Dojo allows both declarative and programmatic usage of many of its features. Declarative usage uses standard HTML elements with non-standard attributes that are parsed when the page is loaded. While this is a powerful and simple syntax to utilize, for many developers this can cause issues with page validation.

Programmatic usage allows the developer to decorate existing elements by pulling them by ID or CSS selectors and passing them to the appropriate object constructors in Dojo. Because no non-standard HTML attributes are used, pages continue to validate.

In practice, both use cases allow for graceful degradation when javascript is disabled or the various Dojo script resources are unreachable. To promote standards and document validation, Zend Framework uses programmatic usage by default; the various view helpers will generate javascript and push it to the dojo() view helper for inclusion when rendered.

Developers using this technique may also wish to explore the option of writing their own programmatic decoration of the page. One benefit would be the ability to specify handlers for dijit events.

To allow this, as well as the ability to use declarative syntax, there are a number of static methods available to set this behavior globally.

Dojo allows the creation of themes for its dijits (widgets). You may select one by passing in a module path:

The module path is discovered by using the character '.' as a directory separator and using the last value in the list as the name of the CSS file in that theme directory to use; in the example above, Dojo will look for the theme in 'dijit/themes/tundra/tundra.css'.

When using a theme, it is important to remember to pass the theme class to, at the least, a container surrounding any dijits you are using; the most common use case is to pass it in the body:

By default, when you use a dojo.require statement, dojo will make a request back to the server to grab the appropriate javascript file. If you have many dijits in place, this results in many requests to the server -- which is not optimal.

Dojo's answer to this is to provide the ability to create custom builds. Builds do several things:

• Groups required files into layers; a layer lumps all required files into a single JS file. (Hence the name of this section.)

• "Interns" non-javascript files used by dijits (typically, template files). These are also grouped in the same JS file as the layer.

• Passes the file through ShrinkSafe, which strips whitespace and comments, as well as shortens variable names.

Some files can not be layered, but the build process will create a special release directory with the layer file and all other files. This allows you to have a slimmed-down distribution customized for your site or application needs.

To use a layer, the dojo() view helper has a addLayer() method for adding paths to required layers:

For more information on creating custom builds, please » refer to the Dojo build documentation.

The dojo() view helper always returns an instance of the dojo placeholder container. That container object has the following methods available:

• setView(Zend_View_Interface $view): set a view instance in the container.

• enable(): explicitly enable Dojo integration.

• disable(): disable Dojo integration.

• isEnabled(): determine whether or not Dojo integration is enabled.

• requireModule($module): setup a dojo.require statement.

• getModules(): determine what modules have been required.

• registerModulePath($module, $path): register a custom Dojo module path.

• getModulePaths(): get list of registered module paths.

• addLayer($path): add a layer (custom build) path to use.

• getLayers(): get a list of all registered layer paths (custom builds).

• removeLayer($path): remove the layer that matches $path from the list of registered layers (custom builds).

• setCdnBase($url): set the base URL for a CDN; typically, one of the Zend_Dojo::CDN_BASE_AOL or Zend_Dojo::CDN_BASE_GOOGLE, but it only needs to be the URL string prior to the version number.

• getCdnBase(): retrieve the base CDN url to utilize.

• setCdnVersion($version = null): set which version of Dojo to utilize from the CDN.

• getCdnVersion(): retrieve what version of Dojo from the CDN will be used.

• setCdnDojoPath($path): set the relative path to the dojo.js or dojo.xd.js file on a CDN; typically, one of the Zend_Dojo::CDN_DOJO_PATH_AOL or Zend_Dojo::CDN_DOJO_PATH_GOOGLE, but it only needs to be the path string following the version number.

• getCdnDojoPath(): retrieve the last path segment of the CDN url pointing to the dojo.js file.

• useCdn(): tell the container to utilize the CDN; implicitly enables integration.

• setLocalPath($path): tell the container the path to a local Dojo install (should be a path relative to the server, and contain the dojo.js file itself); implicitly enables integration.

• getLocalPath(): determine what local path to Dojo is being used.

