Using curl.js with dojo

Using curl.js with dojo

dojo 1.6 was the first framework / toolkit to embrace AMD. It's a tough job to migrate thousands of modules. As of dojo 1.7.1, they've got almost all of them converted. (Great job guys!)

However, there are still a few dojo-isms sprinkled throughout the code that make trouble for other AMD loaders. Examples: expectation of a <loader>.ready(callback) method, special module ids ("." and ".."), and a circular dependency using non-CommonJS-formatted modules.

curl.js supports the notion of loader shims. These shims alter the behavior of curl.js. One such shim is "curl/shim/dojo16". Despite its name, it's needed for dojo 1.7.x, too.

Using curl/shim/dojo16

There are two options for using the dojo shim: preload it or build it in.

Preloading curl/shim/dojo16

To preload it, use the preloads config property (new in curl.js 0.6) like this after including curl.js with a script element:

curl({
	baseUrl: 'path/to/js',
	packages: {
		dojo: { location: 'dojo-1.7.1/dojo' },
		dijit: { location 'dojo-1.7.1/dijit' }
	},
	preloads: [
		'curl/shim/dojo16'
	]
});

or this if you want to configure curl before loading curl.js with a script element:

curl = {
	baseUrl: 'blah/blah',
	packages: {
		dojo: { location: 'dojo-1.7.1/dojo' },
		dijit: { location 'dojo-1.7.1/dijit' }
	},
	preloads: [
		'curl/shim/dojo16'
	]
};

Always be sure to list dojo and dijit as packages, not paths! Both dojo and dijit use main modules. curl.js does not look for main modules when using paths. It only looks for them when using packages.

Building curl/shim/dojo16 into curl.js

There's a custom version of curl.js in the "dist/curl-for-dojo16" folder. Despite its name, it works great for dojo 1.7.x, too. This custom curl.js was built using the bin/make-all.sh script.

You can create your own custom builds of curl.js by using the make.sh script in the bin folder. Take a peek at the bin/make-all.sh script to see how to use make.sh. Also, take a look at the README.md in that folder for details.