Today SitePen, Inc. announced the release of a co-sponsored "demo" utilizing Adobe's AIR runtime and The Dojo Toolkit affectionately named "The Dojo Toolbox". Don't let the term "demo" fool you though, this thing is a fully functioning application providing a pluggable API built around the question "what can be done offline to better Dojo?" ... As you probably know, AIR provides a plethora of functionality not present in standard browser applications, and Dojo is the perfect toolkit to fully take advantage of the potential. From offline storage to native window interaction (which seems to fall perfectly in line with the idea of templated widgets, especially in "chromeless" mode) to the remote update capabilities of AIR, realizing powerful desktop-based cross-platform applications has never been easier. I can't begin to confess how excited I am about being to use the stuff I know (html/css/js/Dojo) in the realm of Desktop application, so I won't even try.

Enough jabbering ... on to the good stuff! You can skip my wordiness and view the screencast Kevin Dangoor made up, or read along with the quick-and-dirty rundown from the SitePen press release:

Offline API documentation

The entire Dojo API Documentation has been taken offline and converted into a searchable index. Every piece of the public (and private) API in Dojo is now available on your desktop for browsing. Doc updates come out? No problem,
the application can be remotely updated anytime a new version of Dojo is released.

Build utility

The power of the Dojo build system has been ported to AIR. You can target an existing build profile, define common options, and build your dojo.js and layers all from a simple UI. Upcoming (planned) features include: ShrinkSafe web service (you can't run Java from within AIR, so no ShrinkSafe is available just yet) to compress your code, as well as a custom Profile maker.

Quick Resources

Many vital resources are found in this simple Toolbox plugin giving you handy access to the most current and most important resources available for Dojo. One oversight in the 1.0 release the absence of a link to DojoCampus, though the automatic updating nature of the application means it will likely appear shortly.

Looking Forward

The application was released under a BSD license and is fully open source. SitePen has setup a dedicated mailing list to discuss any issues or enhancements about the Toolbox, so signup and throw some ideas out. What kind of cool mini tools can you imagine floating around on AIR to make your web-dev experience easier? I'm thinking of a set of pixel calculators/rulers to overlay and inspect layout nitpicking ... The potential is endless.

Thanks be to Adobe and SitePen for their support of Dojo and Open Source Software. I can't wait until other tool ideas start popping up ...