• useLocalPath(): is the integration utilizing a Dojo local path?

• setDjConfig(array $config): set dojo or dijit configuration values (expects assoc array).

• setDjConfigOption($option, $value): set a single dojo or dijit configuration value.

• getDjConfig(): get all dojo or dijit configuration values.

• getDjConfigOption($option, $default = null): get a single dojo or dijit configuration value.

• addStylesheetModule($module): add a stylesheet based on a module theme.

• getStylesheetModules(): get stylesheets registered as module themes.

• addStylesheet($path): add a local stylesheet for use with Dojo.

• getStylesheets(): get local Dojo stylesheets.

• addOnLoad($spec, $function = null): add a lambda for dojo.onLoad to call. If one argument is passed, it is assumed to be either a function name or a javascript closure. If two arguments are passed, the first is assumed to be the name of an object instance variable and the second either a method name in that object or a closure to utilize with that object.

• prependOnLoad($spec, $function = null): exactly like addOnLoad(), excepts prepends to beginning of onLoad stack.

• getOnLoadActions(): retrieve all dojo.onLoad actions registered with the container. This will be an array of arrays.

• onLoadCaptureStart($obj = null): capture data to be used as a lambda for dojo.onLoad(). If $obj is provided, the captured JS code will be considered a closure to use with that Javascript object.

• onLoadCaptureEnd($obj = null): finish capturing data for use with dojo.onLoad().

• javascriptCaptureStart(): capture arbitrary javascript to be included with Dojo JS (onLoad, require, etc. statements).

• javascriptCaptureEnd(): finish capturing javascript.

• __toString(): cast the container to a string; renders all HTML style and script elements.

The dijit.layout family of elements are for creating custom, predictable layouts for your site. For any questions on general usage, » read more about them in the Dojo manual.

All dijit layout elements have the signature string ($id = null, $content = '', array $params = array(), array $attribs = array()). In all caess, if you pass no arguments, the helper object itself will be returned. This gives you access to the captureStart() and captureEnd() methods, which allow you to capture content instead of passing it to the layout container.

• AccordionContainer: dijit.layout.AccordionContainer. Stack all panes together vertically; clicking on a pane titlebar will expand and display that particular pane.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''duration''style' => 'width: 200px; height: 300px;'

• AccordionPane: dijit.layout.AccordionPane. For use within AccordionContainer.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''title' => 'Pane Title''style' => 'background-color: lightgray;'

• BorderContainer: dijit.layout.BorderContainer. Achieve layouts with optionally resizable panes such as you might see in a traditional application.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''design' => 'headline''style' => 'width: 100%; height: 100%'

• ContentPane: dijit.layout.ContentPane. Use inside any container except AccordionContainer.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''title'  => 'Pane Title',
  2.         'region' => 'left''style' => 'width: 120px; background-color: lightgray;'

• SplitContainer: dijit.layout.SplitContainer. Allows resizable content panes; deprecated in Dojo in favor of BorderContainer.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''orientation'  => 'horizontal',
  2.         'sizerWidth'   => 7,
  3.         'activeSizing''style' => 'width: 400px; height: 500px;'

• StackContainer: dijit.layout.StackContainer. All panes within a StackContainer are placed in a stack; build buttons or functionality to reveal one at a time.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''style' => 'width: 400px; height: 500px; border: 1px;'

• TabContainer: dijit.layout.TabContainer. All panes within a TabContainer are placed in a stack, with tabs positioned on one side for switching between them.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''style' => 'width: 400px; height: 500px; border: 1px;'

The following capture methods are available for all layout containers:

• captureStart($id, array $params = array(), array $attribs = array());: begin capturing content to include in a container. $params refers to the dijit params to use with the container, while $attribs refer to any general HTML attributes to use.

  Containers may be nested when capturing, so long as no ids are duplicated.

• captureEnd($id): finish capturing content to include in a container. $id should refer to an id previously used with a captureStart() call. Returns a string representing the container and its contents, just as if you'd simply passed content to the helper itself.

