Ext 2.0: A Preview
September 6, 2007 by ReyBango
The development of Ext 2.0 continues to move forward with some exceptional new features being rolled into the framework. The team has really focused on enhancing the desktop-like experience that Ext already provides by introducing new functionality, improving performance and keeping the overall file size down. Below are a few examples from the 2.0 samples page.
Grouping & Group Summary
Ext 2.0 will introduce highly configurable single-level column grouping capabilities as well as summary rollups at the group level. These two additions are critical in decision support (DSS) and report intensive applications. Important to note is that Ext’s grid sorting functionality continues to work as expected, sorting data within each group set as opposed to sorting the whole grid.
The group summaries support multiple types of calculations and are implemented as a Ext.Component plugin which allows Ext users to decorate existing UI components with their own custom functionality.
Scrolling Tabs
One of the things I like best abut Ext 2.0 are the new scrolling tabs. I think Jack says it best:
Call me crazy, but I can sit, click and play with these tabs all day.
The tab metaphor is synonymous, from a UX perspective, with segmenting unique sections of data with the context of a page. With increased demand for data presentation via tabs, without the reciprocal increase in screen real estate, the team took a step back and decided to rethink the way that tab controls should function. The approach was to allow as many tabs as necessary to be created and display them within a scrolling metaphor. By extending the Ext.TabPanel control with a new “autoScroll” directive, all tabs added to the panel instantly fall into the scrollable behavior of the tab panel:
var tabs = new Ext.TabPanel({ renderTo:'tabs', resizeTabs:true, // turn on tab resizing minTabWidth: 115, tabWidth:135, enableTabScroll:true, width:600, height:250, defaults: {autoScroll:true}, plugins: new Ext.ux.TabCloseMenu() });
We’ve received very positive feedback from earlier testers and feel that this approach provides a great blend of flexibility, aesthetics and functionality.
Anchor Layout
A common theme in desktop applications is the ability for form fields to be anchored to fit the size of their container. Unfortunately, HTML & CSS don’t easily lend themselves to this type of behavior, throwing off form element positions unless carefully crafted styles are created. Even with that, inconsistencies across browsers forces even further hacks to be developed to ensure that form elements remained positioned as expected.
The team extended the FormPanel component to allow form controls (and other components) to be anchored to a specific size within a specific container.
var form = new Ext.form.FormPanel({ baseCls: 'x-plain', labelWidth: 55, url:'save-form.php', defaultType: 'textfield', items: [{ fieldLabel: 'Send To', name: 'to', anchor:'100%' // anchor width by percentage },{ fieldLabel: 'Subject', name: 'subject', anchor: '100%' // anchor width by percentage },{ xtype: 'textarea', hideLabel: true, name: 'msg', anchor: '100% -53' // anchor width by percentage and height by raw adjustment }] });
The code for this is fairly straightforward allowing flexibility to decide how the height and width of the anchored fields should be affected by a resize of the container panel.
Column Tree
In Ext 2.0, one thing we’ve focused on is providing examples of customizing Ext UI components. The example below demonstrates how easily the Ext tree panel can be customized to add support for columns in the nodes. A prime example of an application the could benefit from this would be a project planner as demonstrated below:
Web Desktop
A common theme for the Ext framework is building rich web applications that can barely be distinguished from true desktop applications. Everything from the look and feel of a control to smooth transitions in DnD are considered when building out the controls. The Web desktop sample is a culmination of this effort and demonstrates how Ext can be leveraged to build a desktop like experience within the context of a browser.
Notice in the screenshot that modeless windows are being used within an MDI (Multiple Document Interface) paradigm to display data to the user. In addition, the Webtop has a taskbar implementation, again similar to many operating systems, that allow ease in determining with tasks are currently open within the webtop and fast switching between the open tasks.
More 2.0 Samples
All of the 2.0 samples can be seen at the Ext 2.0 Samples page. Additional samples are available in SVN.
2.0 Availability
The 2.0 codebase has stabilized over the past couple weeks and we hope to have an official release in the near future. Ext 2.0 is available to early access subscribers in the Ext SVN under branches/ext2.0.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Looks stellar as usual! I am looking forward to the public release of 2.0.
