From the Dojo manual: "Dijit is a widget system layered on top of dojo." Dijit includes a variety of layout and form widgets designed to provide accessibility features, localization, and standardized (and themeable) look-and-feel. Zend Framework ships a variety of view helpers that allow you to render and utilize dijits within your view scripts. There are three basic types: Layout Containers: these are designed to be used within your view scripts or consumed by form decorators for forms, sub forms, and display groups. They wrap the various classes offerred in dijit.layout. Each dijit layout view helper expects the following arguments: $id: the container name or DOM ID. $content: the content to wrap in the layout container. $params (optional): dijit-specific parameters. Basically, any non-HTML attribute that can be used to configure the dijit layout container. $attribs (optional): any additional HTML attributes that should be used to render the container div. If the key 'id' is passed in this array, it will be used for the form element DOM id, and $id will be used for its name. If you pass no arguments to a dijit layout view helper, the helper itself will be returned. This allows you to capture content, which is often an easier way to pass content to the layout container. Examples of this functionality will be shown later in this section. Form Dijit: the dijit.form.Form dijit, while not completely necessary for use with dijit form elements, will ensure that if an attempt is made to submit a form that does not validate against client-side validations, submission will be halted and validation error messages raised. The form dijit view helper expects the following arguments: $id: the container name or DOM ID. $attribs (optional): any additional HTML attributes that should be used to render the container div. $content (optional): the content to wrap in the form. If none is passed, an empty string will be used. The argument order varies from the other dijits in order to keep compatibility with the standard form() view helper. Form Elements: these are designed to be consumed with Zend_Form, but can be used standalone within view scripts as well. Each dijit element view helper expects the following arguments: $id: the element name or DOM ID. $value (optional): the current value of the element. $params (optional): dijit-specific parameters. Basically, any non-HTML attribute that can be used to configure a dijit. $attribs (optional): any additional HTML attributes that should be used to render the dijit. If the key 'id' is passed in this array, it will be used for the form element DOM id, and $id will be used for its name. Some elements require more arguments; these will be noted with the individual element helper descriptions. In order to utilize these view helpers, you need to register the path to the dojo view helpers with your view object. addHelperPath('Zend/Dojo/View/Helper', 'Zend_Dojo_View_Helper'); ]]> The dijit.layout family of elements are for creating custom, predictable layouts for your site. For any questions on general usage, read more about them in the Dojo manual. All dijit layout elements have the signature string ($id = null, $content = '', array $params = array(), array $attribs = array()). In all caess, if you pass no arguments, the helper object itself will be returned. This gives you access to the captureStart() and captureEnd() methods, which allow you to capture content instead of passing it to the layout container. AccordionContainer: dijit.layout.AccordionContainer. Stack all panes together vertically; clicking on a pane titlebar will expand and display that particular pane. accordionContainer( 'foo', $content, array( 'duration' => 200, ), array( 'style' => 'width: 200px; height: 300px;', ), ); ?> ]]> AccordionPane: dijit.layout.AccordionPane. For use within AccordionContainer. accordionPane( 'foo', $content, array( 'title' => 'Pane Title', ), array( 'style' => 'background-color: lightgray;', ), ); ?> ]]> BorderContainer: dijit.layout.BorderContainer. Achieve layouts with optionally resizable panes such as you might see in a traditional application. borderContainer( 'foo', $content, array( 'design' => 'headline', ), array( 'style' => 'width: 100%; height: 100%', ), ); ?> ]]> ContentPane: dijit.layout.ContentPane. Use inside any container except AccordionContainer. contentPane( 'foo', $content, array( 'title' => 'Pane Title', 'region' => 'left', ), array( 'style' => 'width: 120px; background-color: lightgray;', ), ); ?> ]]> SplitContainer: dijit.layout.SplitContainer. Allows resizable content panes; deprecated in Dojo in favor of BorderContainer. splitContainer( 'foo', $content, array( 'orientation' => 'horizontal', 'sizerWidth' => 7, 'activeSizing' => true, ), array( 'style' => 'width: 400px; height: 500px;', ), ); ?> ]]> StackContainer: dijit.layout.StackContainer. All panes within a StackContainer are placed in a stack; build buttons or functionality to reveal one at a time. stackContainer( 'foo', $content, array(), array( 'style' => 'width: 400px; height: 500px; border: 1px;', ), ); ?> ]]> TabContainer: dijit.layout.TabContainer. All panes within a TabContainer are placed in a stack, with tabs positioned on one side for switching between them. tabContainer( 'foo', $content, array(), array( 'style' => 'width: 400px; height: 500px; border: 1px;', ), ); ?