Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
Ext JS goes live
Category: Announcements
, Ext
We have been holding our breath a little on this one. Ext JS hasn’t been a secret, but the site wasn’t complete and live until now, and we didn’t want to hammer poor Jack Slocum with an Ajaxian post until he said he was ready!
The new site launch comes with more than just the Ext code that we have already talked about.
It also features:
- Fresh Feed Reader is a sample Apollo application uses Ext JS for the HTML/Ajax side of things
- Indycar “has an updated “Live Timing & Scoring” feature for 2007, implemented using Ext DomHelper and UpdateManager components. The application updates race statistics and positions live while races are underway. The Indycar.com website also features a powerful administration interface featuring Ext grids, views and forms”
- Tutorial: Beginning Using the Grid Component
Congrats to Jack and the Ext JS team. We are excited to see what is to come.
4.2 rating from 88 votes
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT work. I’m so drolling all over it, can’t wait to get started working on my next version of the software using all Jack has to offer.
Though, i still don’t really understand why would someone need a commerical license (unless premium support is part of the purchase) when it’s under LPGL? I thought LPGL can be used anywhere even in commerical applications.
I’ve been living and breathing Ext JS for weeks now, and I can ay that it is great. It has the best widgets, and the best code.
It can work on top of YUI or jQuery or Prototype: it only misses a MochiKit wrapper. Jack, pretty please? 8-}
I noticed the site said “premium support” and they charge tons for it.
Very impressive and cool, I think there is currently no other library can beat this. But I notice the loading time, there is a lot to load before it can work…
This is simply brilliant stuff.
I’ve been using the alpha and beta for a month or so now (well since it started supporting prototype / scriptaculous) and can honestly say that this is the business.
Only downside is the lack of documentation for a lot of the lower level stuff, but I suppose Jack’s going to have to get his bread from somewhere :) … if you can read javascript then you can figure it out.
I don’t get it… I expected a sample for the Adobe rrs reader but… where the heck is it?? all I see is a download link for an “air” file… do I first need to install Apollo? why?
Marc… you don’t think it’s perfectly reasonable and logical that an Apollo app requires the Apollo runtime?
I can completely understand what Marc is saying. - We were all patting AJAX on the back for the fact it doesn’t need the use of external runtimes, etc. not too long ago (I’m sure I could dig up articles and comments from this very site!)… now people are effectively “doing a 180″ on what many have said.
For me, it’s nice to be able to deliver a web-application without people needing to download Flash, Java, Apollo, etc. runtimes.
I really like YUI-Ext and Jack’s work… but I don’t like the idea of creating applications as .air files that require an external runtime to operate… so… I’m going to sit back a bit longer and see what my customers reactions are to it.
For the administration side or within a fixed, small group of people… I don’t see it being a problem, but for those that want to make widely used applications where people can just go to the site and instantly start working… I’m not sure about Apollo and wonder how many people will just say ‘goodbye’ to the site and find one that doesn’t require downloads, installations, etc. and all that crap.
As a simplistic example… an Apollo digg-clone… won’t fair as well as a non-Apollo digg-clone.
Of course I do Patrick… but I expected a working sample on their website… so it could make me enthusiastic about the possibilities and perhaps even make me download the Apollo runtime to experiment. All I see now is a static jpg.
…the rant was more about me being pretty disappointed and wanting to click.
And to Tim, I agree to a point. It’s the client who’s gonna pay for whatever you are going to need to install on their servers if they aren’t on a shared host. But if it develops whatever they want in a split second, maybe…
For me, I’m going to stick with php/classic asp and .NET for now, although I’m still curious how it performs.
It would be nice to see a video of it or something, I cant be bothered installing apollo to see this.
But seriously, how long is it going to take Apollo to roll out? So its worth developing for. How big is the download for it?
I guess if they included it with a flash update it would be pretty fast at getting around.
YES the commercial license includes premium support and NO it DOES NOT cost you tons at all…. rather it is quite inexpensive if you compare it with other libraries
Hey, morans. Adobe stole Jack’s work and used it in their product. The link to Apollo is not to highlight Jack’s work but to show Jack’s work inside Apollo. Jack’s Ext feed reader can be seen at the old web site here: http://www.yui-ext.com/deploy/yui-ext/examples/layout/feed-viewer.html (there isn’t an updated one compatible with the latest ExtJS just yet).