Great work by the ExtJS team and the community who have been so supportive by embracing the library, developing user extensions and helping others learn the library.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 9:46 am
[...] we are moving towards Ext 2.0, and the team has announced new features in a preview that continue the tradition: A common theme for the Ext framework is building rich web [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 10:15 am
kick ass guys!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Amazing stuff…can’t wait for public release, I think I’ll buy a subscription soon…:)
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Work is so much fun now we’re using Ext – Great work guys!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 10:44 am
[...] we are moving towards Ext 2.0, and the team has announced new features in a preview that continue the tradition: A common theme for the Ext framework is building rich web [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 11:06 am
You guys continue to blow me away. Tumultuous applause for the core developers and the vital community who patiently explain how it all works day in and day out. Foaming at the mouth for a stable release of 2.0.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 11:06 am
This is going to be amazing. I can’t wait to roll this out and upgrade our Ext 1.1 app!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 11:23 am
[...] Ext JS Blog gibt es einen Ausblick auf die kommende Version 2.0 der Ext JS [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] interesting features, with even more coming in the 2.0 release. They released a preview on their blog today showing off some of the new kit that will be available in the next release. “A common [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Thank you for helping to make my web apps not look like crap. That’s all I can say.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
[...] we are moving towards Ext 2.0, and the team has announced new features in a preview that continue the tradition: A common theme for the Ext framework is building rich web [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
so great! I want use it at soon!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
damn, the 2.0 looks good cant wait to migrate from 1.1
you guys rawk !!!
keep up the good job
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Can anyone remember life without Ext?
Can’t wait for the future… Where’s the Doc?
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
This is really amazing… What have we all been doing the last few years?
As I said in the forum: The hardest part of ExtJS is reading the docs of this well documented library, for everything I needed so far was already there. You just need to find the right name for the right feature.
Carry on, this is one of the best things I encountered on the web!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Stellar.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Wow this is looking awesome! I have a whole application developed in Dojo 0.4.2. I don’t really like the way things are going with Dojo 0.9 and extjs is starting to look very appealing. I have to further investigate and actually try and do something with extjs but I hope developing is as clean as it looks and I might covert future apps to use extjs rather than Dojo.
Keep up the good work guys!
- Jake
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
If my wife and I ever have twins, we’re naming them “Jack” and “Slocum” (yes, even if they’re girls). From early 0.x beta versions to 2.0, it just keeps getting better — I’ve never had this much fun and satisfaction developing projects with any other framework.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Great stuff ..hope for speed inprovement and more documentation…Maybe releasing a book and video tutorials.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Thanks everyone for the great comments.
@MD
lol, please send me the newspaper announcement.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Jack,
Please stop this. It’s bad for my clients, I spend more time looking and messing with your codebase than doing any real work.
It is indeed a pleasure working with your framework. I just hope more companies start to introduce it. I am doing my upmost to advocate it’s use.
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
will Ext 3.0 write code for me?!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
OMG!!
Awesome, that looks so good!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
“will Ext 3.0 write code for me?!”
And can it make coffee ?
That’s really great job !
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
damn right
looks very good – congrats!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
thanks,your handwork!
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
[...] get to the business of writing great applications. Head over to the Ext blog to find out more. Ext JS Blog – » Ext 2.0: A Preview [?] Share [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
thanks for all of the team
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
a wonder of javascript ui
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
[...] we are moving towards Ext 2.0, and the team has announced new features in a preview that continue the tradition: A common theme for the Ext framework is building rich web [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
[...] Ext 2.0: A Preview The Web desktop demonstrates how the use of standards based technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, and the DOM can be leveraged to build a desktop-like experience within the context of a browser. (tags: Ext UI Desktop_Apps) [...]
Posted on September 6th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
[...] Bango shows a preview of what is coming in Ext 2.0. Add to del.icio.us • Digg this! [...]
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Wow, I cannot say anything its great, congrats to EXT team.