> ]]> The following capture methods are available for all layout containers: captureStart($id, array $params = array(), array $attribs = array());: begin capturing content to include in a container. $params refers to the dijit params to use with the container, while $attribs refer to any general HTML attributes to use. Containers may be nested when capturing, so long as no ids are duplicated. captureEnd($id): finish capturing content to include in a container. $id should refer to an id previously used with a captureStart() call. Returns a string representing the container and its contents, just as if you'd simply passed content to the helper itself. BorderContainers, particularly when coupled with the ability to capture content, are especially useful for achieving complex layout effects. borderContainer()->captureStart('masterLayout', array('design' => 'headline')); echo $view->contentPane( 'menuPane', 'This is the menu pane', array('region' => 'top'), array('style' => 'background-color: darkblue;') ); echo $view->contentPane( 'navPane', 'This is the navigation pane', array('region' => 'left'), array('style' => 'width: 200px; background-color: lightblue;') ); echo $view->contentPane( 'mainPane', 'This is the main content pane area', array('region' => 'center'), array('style' => 'background-color: white;') ); echo $view->contentPane( 'statusPane', 'Status area', array('region' => 'bottom'), array('style' => 'background-color: lightgray;') ); echo $view->borderContainer()->captureEnd('masterLayout'); ]]> Dojo's form validation and input dijits are in the dijit.form tree. For more information on general usage of these elements, as well as accepted parameters, please visit the dijit.form documentation. The following dijit form elements are available in Zend Framework. Except where noted, all have the signature string ($id, $value = '', array $params = array(), array $attribs = array()). Button: dijit.form.Button. Display a form button. button( 'foo', 'Show Me!', array('iconClass' => 'myButtons'), ); ?> ]]> CheckBox: dijit.form.CheckBox. Display a checkbox. Accepts an optional fifth argument, the array $checkedOptions, which may contain either: an indexed array with two values, a checked value and unchecked value, in that order; or an associative array with the keys 'checkedValue' and 'unCheckedValue'. If $checkedOptions is not provided, 1 and 0 are assumed. checkBox( 'foo', 'bar', array(), array(), array('checkedValue' => 'foo', 'unCheckedValue' => 'bar') ); ?> ]]> ComboBox: dijit.layout.ComboBox. ComboBoxes are a hybrid between a select and a text box with autocompletion. The key difference is that you may type an option that is not in the list of available options, and it will still consider it valid input. It accepts an optional fifth argument, an associative array $options; if provided, ComboBox will be rendered as a select. Note also that the label values of the $options array will be returned in the form -- not the values themselves. Alternately, you may pass information regarding a dojo.data datastore to use with the element. If provided, the ComboBox will be rendered as a text input, and will pull its options via that datastore. To specify a datastore, provide one of the following $params key combinations: The key 'store', with an array value; the array should contain the keys: store: the name of the javascript variable representing the datastore (this could be the name you would like for it to use). type: the datastore type to use; e.g., 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore'. params (optional): an associative array of key and value pairs to use to configure the datastore. The 'url' param is a typical example. The keys: store: a string indicating the datastore name to use. storeType: a string indicating the datastore dojo.data type to use (e.g., 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore'). storeParams: an associative array of key and value pairs with which to configure the datastore. comboBox( 'foo', 'bar', array( 'autocomplete' => false, ), array(), array( 'foo' => 'Foo', 'bar' => 'Bar', 'baz' => 'Baz', ) ); // As a dojo.data-enabled element: echo $view->comboBox( 'foo', 'bar', array( 'autocomplete' => false, 'store' => 'stateStore', 'storeType' => 'dojo.data.ItemFileReadStore', 'storeParams' => array('url' => '/js/states.json'), ), ); ]]> CurrencyTextBox: dijit.form.CurrencyTextBox. Inherits from ValidationTextBox, and provides client-side validation of currency. It expects that the dijit parameter 'currency' will be provided with an appropriate 3-character currency code. You may also specify any dijit parameters valid for ValidationTextBox and TextBox. currencyTextBox( 'foo', '$25.00', array('currency' => 'USD'), array('maxlength' => 20) ); ]]> There are currently known issues with using CurrencyTextBox with build layers. A known work-around is to ensure that your document's Content-Type http-equiv meta tag sets the character set to utf-8, which you can do by calling: headMeta()->appendHttpEquiv('Content-Type', 'text/html; charset=utf-8'); ]]> This will mean, of course, that you will need to ensure that the headMeta() placeholder is echoed in your layout script. DateTextBox: dijit.form.DateTextBox. Inherits from ValidationTextBox, and provides both client-side validation of