Dojo's form validation and input dijits are in the dijit.form tree. For more information on general usage of these elements, as well as accepted parameters, please » visit the dijit.form documentation.

The following dijit form elements are available in Zend Framework. Except where noted, all have the signature string ($id, $value = '', array $params = array(), array $attribs = array()).

• Button: dijit.form.Button. Display a form button.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     'Show Me!''iconClass' => 'myButtons'

• CheckBox: dijit.form.CheckBox. Display a checkbox. Accepts an optional fifth argument, the array $checkedOptions, which may contain either:

  • an indexed array with two values, a checked value and unchecked value, in that order; or

  • an associative array with the keys 'checkedValue' and 'unCheckedValue'.

  If $checkedOptions is not provided, 1 and 0 are assumed.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     'bar''checkedValue' => 'foo', 'unCheckedValue' => 'bar'

• ComboBox: dijit.layout.ComboBox. ComboBoxes are a hybrid between a select and a text box with autocompletion. The key difference is that you may type an option that is not in the list of available options, and it will still consider it valid input. It accepts an optional fifth argument, an associative array $options; if provided, ComboBox will be rendered as a select. Note also that the label values of the $options array will be returned in the form -- not the values themselves.

  Alternately, you may pass information regarding a dojo.data datastore to use with the element. If provided, the ComboBox will be rendered as a text input, and will pull its options via that datastore.

  To specify a datastore, provide one of the following $params key combinations:

  • The key 'store', with an array value; the array should contain the keys:

    • store: the name of the javascript variable representing the datastore (this could be the name you would like for it to use).

    • type: the datastore type to use; e.g., 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore'.

    • params (optional): an associative array of key and value pairs to use to configure the datastore. The 'url' param is a typical example.

  • The keys:

    • store: a string indicating the datastore name to use.

    • storeType: a string indicating the datastore dojo.data type to use (e.g., 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore').

    • storeParams: an associative array of key and value pairs with which to configure the datastore.

  1. // As a select element:
  2. 'foo',
  3.     'bar''autocomplete''foo' => 'Foo',
  4.         'bar' => 'Bar',
  5.         'baz' => 'Baz',
  6.     )
  7. );
  8.  
  9. // As a dojo.data-enabled element:
  10. 'foo',
  11.     'bar''autocomplete''store'        => 'stateStore',
  12.         'storeType'    => 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore',
  13.         'storeParams''url' => '/js/states.json'),
  14.     ),
  15. );

• CurrencyTextBox: dijit.form.CurrencyTextBox. Inherits from ValidationTextBox, and provides client-side validation of currency. It expects that the dijit parameter 'currency' will be provided with an appropriate 3-character currency code. You may also specify any dijit parameters valid for ValidationTextBox and TextBox.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     '$25.00''currency' => 'USD''maxlength' => 20)
  3. );

  Note: Issues with Builds
  There are currently » known issues with using CurrencyTextBox with build layers. A known work-around is to ensure that your document's Content-Type http-equiv meta tag sets the character set to utf-8, which you can do by calling:
  

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'Content-Type',
  2.                                    'text/html; charset=utf-8');

  This will mean, of course, that you will need to ensure that the headMeta() placeholder is echoed in your layout script.
  

• DateTextBox: dijit.form.DateTextBox. Inherits from ValidationTextBox, and provides both client-side validation of dates, as well as a dropdown calendar from which to select a date. You may specify any dijit parameters available to ValidationTextBox or TextBox.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     '2008-07-11''required'

• Editor: dijit.Editor. Provides a WYSIWYG editor via which users may create or edit content. dijit.Editor is a pluggable, extensible editor with a variety of parameters you can utilize for customization; see » the dijit.Editor documentation for more details.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo');

  Note: Editor Dijit uses div by default
  The Editor dijit uses an HTML DIV by default. The dijit._editor.RichText » documentation indicates that having it built on an HTML TEXTAREA can potentially have security implications.
  In order to allow graceful degradation in environments where Javascript is unavailable, Zend_Dojo_View_Helper_Editor also wraps a TEXTAREA within a NOSCRIPT tag; the content of this TEXTAREA will be properly escaped to avoid security vulnerability vectors.
  