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Ext…Always on my mind:~)
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 3:36 am
wow – the examples are fantastic!
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 4:07 am
Damn, this looks so beautiful… can’t wait for the stable release!
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 4:22 am
[...] Link: http://extjs.com/blog/2007/09/06/ext-20-a-preview/ [...]
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 4:37 am
So good! Thank you very much.
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 8:09 am
这个JS库太牛了，佩服佩服 ^______^
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I can’t keep up with this. Every client I show this to wants it….and I’m still on 1.1
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Yes…very good…Thanks !!!
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I have spent quite a while to browse Ext 2.0 code, which is very well organized and has thoughtful design. If I were computer science professor, I would like to use Ext 2.0 to teach students how to write perfect code.
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 11:05 am
[...] сайта на ExtJS се появи новина за предстоящите новости във версия 2.0 Оставям на вас да се запознаете с [...]
Posted on September 7th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I have recently conducted a review of seven JavaScript frameworks (you can probalby guess most of not all of them). Ext only made it to the list at the end of the review and just as well. I can say now with significant confidence that this is right up there in particular when you measure on completeness of delivery against vision. V1.1 appears to be trully stable and very well documented. V2.0 appears to represent a good step forward (strangely Panels which we identified as a basic need are there in 2.0 but not 1.1 or am I missing something?
It is without doubt that frameworks like Ext spell the death of Flash and Flex as ways to deliver Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and begin to bridge the gap between desktop applications and a trully connected world.
Jack, you and your collegues (along with those responsible for other JS libraries) will be written up in the history of the Internet as responsible for a turning point. You deserve rich rewards and I for one will be purchasing a commercial license.
My thanks.
Posted on September 8th, 2007 at 3:08 am
In the name of God
That’s really interesting. I adore ExtJS.
Best Wishes.
Posted on September 8th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Excellent!
Posted on September 8th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Great stuff, keep up with good working Jack…
i’m looking forward to see Ext 3.0
Posted on September 8th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
[...] Ext 2.0: A Preview Version 2 of the Ext javascript framework looks very impressive. Examples include Scrolling Tabs, Column Tree, and Web Desktop. I’ve never used this framework but it looks intriguing. http://extjs.com/blog/2007/09/06/ext-20-a-preview/ [...]
Posted on September 9th, 2007 at 12:53 am
I always though “js” stood for javascript, but apparently it means Jack Slocum!
Is there a good link to read more about what 2.0 is going to be about?
Thanks.
Posted on September 9th, 2007 at 5:42 am
That looks great !
I look forward to try EXT JS 2.0
Posted on September 9th, 2007 at 8:32 am
i try some of new features and it’s marvelous!!!
Posted on September 9th, 2007 at 10:02 am
ziggy,
Other than various forum posts in the Prerelease forum, the code and this blog post there isn’t must additional information available. We are working on the docs now.
Posted on September 9th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Its going to be a long, (and hopefully) productive, winter, with all these great new tools… Stuff like this sells itself.
Posted on September 9th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
great work! i want to try it as soon as possible
Posted on September 10th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Looks amazing as usual!!! I have already migrated all projects from Dojo to ExtJS 1.1 during the last month
Just wondering if the 2.0 will allow more flexibility(size & functionality) in building the package (using the “build your own” page)?
Posted on September 10th, 2007 at 7:13 am
太牛了！！中国人来的不少！！
Posted on September 10th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I love the forward-thinking going on with 2.0, however, has anyone else ever been as annoyed as me at the lack of examples in the documentation for Ext versions
Posted on September 10th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
[...] could be added to it, it is already so comprehensive. How wrong I was. Just have a look at this [link] to know what lies in store for all of us in Ext 2.0 which will be released [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Is there any estimate for delivery Ext 2.0 for public use? Any dates?
Thanks.
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 4:52 am
good job, looking forward for the final release.
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 8:13 am
[...] stronie extjs.com można zapoznać się z wersją poglądową biblioteki Ext 2.0. Wersja 2.0 kładzie nacisk na [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
[...] most you the title might sound little crazy, I was high over heels when I saw the examples hosted on the website. Believe me it was kick ass, wow – desktop widgets ready at your [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
where is download 2.0?
like as Desktop!!
wooohooo!!!
cute cute… very nice!!
