JavaScript in a browser is a messy business. While you can generally avoid writing a lot of client JavaScript when doing XPages development, it will eventually be necessary to get your hands dirty. While a bit of XSP.openDialog() here and there, things can get hairy when you want to start including the same or similar code everywhere. You can move the code blocks themselves off to a script library, but then you're still stuck including function calls inline.

Enter dojo.behavior. I ran across dojo.behavior when I was looking for a replacement for event:Selectors, which I'd been using for years in my non-XPages web sites to patch up Domino's crummy HTML after the fact. Like event:Selectors, dojo.behavior allows you to write JavaScript blocks that are associated at runtime with elements on the page using CSS-style selectors. Possibly the best way to get an idea for how you can use it is to look at a simple (and, as usual, contrived) example:

dojo.behavior.add({
	"#linksbar a": {
		found: function(a) {
			a.target = "_blank"
		},
		onclick: function(thisEvent) {
			alert("I have been clicked!")
		}
	}
})
dojo.behavior.apply()

As you might suspect from reading it, that code looks for links inside an element with the HTML ID "linksbar" and sets them to open in a new window and, when clicked, display an alert. While you could have easily put both of these directly in the HTML/XPage source, just think about all the other things you'd potentially want to do with client JavaScript: fancy hover actions, custom expand/collapse effects, and any kind of post-render patching. It all adds up, and separating the layout from the JavaScript behavior like this can save a lot of debugging and backtracking headaches.

To actually use dojo.behavior in an XPages app, make sure to include the "dojo.behavior" Dojo module somewhere on your page, either via the XPage or CC's resources or via a theme. Then, create a JavaScript Script Library to house your behavior. I generally start with a skeleton similar to this (with the "body" function just to make sure it's set up correctly):

var DojoBehavior = {
	"body": {
		found: function() { alert("Behavior working") }
	}
}

dojo.ready(function() {
	dojo.behavior.add(DojoBehavior)
	dojo.behavior.apply()
})

Then put your code inside that first "DojoBehavior" object. Finally, include the Script Library in your page or theme and you should be all set.