The developers at Esri created the ArcGIS JavaScript API using the Dojo framework. Dojo provides a large assortment of tools, libraries, and UI controls that work across multiple browsers. Any developer can create custom applications with UI elements that work well together using Dojo and the ArcGIS JavaScript API. Also, Dojo provides the AMD tools necessary to develop your own custom widgets, libraries, and controls.

In the previous chapters, we've reviewed the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, and we've written a small application using the API. We've even incorporated some basic principles of AMD into a single page application. What we've done so far would work great with a smaller application.

But what happens when applications get larger? Are we going to implement a single script to load all the components we need for a larger application? How are we going to extend the functionality of our website? What if we update our libraries and something breaks? Are we...