To begin with, Dojo Toolkit or simply referred to as Dojo is one of many libraries in javascript. First thing to do is, like any other javascript libraries, make sure which version of library you are studying and using. Dojo has gone through major upgrades and if you are trying to do things the new way of Dojo then better get to know the new version. We will be focusing on the new version only(currently 1.10) and referring to old one, wherever necessary.
Dojo Toolkit has got a combination following
- A bare bone of functionality (
dojo) - A widget library (
dijit) - An experimental library (
dojox) - An Unit testing framework
- A compiler to do the minification and optimisation
A lot of javascript libraries try to implement the classical programming concepts and Dojo is another one of them. So, if you are a purist in Javascript, Dojo will dissapoint you. The functional nature of Javascript is also eliminated here. Dojo clearly disagrees to say that function is a first class citizen, which is again denying another nice feature of javascript. Well, but if you are coming from a classical programming background, that means from a programming language which is class based like Java, then Dojo will seem natural. So, we will refer them in classical terms rather than Javascript terms.
The core functionality of the toolkit is wrapped in a package called dojo. Everythig that runs in the toolkit depends on this basic package. Next is dijit, which can be called as a component library or in dojo’s terms these are widgets. Now dojox is a package containing experimental widgets, which will eventually go into dijit , once they are stable enough. Since widgets have to live a life of their own, there is a flow of lifecycle events. It is now obvious that any application using these widgets have to abide to these lifecycle events and some rules as a whole. In Dojo’s terms these are framework rules.
Happy Coding.