• FilteringSelect: dijit.form.FilteringSelect. Similar to ComboBox, this is a select and text hybrid that can either render a provided list of options or those fetched via a dojo.data datastore. Unlike ComboBox, however, FilteringSelect does not allow typing in an option not in its list. Additionally, it operates like a standard select in that the option values, not the labels, are returned when the form is submitted.

  Please see the information above on ComboBox for examples and available options for defining datastores.

• HorizontalSlider and VerticalSlider: dijit.form.HorizontalSlider and dijit.form.VerticalSlider. Sliders allow are UI widgets for selecting numbers in a given range; these are horizontal and vertical variants.

  At their most basic, they require the dijit parameters 'minimum', 'maximum', and 'discreteValues'. These define the range of values. Other common options are:

  • 'intermediateChanges' can be set to indicate whether or not to fire onChange events while the handle is being dragged.

  • 'clickSelect' can be set to allow clicking a location on the slider to set the value.

  • 'pageIncrement' can specify the value by which to increase or decrease when pageUp and pageDown are used.

  • 'showButtons' can be set to allow displaying buttons on either end of the slider for manipulating the value.

  The implication from Zend Framework creates a hidden element to store the value of the slider.

  You may optionally desire to show a rule or labels for the slider. To do so, you will assign one or more of the dijit params 'topDecoration' and/or 'bottomDecoration' (HorizontalSlider) or 'leftDecoration' and/or 'rightDecoration' (VerticalSlider). Each of these expects the following options:

  • container: name of the container.

  • labels (optional): an array of labels to utilize. Use empty strings on either end to provide labels for inner values only. Required when specifying one of the 'Labels' dijit variants.

  • dijit (optional): one of HorizontalRule, HorizontalRuleLabels, VerticalRule, or VerticalRuleLabels, Defaults to one of the Rule dijits.

  • params (optional): dijit params for configuring the Rule dijit in use. Parameters specific to these dijits include:

    • container (optional): array of parameters and attributes for the rule container.

    • labels (optional): array of parameters and attributes for the labels list container.

  • attribs (optional): HTML attributes to use with the rules and labels. This should follow the params option format and be an associative array with the keys 'container' and 'labels'.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''minimum'             => -10,
  2.         'maximum'             => 10,
  3.         'discreteValues'      => 11,
  4.         'intermediateChanges''showButtons''topDecoration''container' => 'topContainer'
  5.             'dijit'     => 'HorizontalRuleLabels',
  6.             'labels'' ',
  7.                 '20%',
  8.                 '40%',
  9.                 '60%',
  10.                 '80%',
  11.                 ' ',
  12.             ),
  13.             'params''container''style' => 'height:1.2em; font-size=75%;color:gray;',
  14.                 ),
  15.                 'labels''style' => 'height:1em; font-size=75%;color:gray;',
  16.                 ),
  17.             ),
  18.         ),
  19.         'bottomDecoration''container' => 'bottomContainer'
  20.             'labels''0%',
  21.                 '50%',
  22.                 '100%',
  23.             ),
  24.             'params''container''style' => 'height:1.2em; font-size=75%;color:gray;',
  25.                 ),
  26.                 'labels''style' => 'height:1em; font-size=75%;color:gray;',
  27.                 ),
  28.             ),
  29.         ),
  30.     )
  31. );

• NumberSpinner: dijit.form.NumberSpinner. Text box for numeric entry, with buttons for incrementing and decrementing.