Get a grip.
How is having an example of an Apollo app made with Ext a negative? Who cares if you need the Apollo runtime, I don’t. I swear sometimes devs can be so thick. If you have a problem with Apollo fine, it shouldn’t reflect as a negative against Ext.
Back to the subject.
Ext is a fabulously slick GUI library which kicks the crap out of its competitors. I wish Jack good luck with his venture and hope that he makes bundles of cash to reward his hard work.
Here a sample of what Ext can do
http://www.rodrigodiniz.qsh.eu/QueryAnaliser.aspx
Our company has been evaluating JS toolkits for some time and Ext is very promising. The internal design is impressive and highly extensible. The documentation system is fantastic, although not complete but it looks like it’s on track to be complete by the final release of Ext 1.0 on Apr. 15. The core functionality of the components is amazingly powerful. They are simple to implement and look great.
We think this library is a rising star and is beginning to stand out from what is becoming a densely packed crowd of JavaScript component libraries.
sdfsdsf sdf
I think someone said it here once - it’s becoming the Swing of javascript.
I’ve been using ext from the early days on some pet projects. Jack has done an amazing job on the library. To clear up some confusion, the corporate license not only give you tech support but you are financially supporting the great guy who built this for all of us to use.
he’s done good work on the licensing side of things (dont worry u can use ext just like any other open source library)
http://extjs.com/license
read it if you’re confused as to why there are $$$ signs all over the site
I love the look of this. The Grid component/widget looks fantastic and a cinch to use!
http://redsil.com/blog/?p=14
Upon quick glance there does not seem to be much difference between Ext JS and jQuery. Am I missing something?
There are so many JavaScript libraries out there now that we really need a comparison matrix to comprehend which one to choose.
@pd, after reading the first tutorial I had the same thought, but the power of Ext is the components (and, for me, the fact they all seem to work flawlessly in Opera). The base Ext code is just another good JS lib, like jQuery. I haven’t tested the Ext for jQuery plugin yet (distributed w/ Ext).
@pd: Ext is not a replacement for jQuery/Prototype/YUI… it just enhances them by providing a layer of awesome UI components and utilities. Ext is actually built on TOP of jQuery (or Prototype, or YUI… you get to choose your library of choice and then Ext sits on top of it).
Jack needs to port this to Moo.
A moo bridge is currently being made Karl.
Just wait a little bit more :)
It would be nice if there was some research done on which underlying JS library (prototype, yui, or jquery) had the best performance using EXT.. plus any other pros and cons that may exist.
Jack, if you’re reading this, any comments?
Can’t wait for the moo bridge myself…these widgets are excellent
I wonder how long until the lower-level toolkits are built to plug into Ext rather than vice versa.
Think it will one day work with the MS Ajax library?
I hope it does, because Ext has so many things that the MS Toolkit does’t have.
Re: “I think someone said it here once - it’s becoming the Swing of javascript.”
Qooxdoo is the best contender for Swing of JavaScript. Qooxdoo is technologically far out ahead of every other JavaScript framework. Really nice OO extensions, supports models for many component types, supports theming, supports layout managers, can style without CSS and no HTML required. Go with Qooxdoo over HTML/CSS/JQuery/Prototype - because: when’s the last time you used assembly language?
It’s now October, two months since my last comment. Ext 2.0 is in Beta now and it should be released by the end of October. In Ext 2.0, they’ve added more and more what I like about Java Swing: namely a plethora of new layout managers so you don’t have to mess with CSS layouts. They also added an Action mechanism to be able to plug shared actions into menu items and buttons and such. Really, really awesome and there is lots more cool stuff and polish. It took me a bit to want to get used to object declarations in Ext vs the Swing APIs imperative approach - but everything seems to be pretty quick and easy.
doesn’t work in Safari 3.x on Windows
EXT-JS is what I was waiting for.
I need someone to do freelance for a project using extjs.
Please contact me @ allan@melatti.com