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
[...] most you the title might sound little crazy, I was high over heels when I saw the examples hosted on the website. Believe me it was kick ass, wow – desktop widgets ready at your [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
It’s cool , i like it
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 5:38 am
Unfortunately, none of the samples works with IE 6 SP 2.
I get javascript errors on all pages.
Marc
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 7:43 am
I found out why I got javascript errors with among them some : IE 6 SP 2 has by default the option “use http 1.1 with a proxy connection” unchecked.
Checking it solved the problem. (At my place at work we connect to the Internet through a proxy).
Marc
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Fantastic stuff as usual!
Thank you so much
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 9:16 am
is very cool!
NB!
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Web developer using cold fusion..
Wondeing how this cool ext works..?
Where they live on the server.?
How are they accessed by the browser?
If CF we have a custom_tags folder, is it the same with this…
I wanted to try it out.. but no matter what i did.. i could not get it to work..
Any help..?
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
A couple of questions…
I am interested to know if it still will run side by side with jQuery?
How do I get on the early release list. Do paid users get on the list or what?
Thanks
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Very cool!
Thanks!
Posted on September 12th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
so cool…
Posted on September 13th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Thank you! This is amazing! Web never will be the same.
Posted on September 14th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Cool Stuff! I spend a lot time to dig in Web 2.0 space but extjs is unique.
When will see any public releas of extjs 2.0. We want to start using it as soon as possible.
Posted on September 14th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
that’s a great demo. can’t wait for the ext 2.0 release !!
Posted on September 15th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Hi, this is very impressive!
On mac os x I am getting these loppipop scroll bars though, would it be possible to have scroll bars that fit the ext theme?
Cheers,
– Fabio
Posted on September 16th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Very nice. I was just wondering how you would like bugs reported. Here is a simple one you might like to know about…
Advanced Tabs
http://extjs.com/playpen/ext-2.0-dev5/examples/tabs/tabs-adv.html
Using Safari 3.03
If you keep adding tabs (I added 77 in the end) it scrolls the tabs to the second line. However, you can only scroll to the right of the bottom line, and not the top. Thus in my example the last on the right is 35 on the top and 77 on the bottom, while the first is 1 on the top and 46 on the bottom. My guess is that the scrolling is limited to the last one on the right position, not the most right object.
Thanks
Scott
Posted on September 17th, 2007 at 4:40 am
멋지네요..^^
Posted on September 17th, 2007 at 4:41 am
COOL!!!!
Posted on September 17th, 2007 at 10:27 am
GOOD！
国内的兄体们要加速了。
Posted on September 18th, 2007 at 1:48 am
So amazing!!!
Posted on September 19th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
[...] 사용한지 얼마 안되었는데 벌써 2.0프리뷰 페이지를 2007년 9월 6일 공개하였다. 머지않아서 릴리즈가 될것 같기도 [...]
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Hi,
I loaded another inteface idea for sorting/grouping – http://www.4shared.com/file/24643565/f607daca/2007-09-17Sort00.html
You might take some ideas. In general I do not think it is a good idea to show not paginated results and this is how normally grouping works. It hard to consume results when they are grouped but paginated.
Another idea – is to allow to sort by more than one column by holding CTRL when clicking next sorting column,
Lets say we have [Customer Name] ASC and now user holds Ctrl and clicks [Postcode]. Now we have [Customer Name] ASC, [Postcode] ASC. If user will hold CTRL and click [Postcode] again he will get [Customer Name] ASC, [Postcode] DESC. And he will click [Postcode] without holding CTRL he will get only [Postcode] ASC now.
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 6:01 am
太酷了，特别是 window and the status bar, seems more like a desktop application, so cool, I like it
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I Like Chicken !
Posted on September 21st, 2007 at 6:33 am
期待已久，期盼2.0 release的发布！！Great Job Jack:)
Posted on September 21st, 2007 at 11:58 am
When?
