Chapter 2. Core Concepts
Introduction
In this chapter, we’ll cover the core concepts of Enyo that we only touched on in the last chapter. You will be able to write powerful apps after absorbing the information in just this chapter. We’ll go over the concepts one by one and illustrate each with code you can run in your browser.
One of the driving ideas behind Enyo is that you can combine simple pieces to create more complex ones. Enyo introduces four concepts to assist you: kinds, encapsulation, components, and layout. We’ll cover components and layout more thoroughly in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, respectively.
Kinds
Enyo is an object-oriented framework. It is true that every JavaScript application regardless of framework (or lack thereof) contains objects. However, Enyo’s core features provide a layer on top of JavaScript that makes it easier to express object-oriented concepts such as inheritance and encapsulation.
In Enyo, kinds are the building blocks that make up apps. The widgets that appear on screen are instances of kinds, as are the objects that perform Ajax requests. Kinds are not strictly for making visual components. Basically, kinds provide a template from which the actual objects that make up your app are generated.
Be Kind
One of the simplest possible declarations for a kind is:
enyo.kind({name:'MyKind'});
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