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Nov 6

Dojo Tutorial: D.O.H. Test Suite

By Dylan Schiemann on November 6, 2012 2:41 pm

As part of our great updates to the Dojo Tutorials for Dojo 1.8, we’ve been busy creating several new tutorials.

D.O.H. Test Suite

D.O.H. Test Suite This tutorial teaches you how to set up a suite of unit tests with the D.O.H. unit test harness, and run them.

Check out the D.O.H. Test Suite tutorial for Dojo 1.8, 1.7, or 1.6!

Want to see a specific Tutorial? Want to Learn More?

Is there something you’d like to learn how to do with Dojo? Always wanted to know how something in Dojo works? Leave us a message in the blog comments and we’ll see about getting a tutorial created for you. Or sign-up for an upcoming SitePen Dojo Workshop to get a fully immersive hands-on experience with Dojo.

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Oct 31

Debugging Dojo: Common Error Messages

By Matthew Maxwell on October 31, 2012 3:37 pm

Debugging JavaScript can be a tedious and frustrating chore. To compound the already difficult task of debugging, browser vendors each have their own style of error messaging, some of which are confusing, cryptic, or downright misleading to the untrained eye. Through the delivery of our Dojo workshops, we’ve observed a number of common mistakes that are easy to fix once you decipher the error message. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the following common errors that appear when working with Dojo, their symptoms, and their solutions. With this knowledge, writing manageable code is not only possible, but a lot less cryptic.

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Dojo Tutorial: Using dojo/hash and dojo/router

By Dylan Schiemann on October 31, 2012 10:35 am

As part of our great updates to the Dojo Tutorials for Dojo 1.8, we’ve been busy creating several new tutorials.

Using dojo/hash and dojo/router

Using dojo/hash and dojo/router In JavaScript applications, modifying the URL hash is a great way to provide bookmarkable, history-enabled page states. With dojo/hash, adding this functionality is easy. In Dojo 1.8, we added dojo/hash. Coupled with dojo/router, dojo/hash can be a powerful tool for creating robust and interactive applications.

Check out the Using dojo/hash and dojo/router tutorial for Dojo 1.8, or the Using dojo/hash tutorial for Dojo 1.7, or 1.6!

Want to see a specific Tutorial? Want to Learn More?

Is there something you’d like to learn how to do with Dojo? Always wanted to know how something in Dojo works? Leave us a message in the blog comments and we’ll see about getting a tutorial created for you. Or sign-up for an upcoming SitePen Dojo Workshop to get a fully immersive hands-on experience with Dojo.

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Oct 19

Lazy Property Access

By Kris Zyp on October 19, 2012 3:53 pm

The easiest way to provide access to data from an object is to simply provide it as a property of the object. However, what if you want to give others direct property access, but computing the value of the property is non-negligible, and you want to avoid computing it if it is not used?

This scenario is where ECMAScript 5′s getters are valuable, as they allow you to define a property that is computed on access. We can go a step further and cache the result so it is only computed once at most (even for multiple accesses), while still avoiding computation if it isn’t necessary. This can be accomplished with this function:

var lazyProperty = function(target, propertyName, callback){
	var result, done;
	Object.defineProperty(target, propertyName, {
		get: function(){ // Define the getter
			if(!done){
				// We cache the result and only compute once.
				done = true;
				result = callback.call(target);
			}
			return result;
		},
		// Keep it enumerable and configurable, certainly not necessary.
		enumerable: true,
		configurable: true
	});
}
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Sep 21

Exploring dojo/json

By Kris Zyp on September 21, 2012 4:52 pm

Dojo has long had great support for JSON through dojo.fromJson() and dojo.toJson(). But with the advent of ECMAScript 5′s JSON object, and the increased adoption of this API among browsers, there is now a standard API for JSON parsing and serialization. Dojo 1.7 added a module that aligns with this standard API. This enables Dojo to directly pass through parsing and serialization when native support exists. Using the native JSON parser and serialization is much faster, and allows Dojo to leverage the high-speed, in language capabilities. Also, Dojo’s dojo/json module is based on the feature detection (has() API) system that is integrated with the build system, so it will be possible to leverage the build system to create browser-specific builds (like mobile builds) where this module consumes just a few bytes.

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Aug 27

Working with Dojo and AMD in Production

By Dylan Schiemann on August 27, 2012 6:17 am

In our recent post on dgrid and Dojo Nano, we showed a technique of using nested require statements in order to make use of optimized layers using the Dojo build system. As a refresher, a layer is Dojo’s terminology for a file that combines many JavaScript resources into a single file. This improves the performance of your web application by minimizing the number of HTTP requests.

The technique we originally presented was a quick and simple approach:

<script type="text/javascript" src="../../dojo/dojo.js"
	data-dojo-config="async: true"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
	require(['dgrid/dgrid'], function () {
	    require(["dgrid/List", "dgrid/OnDemandGrid","dgrid/Selection", 
		"dgrid/Keyboard", "dojo/_base/declare", "dgrid/test/data/perf", 
		"dojo/domReady!"],
		function(List, Grid, Selection, Keyboard, declare, testPerfStore){
		//...