dates, as well as a dropdown calendar from which to select a date. You may specify any dijit parameters available to ValidationTextBox or TextBox. dateTextBox( 'foo', '2008-07-11', array('required' => true) ); ]]> Editor: dijit.Editor. Provides a WYSIWYG editor via which users may create or edit content. dijit.Editor is a pluggable, extensible editor with a variety of parameters you can utilize for customization; see the dijit.Editor documentation for more details. editor('foo'); ]]> The Editor dijit uses an HTML DIV by default. The dijit._editor.RichText documentation indicates that having it built on an HTML TEXTAREA can potentially have security implications. In order to allow graceful degradation in environments where Javascript is unavailable, Zend_Dojo_View_Helper_Editor also wraps a TEXTAREA within a NOSCRIPT tag; the content of this TEXTAREA will be properly escaped to avoid security vulnerability vectors. FilteringSelect: dijit.form.FilteringSelect. Similar to ComboBox, this is a select and text hybrid that can either render a provided list of options or those fetched via a dojo.data datastore. Unlike ComboBox, however, FilteringSelect does not allow typing in an option not in its list. Additionally, it operates like a standard select in that the option values, not the labels, are returned when the form is submitted. Please see the information above on ComboBox for examples and available options for defining datastores. HorizontalSlider and VerticalSlider: dijit.form.HorizontalSlider and dijit.form.VerticalSlider. Sliders allow are UI widgets for selecting numbers in a given range; these are horizontal and vertical variants. At their most basic, they require the dijit parameters 'minimum', 'maximum', and 'discreteValues'. These define the range of values. Other common options are: 'intermediateChanges' can be set to indicate whether or not to fire onChange events while the handle is being dragged. 'clickSelect' can be set to allow clicking a location on the slider to set the value. 'pageIncrement' can specify the value by which to increase or decrease when pageUp and pageDown are used. 'showButtons' can be set to allow displaying buttons on either end of the slider for manipulating the value. The implication from Zend Framework creates a hidden element to store the value of the slider. You may optionally desire to show a rule or labels for the slider. To do so, you will assign one or more of the dijit params 'topDecoration' and/or 'bottomDecoration' (HorizontalSlider) or 'leftDecoration' and/or 'rightDecoration' (VerticalSlider). Each of these expects the following options: container: name of the container. labels (optional): an array of labels to utilize. Use empty strings on either end to provide labels for inner values only. Required when specifying one of the 'Labels' dijit variants. dijit (optional): one of HorizontalRule, HorizontalRuleLabels, VerticalRule, or VerticalRuleLabels, Defaults to one of the Rule dijits. params (optional): dijit params for configuring the Rule dijit in use. Parameters specific to these dijits include: container (optional): array of parameters and attributes for the rule container. labels (optional): array of parameters and attributes for the labels list container. attribs (optional): HTML attributes to use with the rules and labels. This should follow the params option format and be an associative array with the keys 'container' and 'labels'. horizontalSlider( 'foo', 1, array( 'minimum' => -10, 'maximum' => 10, 'discreteValues' => 11, 'intermediateChanges' => true, 'showButtons' => true, 'topDecoration' => array( 'container' => 'topContainer' 'dijit' => 'HorizontalRuleLabels', 'labels' => array( ' ', '20%', '40%', '60%', '80%', ' ', ), 'params' => array( 'container' => array( 'style' => 'height:1.2em; font-size=75%;color:gray;', ), 'labels' => array( 'style' => 'height:1em; font-size=75%;color:gray;', ), ), ), 'bottomDecoration' => array( 'container' => 'bottomContainer' 'labels' => array( '0%', '50%', '100%', ), 'params' => array( 'container' => array( 'style' => 'height:1.2em; font-size=75%;color:gray;', ), 'labels' => array( 'style' => 'height:1em; font-size=75%;color:gray;', ), ), ), ) ); ]]> NumberSpinner: dijit.form.NumberSpinner. Text box for numeric entry, with buttons for incrementing and decrementing. Expects either an associative array for the dijit parameter 'constraints', or simply the keys 'min', 'max', and 'places' (these would be the expected entries of the constraints parameter as well). 'places' can be used to indicate how much the number spinner will increment and decrement. numberSpinner( 'foo', 5, array( 'min' => -10, 'max' => 10, 'places' => 2, ), array( 'maxlenth' => 3, ) ); ]]> NumberTextBox: dijit.form.NumberTextBox. NumberTextBox provides the ability to format and display number entries in a localized fashion, as well as validate numerical entries, optionally against given constraints. numberTextBox( 'foo', 5, array( 'places' => 4, 'type' => 'percent', ), array( 'maxlength' => 20, ) ); ]]> PasswordTextBox: dijit.form.ValidationTextBox tied to a password input. PasswordTextBox provides the ability to create password input that adheres to the current dijit theme, as well as allow for client-side validation. passwordTextBox( 'foo', '', array( 'required' => true, ), array( 'maxlength' => 