter 2. Language and Browser Utilities
Chapter 3. Event Listeners and Pub/Sub Communication
Chapter 4. AJAX and Server Communication
Chapter 5. Node Manipulation
Chapter 6. Internationalization
Chapter 7. Drag-and-Drop
Chapter 8. Animation and Special Effects
Chapter 9. Data Abstraction
Chapter 10. Simulated Classes and Inheritance
Chapter 11. Dijit Overview
Chapter 12. Dijit Anatomy and Lifecycle
Chapter 13. Form Widgets
Chapter 14. Layout Widgets
Chapter 15. Application Widgets
Chapter 16. Build Tools, Testing, and Production Considerations
Appendix A. A Firebug Primer
Appendix B. A Brief Survey of DojoX
The Dojo Mojo July 1, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
 NOT for non-programmers August 13, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
This book is incredibly frustrating. The introduction promises the book will address anyone "who is able to construct a very simple web page and apply a dab of JavaScript and CSS..." What a joke. I'm a web designer who prototypes in HTML, CSS, and slightly complex Javascript. But this book continually mystifies me. Instead of giving clear, plain-English, step-by-step explanations, it jumps headlong into complex code samples and advanced programming terms, leaving me completely in the dust.
And don't get me started on the typos and errors. The funniest is that in the illustration figures, different items shown top and bottom are referred to in the captions as "right" and "left." I've already stumbled on numerous typos in the code samples. I guess that's kind of standard for computer books these days, but I expect a little better from O'Reilly.
Sigh. Guess I'll have to look elsewhere for help learning Dojo.
 A good refrence book but not a tutorial August 17, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This a is good refrence book. But if you are buying it to learn dojo then it is not a really good book to buy. There also are a lot of errors in this book as well. But other Dojo books I have read seem to suffer from this problem.
If you are looking for a tutorial then look elsewhere. This book seems like it was rewrite of the Free dojo documentation. Other books out there on dojo are better and your better off getting them.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
