Tips for updating your store to support Dojo 1.8

The Aurora starter store is upgraded to Dojo 1.8 to take advantage of the latest Dojo technology. Dojo 1.8 supports Internet Explorer 9, which provides better browser support for the store.If you plan to update your Aurora starter store or Mobile starter store to support Dojo 1.8, refer to the following recommended changes to ensure that your store continues to function properly.

Aurora starter store changes from Dojo 1.5 to Dojo 1.8

  • On the Mozilla Firefox browser, sometimes JavaScript functions in href tags of an anchor link do not work properly with Dojo 1.8. The page redirects instead of running the JavaScript function. To fix this issue, use onClick instead.
    For example, consider the following code sample:
    <a href="javascript:foo();">Foo</a>
    
    You might need to modify the anchor tag to use onClick:
    <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick:"foo();">Foo</a>
  • DOM generated DateTextBox (dijit/form/DateTextBox) was updated. Update CSS selector and images to accommodate the change. For more information about DateTextBox, see dojox.form.DateTextBox.
  • Dojo 1.8 included other API changes. You might need to update as needed to accommodate these changes. For more information about API changes, see Dojo 1.8 Release Notes.
  • Widgets do not require manual parsing anymore. ParseOnLoad value is now set to true globally. Widgets are now parsed automatically without manual work.
  • As part of moving to use Dojo 1.8, WebSphere Commerce uses a layering technique for building a profile build for the Aurora starter store. By default, two layer files are created:
    • A dojo.js file, which includes the base Ajax communication framework, refresh area, and controllers.
    • A dojodesktop.js file, which includes all Dojo UI widgets that are used by the Aurora starter store.
    Because WebSphere Commerce uses the layering technique, you must change all of your JSP files for pages that use more than just the base Ajax communication and that include the dojo.js file to also include the dojodesktop.js file. If you do not include the dojodesktop.js file in the store pages, the performance of loading the pages in the browser degrades. The performance degradation occurs because Dojo must load the source code for each widget sequentially when a page is loading.