Basic steps for creating an application with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript

Now that we've got some of the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript out of the way it's time to actually get to work and learn how to build some great GIS web applications! The material in this chapter will introduce you to some of the fundamental concepts that define how you create a map and add information to the map in the form of layers.

There are several steps that you'll need to follow for creating any GIS web application with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. These steps will always need to be performed if you intend to have a map as part of your application. And I can't imagine that you wouldn't want to do that, given that you're reading this book! In a nutshell,there are several steps you need to follow:

• Create the HTML code for the page
• Reference the ArcGIS API for JavaScript and style sheets
• Load modules
• Make sure the DOM is available
• Create the map
• Define page content
• Style the page
• The entire code