  Expects either an associative array for the dijit parameter 'constraints', or simply the keys 'min', 'max', and 'places' (these would be the expected entries of the constraints parameter as well). 'places' can be used to indicate how much the number spinner will increment and decrement.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''min'    => -10,
  2.         'max'    => 10,
  3.         'places''maxlenth' => 3,
  4.     )
  5. );

• NumberTextBox: dijit.form.NumberTextBox. NumberTextBox provides the ability to format and display number entries in a localized fashion, as well as validate numerical entries, optionally against given constraints.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo''places' => 4,
  2.         'type'   => 'percent''maxlength' => 20,
  3.     )
  4. );

• PasswordTextBox: dijit.form.ValidationTextBox tied to a password input. PasswordTextBox provides the ability to create password input that adheres to the current dijit theme, as well as allow for client-side validation.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     '''required''maxlength' => 20,
  3.     )
  4. );

• RadioButton: dijit.form.RadioButton. A set of options from which only one may be selected. This behaves in every way like a regular radio, but has a look-and-feel consistent with other dijits.

  RadioButton accepts an optional fifth argument, $options, an associative array of value and label pairs used as the radio options. You may also pass these as the $attribs key options.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     'bar''foo' => 'Foo',
  3.         'bar' => 'Bar',
  4.         'baz' => 'Baz',
  5.     )
  6. );

• SimpleTextarea: dijit.form.SimpleTextarea. These act like normal textareas, but are styled using the current dijit theme. You do not need to specify either the rows or columns attributes; use ems or percentages for the width and height, instead.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     'Start writing here...''style' => 'width: 90%; height: 5ems;')
  3. );

• SubmitButton: a dijit.form.Button tied to a submit input element. See the Button view helper for more details; the key difference is that this button can submit a form.

• Textarea: dijit.form.Textarea. These act like normal textareas, except that instead of having a set number of rows, they expand as the user types. The width should be specified via a style setting.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     'Start writing here...''style' => 'width: 300px;')
  3. );

• TextBox: dijit.form.TextBox. This element is primarily present to provide a common look-and-feel between various dijit elements, and to provide base functionality for the other TextBox-derived classes (ValidationTextBox, NumberTextBox, CurrencyTextBox, DateTextBox, and TimeTextBox).

  Common dijit parameter flags include 'lowercase' (cast to lowercase), 'uppercase' (cast to UPPERCASE), 'propercase' (cast to Proper Case), and trim (trim leading and trailing whitespace); all accept boolean values. Additionally, you may specifiy the parameters 'size' and 'maxLength'.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     'some text''trim''propercase''maxLength''size' => 20,
  3.     )
  4. );

• TimeTextBox: dijit.form.TimeTextBox. Also in the TextBox family, TimeTextBox provides a scrollable drop down selection of times from which a user may select. Dijit parameters allow you to specify the time increments available in the select as well as the visible range of times available.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     '''am.pm''visibleIncrement' => 'T00:05:00', // 5-minute increments
  3.         'visibleRange'     => 'T02:00:00', // show 2 hours of increments
  4. 'size' => 20,
  5.     )
  6. );

• ValidationTextBox: dijit.form.ValidateTextBox. Provide client-side validations for a text element. Inherits from TextBox.

  Common dijit parameters include:

  • invalidMessage: a message to display when an invalid entry is detected.

  • promptMessage: a tooltip help message to use.

  • regExp: a regular expression to use to validate the text. Regular expression does not require boundary markers.

  • required: whether or not the element is required. If so, and the element is embedded in a dijit.form.Form, it will be flagged as invalid and prevent submission.

  1. span style="color: #ff0000;">'foo',
  2.     '''required''regExp'   => '[\w]+',
  3.         'invalidMessage' => 'No spaces or non-word characters allowed',
  4.         'promptMessage'  => 'Single word consisting of alphanumeric ' .
  5.                             'characters and underscores only''maxlength' => 20,
  6.     )
  7. );

If you delve into Dojo much at all, you'll find yourself writing custom dijits, or using experimental dijits from Dojox. While Zend Framework cannot support every dijit directly, it does provide some rudimentary support for arbitrary dijit types via the CustomDijit view helper.

The CustomDijit view helper's API is exactly that of any other dijit, with one major difference: the third "params" argument must contain the attribute "dojotype". The value of this attribute should be the Dijit class you plan to use.

CustomDijit extends the base DijitContainer view helper, which also allows it to capture content (using the captureStart()/ captureEnd() pair of methods). captureStart() also expects that you pass the "dojoType" attribute to its "params" argument.