This article could more be more aptly named “@#$@#$@)* with Dojo.” This is a classic example, IMHO, of where Dojo documentation falls flat on its face. The doc page for drag and drop (aka dojo.dnd) is more of a method and property summary of all the objects that work together to make drag and drop work in Dojo. It doesn’t do a very good job of explaining just how all those objects work together, at least not in an easy to digest manner. There’s also a lot of information there that, frankly, just doesn’t matter to the developer just trying to get some simple drag and drop widgets on his or her web page.

Also missing are practical examples that exist elsewhere in the documentation. In fact, that is one thing that Dojo’s documentation does do well: lots of examples. For someone like me—who has an easier time learning by looking at code examples than wading through textual explanations—that’s a god send. There is one fairly detailed example of a shopping cart I found at sitepen.com. However, it has one major shortcoming: it completely ignores the backend that would drive any real world shopping cart. So, here’s several hours of googling and swearing boiled down to “The quick and dirty guide to using drag and drop with Dojo.”

Read More »