Posted on September 21st, 2007 at 5:02 pm
When?
Posted on September 21st, 2007 at 8:31 pm
promote blog…
I found your blog through Big Yellow House! Im glad I did! Blessings….
Posted on September 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 am
WHEN?!?!?
Posted on September 22nd, 2007 at 7:44 am
This amazing library saves 90% of the time I’m consuming for JS while working on desktop like web applications. Thanks!
Posted on September 22nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
[...] 刚刚在ajaxian上看到消息说Ext 出2.0的预览版了，可以到这里来查看效果，或者是去看Youtub上的演示，这里还有官方的发布消息，说是测了几个礼拜，已经很稳定了，打算过一段时间出正式版。如果你想尝鲜的话，可以去它的SVN上下载代码。 [...]
Posted on September 25th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Holy crap Jack! I never even got v1.0 and v1.1 on to a production site. Now I’ll have to re-work my whole strategy and work out how to use all the new toys. It’s people like you that make us lesser developers look … well, lesser. If you keep on adding new features how am I ever going to finish my CD Library Cataloging Application!
Impressive stuff, keep it up.
Posted on September 26th, 2007 at 2:02 am
Scrolling Tabs in firefox 3.0 Alpha 8 ,error
Posted on September 26th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I love this stuff, so much fun to play with the examples. Only problem, I don’t have the guts to try it for real. I’m an ASP.NET developer, and I’d have to switch my whole way of working (the webforms way). But it sure beats that crappy ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit, Ext is way ahead of even Microsoft.
If the documentation could have some guidelines for server side requirements/best practices that would help a lot, because there’s not much on the forums about using Ext with ASP.NET.
Posted on September 27th, 2007 at 5:26 am
实在难以想象JS还可以写出这样的东西。没什么好说的，以后大家多用就是了。
国内的朋友是否有兴趣一起做个站推广EXT？
Posted on September 27th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Hi Everybody
thanks 2.0 is really cool
but…as example
if in the Web Desktop:: Grid Window using more data then in example… very-very slowly!
Posted on September 27th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Hi, I want to try ext 2.0, OK?
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 6:24 am
hi,
can’t wait to try this one… is there a demo version i can download somewhere?
does the new version will fix the RTL issue in grids and forms, and the non-Latin languages submit in forms?
ThanX,
Yaniv
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Great Job.
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Ext 2.0 alpha launched and is too cool. can wait to test it.
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
at last the ext 2.0 is released!
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
at last the ext 2.0 alpha 1 is released!
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Yes the alpha is up.
We will have a post about it shortly!
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
[...] In our last posting, we went into detail about some of the new features in Ext 2.0. Many of these features are unique to the Ext 2.0 framework and will make developing desktop-like application substantially easier. These include: [...]
Posted on September 28th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
[...] Ext 2.0经过一段时间的preview之后，终于开放alpha的版本下载了。在起预览之时就提到了新增的特性，包括：Scrolling Tabs,TreeView增强等等，提供了全新的文档中心和样例演示（包括了一个portal演示，还记得之前我们提到过的xlinus提供的基于prototype的portal吗？呵呵）。另外大家要注意的是很多ext爱好者都会提供一些themes和plugin，都会在ext的forum中讨论和发布。 [...]
Posted on October 9th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Am I falling in love with ExtJS? So cool, I have never felt so safe coding for JavaScript! Best wishes for everything ahead!
Posted on October 29th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
[...] 临发布2.0前对ExtJS作者Jack Slocum的访谈作者 Scott Delap译者 Frank Cheung 发布于 2007年10月11日 上午8时9分 社区 Java 主题 Web框架 在Ext下一个版本的预览文章发布近一个月之后，ExtJS团队最近发布了该框架的2.0 alpha版本 ，包含以下新功能: [...]
Posted on December 13th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
hello…
nice…
Posted on May 10th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Duwir’s Formmailer
Sich finden ist eben eine private Angelegenheit und nichts für das Massenpublikum.
Posted on July 15th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
aricept
is aricept is short supply