Welcome to Enterprise Dojo

An article by Dan Lee    5 Comments

Enterprise Dojo is a blog dedicated to helping Front End developers build Enterprise Web Applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. What is an ‘Enterprise Web Application’, you ask? There is no easy answer, but this list of specifications will give you an idea of what this blog will be covering.

An Enterprise Web Application:

• Is data-driven. It can create, display, update, and delete large sets of data in an efficient manner
• Is typically deployed behind a company firewall, with a user-base made up of that company’s employees
• Is built from modular, reusable components
• Has an accessible user interface
• Has externalized user interface strings, and is translated into many languages

I am not describing a novel concept here. There are thousands of Enterprise Web Applications out there today, diligently sifting through corporate data. What is novel is *how* these applications are being built. The typical Enterprise Web Application in use today consists of server-side code with a clunky web front-end bolted on. Very little of the ‘heavy lifting’ is done on the client side. Consumer websites have undergone a revolution in the past few years, with more functionality being implemented in JavaScript to provide experiences as rich as those in desktop applications. We are on the cusp of a similar revolution within the enterprise space. How many corporate JSP-based UI’s are starting to show their age? My guess is in the thousands.

Enterprise developers will be rewriting these applications using modern web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but they are going to need help. There are not a lot of resources on the web dedicated to this set of developers. That is where Enterprise Dojo comes in. The content of this blog will help you, the Enterprise Web Developer, score some ‘little victories’ on your way to learning this new programming paradigm. We will pay more than lip service to the themes that matter to enterprise developers; data-driven scenarios, accessibility, internationalization, dependency management, building efficient versions of your web artifacts, etc. Most of the content on this blog will be centered around the best JavaScript toolkit in the world, Dojo. But we will also showcase other technologies and tools that will help you be the best front end developer you can be. Make no mistake, this is going to be a bumpy road. If you are new to JavaScript, there is going to be a learning curve involved here. But with a little patience, you will quickly be producing browser applications that will knock your co-workers’ socks off. Stay tuned to Enterprise Dojo, it’s going to get fun.