While this works, it’s not ideal because you will need to modify your source when switching between development and production environments which is suboptimal. While you could of course fix this with PHP or some other server-side approach for your initial require statement, there are many simple alternative techniques that you can make directly to your markup. Here we explore five other approaches.

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Aug 21

Introducing dojo/request

By Bryan Forbes on August 21, 2012 6:00 am

As Dojo moves toward its 2.0 release, our focus has been on giving developers tools that will help them be productive in any JavaScript environment. This means creating consistent APIs across all environments. One area that has been sorely lacking, in this regard, is Dojo’s IO functions. We’ve always provided developers with a way to make requests in the browser (dojo.xhr*, dojo.io.iframe, dojo.io.script), but the API has been less consistent than some of us would like (dojo.xhrGet, dojo.io.script.get, etc.). Additionally, we’ve never provided a server-side implementation, and if we had, it would have been another module name and API call to remember.

With the release of Dojo 1.8, we have introduced the dojo/request API which provides consistent API calls between browsers, request methods, and environments:

require(["dojo/request"], function(request){
    var promise = request(url, options);
    promise.then(
        function(data){
        },
        function(error){
        }
    );
    promise.response.then(
        function(response){
        },
        function(error){
        }
    );
    request.get(url, options).then(...);
    request.post(url, options).then(...);
    request.put(url, options).then(...);
    request.del(url, options).then(...);
});
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Aug 3

The SitePen Insider

By Dylan Schiemann on August 3, 2012 10:10 am

Want an easy way to keep up with SitePen efforts on Dojo, dgrid, AMD, JavaScript, and the open web?

Then click the Keep In Touch button at the end of this blog and sign up now! To see what types of things you can expect, check out the July edition of the SitePen Insider!

With the SitePen Insider, we provide a concise monthly recap of things that are new and noteworthy. It’s targeted at software engineers and technical managers. We summarize trends and updates with Dojo, dgrid, JavaScript, AMD, HTML5, and web apps, special offers for our services (this month’s newsletter includes a discount for our upcoming public workshops), and other great things that we think you’ll care about!

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Jul 19

Now Supporting all Major Toolkits!

By Dylan Schiemann on July 19, 2012 8:20 am

We have been providing JavaScript and Dojo support to freelancers, start-ups and Fortune 500 companies for nearly a decade. As we intently watch enterprise organizations everywhere begin to roll out AMD (read about why AMD matters) and the associated code improvements, we are thrilled with the industry’s direction toward toolkit interoperability! Why? Because! Our masterful engineering team, consisting of influential members of various open source communities, positions SitePen perfectly to offer full-on, front-end web development support to the world!

Getting right to the point, (The Official Point!), we are pleased to announce the expansion of SitePen Support to officially include more than fifteen popular open-source JavaScript toolkits!

Now supporting the following JavaScript toolkits:

  • Dojo
  • Persevere packages
  • dgrid
  • Curl.js
  • CometD
  • Twine
  • jQuery
  • Backbone
  • underscore
  • RequireJS
  • PhoneGap/Cordova
  • MooTools
  • jQueryUI
  • Wire
  • Socket.IO
  • Express

In addition to toolkits, we will continue to support your custom JavaScript source code, as well as key underlying technologies and formats, including JSON, HTML5, WebSockets, SVG/Canvas, Mobile Web, Server-Side JavaScript, AMD, Node.js and many more.

Our expertise with Dojo and advanced JavaScript is relevant for a wide-range of desktop and mobile web application projects and our approach to SitePen Support has always been flexible with the priority being to improve our customers’ web apps. We strive to support our customers in every way possible and we continue to be Dojo experts. In addition, we’re now committed to providing your organization with the front-end development expertise that will optimize your application regardless of which toolkits and technologies your company is comfortable using. You have our word!

Learn More About SitePen Support or Contact Us to get started today!

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Jul 10

AMD for the Business-Side

By Dylan Schiemann on July 10, 2012 8:36 am

You may have seen our recent blog entitled “AMD: The Definitive Source” which exhaustively explained Asynchronous Module Definition. AMD is a topic with significant technical nuances but the purpose of THIS article is to explain the value of AMD for your business.

AMD is an emerging defacto standard for efficiently developing modular JavaScript applications and libraries. There’s a tremendous amount of business benefit to be achieved from making the switch to AMD for any JavaScript application. If you’re using Dojo 1.7+, you’ve already made the switch and are reaping the rewards as we speak!

Utilizing AMD in your web application dramatically affects code maintainability, application performance and interoperability and these will assuredly result in the following benefits for your business:

  1. Efficient engineering
  2. Improved user experience
  3. Empowered technical leadership

Let us tell you how!

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