20, ) ); ]]> RadioButton: dijit.form.RadioButton. A set of options from which only one may be selected. This behaves in every way like a regular radio, but has a look-and-feel consistent with other dijits. RadioButton accepts an optional fifth argument, $options, an associative array of value and label pairs used as the radio options. You may also pass these as the $attribs key options. radioButton( 'foo', 'bar', array(), array(), array( 'foo' => 'Foo', 'bar' => 'Bar', 'baz' => 'Baz', ) ); ]]> SimpleTextarea: dijit.form.SimpleTextarea. These act like normal textareas, but are styled using the current dijit theme. You do not need to specify either the rows or columns attributes; use ems or percentages for the width and height, instead. simpleTextarea( 'foo', 'Start writing here...', array(), array('style' => 'width: 90%; height: 5ems;') ); ]]> SubmitButton: a dijit.form.Button tied to a submit input element. See the Button view helper for more details; the key difference is that this button can submit a form. Textarea: dijit.form.Textarea. These act like normal textareas, except that instead of having a set number of rows, they expand as the user types. The width should be specified via a style setting. textarea( 'foo', 'Start writing here...', array(), array('style' => 'width: 300px;') ); ]]> TextBox: dijit.form.TextBox. This element is primarily present to provide a common look-and-feel between various dijit elements, and to provide base functionality for the other TextBox-derived classes (ValidationTextBox, NumberTextBox, CurrencyTextBox, DateTextBox, and TimeTextBox). Common dijit parameter flags include 'lowercase' (cast to lowercase), 'uppercase' (cast to UPPERCASE), 'propercase' (cast to Proper Case), and trim (trim leading and trailing whitespace); all accept boolean values. Additionally, you may specifiy the parameters 'size' and 'maxLength'. textBox( 'foo', 'some text', array( 'trim' => true, 'propercase' => true, 'maxLength' => 20, ), array( 'size' => 20, ) ); ]]> TimeTextBox: dijit.form.TimeTextBox. Also in the TextBox family, TimeTextBox provides a scrollable drop down selection of times from which a user may select. Dijit parameters allow you to specify the time increments available in the select as well as the visible range of times available. timeTextBox( 'foo', '', array( 'am.pm' => true, 'visibleIncrement' => 'T00:05:00', // 5-minute increments 'visibleRange' => 'T02:00:00', // show 2 hours of increments ), array( 'size' => 20, ) ); ]]> ValidationTextBox: dijit.form.ValidateTextBox. Provide client-side validations for a text element. Inherits from TextBox. Common dijit parameters include: invalidMessage: a message to display when an invalid entry is detected. promptMessage: a tooltip help message to use. regExp: a regular expression to use to validate the text. Regular expression does not require boundary markers. required: whether or not the element is required. If so, and the element is embedded in a dijit.form.Form, it will be flagged as invalid and prevent submission. validationTextBox( 'foo', '', array( 'required' => true, 'regExp' => '[\w]+', 'invalidMessage' => 'No spaces or non-word characters allowed', 'promptMessage' => 'Single word consisting of alphanumeric ' . 'characters and underscores only', ), array( 'maxlength' => 20, ) ); ]]> If you delve into Dojo much at all, you'll find yourself writing custom dijits, or using experimental dijits from Dojox. While Zend Framework cannot support every dijit directly, it does provide some rudimentary support for arbitrary dijit types via the CustomDijit view helper. The CustomDijit view helper's API is exactly that of any other dijit, with one major difference: the third "params" argument must contain the attribute "dojotype". The value of this attribute should be the Dijit class you plan to use. CustomDijit extends the base DijitContainer view helper, which also allows it to capture content (using the captureStart()/captureEnd() pair of methods). captureStart() also expects that you pass the "dojoType" attribute to its "params" argument. dojox.layout.ContentPane is a next-generation iteration of dijit.layout.ContentPane, and provides a superset of that class's capabilities. Until it's functionality stabilizes, it will continue to live in Dojox. However, if you want to use it in Zend Framework today, you can, using the CustomDijit view helper. At its most basic, you can do the following: customDijit( 'foo', $content, array( 'dojoType' => 'dojox.layout.ContentPane', 'title' => 'Custom pane', 'region' => 'center' ) ); ?> ]]> If you wanted to capture content instead, simply use the captureStart() method, and pass the "dojoType" to the "params" argument: customDijit()->captureStart( 'foo', array( 'dojoType' => 'dojox.layout.ContentPane', 'title' => 'Custom pane', 'region' => 'center' ) ); ?> This is the content of the pane customDijit()->captureEnd('foo'); ?> ]]> You can also extend CustomDijit easily to create support for your own custom dijits. As an example, if you extended dijit.layout.ContentPane to create your own foo.ContentPane class, you could create the following helper to support it: customDijit($id, $value, $params, $attribs); } } ]]> As long as your custom dijit follows the same basic API as official dijits, using or extending CustomDijit should work correctly.