Ext 2.0 (non-API) Documentation

[brian.moeskau]

Lots of people have been asking for extended overview documentation aside from just the API docs. If you are one of those people, then I have something that you just may be interested in ;).

* Ext 2.0 Overview (http://extjs.com/learn/Ext_2_Overview): A comprehensive overview of the major new areas within 2.0. The content is mostly complete, but still needs some additional links, clean-up, etc.

* 1.x to 2.0 Migration Guide (http://extjs.com/learn/Ext_1_to_2_Migration_Guide): Detailed overview of all breaking changes and the steps necessary to migrate existing code to 2.0. Several sections are still missing, but what's there is good enough to make public. I will be fleshing out the primary content within the next day or two.

Please feel free to leave comments, questions or other feedback on the discussion pages of the articles. I'll also be reworking the wiki in the coming days to better distinguish between 1.x and 2.0 content as well as updating tutorials to 2.0. Hopefully this will help everyone start to get the big picture of what's going on with all the new stuff. Let me know what you think.

[jay@moduscreate.com]

OMFG this is great.

I'm going to the migration guide!

[SeaSharp]

Excellent material. I like the pace of the document, the pace does not insult the reader which is a common problem when authors try to write a big comprehensive intro documents.

The Component life-cycle section is just what I need 2 weeks into my Ext learning curve. The Layout overview is great too.

One quibble I have is with the sequencing of the document. The document will be a natural first port of call for any technical reviewer arriving in the world of Ext looking for a technical overview. Unfortunately the initial section is targeted at the Ext 1.1 user and assumes familiarity with some Ext concepts. How about a large text link saying "New to Ext? Skip the upgrade overview".

[FritFrut]

Lots of people have been asking for extended overview documentation aside from just the API docs. If you are one of those people, then I have something that you just may be interested in ;).


This is great! Thanks a lot!

[brian.moeskau]

Unfortunately the initial section is targeted at the Ext 1.1 user and assumes familiarity with some Ext concepts. How about a large text link saying "New to Ext? Skip the upgrade overview".

Which doc are you referring to? The Migration guide points new users to the Overview doc in the first sentence, and the Overview points people to other resources for additional information about what else is in Ext aside from the new 2.0 stuff. The focus is intentionally on new 2.0 stuff (not all the major areas in Ext generally) -- that's necessary to keep the scope reasonable. A general overview of all of Ext would be great too, but that's like... a book? ;)

[SeaSharp]

Which doc are you referring to?
The "Ext 2 Overview".

The initial substantial sentences in the document read...

"Please note that there have been countless minor improvements, bug fixes and other changes across the framework from 1.x to 2.0...".

And

"While the Component and BoxComponent classes existed in 1.x, they were not fully integrated...".

My point is the requirement for a 1.1/2.0 migration perspective is short-lived but there is a long-term need for an architectural intro to Ext. After viewing the home page live examples the new visitor should be pointed to your new overview document but from a marketing perspective it begins with negatives about historical technical weaknesses and upgrade hassles. It makes Ext sound long in the tooth.

You guys are on the verge of something massive, 90% of your customers have not hit ExtJS.com yet. The overview document needs to kick off with prose overflowing with positive architectural techno claims, after all there is are no shortage of these in Ext.

[pyrolupus]

I have to disagree with you, SeaSharp, especially at this juncture. Sometime after Ext2.0 is actually released, I guess the community could look at removing or shortening the "changes from 1.x" area of the 2.0 overview. At least for now, though, nearly all of the people reading the document are folks who are either already using 1.x or who (like me) have been holding off on beginning with Ext until the introduction of 2.0.

On a different note, I really like this document, Brian. I have twiddled around with the APIs and tried the demos (some of which still don't appear to work properly in Firefox 2.x...), but this has given me a clear idea where to start with regard to how I should consider Ext2.0 in my UI layout and design.

Cool, man. Looking forward to additions and revisions.

Pyro

[J.C. Bize]

The Ext 2 Overview is a fantastic article. Really makes me wish there had been such a document for Ext 1.x, it would probably have saved me weeks of fooling around with the samples and the docs. :)

Quick note: "Column locking, while useful for a small subset of users, was not compatible with many of the new features implemented in the 2.0 GridView (e.g. grouping, summaries, etc) and lead to decreased performance"

Cheers,
JC

[mystix]

The Ext 2 Overview is a fantastic article. Really makes me wish there had been such a document for Ext 1.x, it would probably have saved me weeks of fooling around with the samples and the docs. :)

Quick note: "Column locking, while useful for a small subset of users, was not compatible with many of the new features implemented in the 2.0 GridView (e.g. grouping, summaries, etc) and lead to decreased performance"

Cheers,
JC


fixed that typo. :))

[evilized]

hello.

i'm sooo happy for the new ext :)
thx for u great works dudes.

but, i've a question....

exist a spanish version for "1.x to 2.0 Migration Guide (http://extjs.com/forum/../learn/Ext_1_to_2_Migration_Guide)" and " Ext 2.0 Overview (http://extjs.com/forum/../learn/Ext_2_Overview)"???

[crafter]

Thank you.

[mystix]

hello.

i'm sooo happy for the new ext :)
thx for u great works dudes.

but, i've a question....

exist a spanish version for "1.x to 2.0 Migration Guide (http://extjs.com/forum/../learn/Ext_1_to_2_Migration_Guide)" and " Ext 2.0 Overview (http://extjs.com/forum/../learn/Ext_2_Overview)"???

not at the moment i think. those documents are still being worked on.

[brian.moeskau]

The documents specifically ask for people to hold off on translations until they are finalized -- which should be later this week. After that, anyone can start translating them if they are interested in doing so.

[Animal]

That's great work Brian.

Are you going to cover the xtype system, and allowing for lazy instantiation at render time?

Being able to specify a config object as a child Component in the items specification is very powerful and a huge contribution to performance.

The object of the required xtype is only instantiated if it needs to be rendered.

I've added some stuff about this to the Container and Component and ComponentMgr class docs if you want to see in what terms I've tried to explain it.

[brian.moeskau]

Thanks Doc Cox. Yes, I was considering covering the xtypes as you mentioned. I'll be sure to have a look at your docs and add something into the overview.

[ApocalypseCow]

Brilliant stuff, exactly what I needed to get my 1.1 app to 2.0, much kudos! =D>

[Ben]

Excellent work, Brian (and any other contributors).

I've really been looking forward to the Migration Guide!

Thanks,
Ben

[brian.moeskau]

Ben -- thanks for reminding me to update this thread.;)

The docs are now pretty much content-complete, except for final editing (haven't added your suggestion yet Nige, but I haven't forgotten). I plan on doing a final pass through this week to add additional links, clean up text/grammar/etc. issues and remove the draft tag. If anyone has any additional comments or suggestions, please add them here or on the discussion pages of the guides within the next couple of days. Of course, once they're done, you can always edit them yourself... :)

[Animal]

Another suggestion here Brian.....

There really seems to be a lot of confusion between rendering a dynamically created Panel Component into an arbitrary DIV, and adding it to the nested ownership heirarchy.

Every day, people ask the question why, when they have a Panel as an item of a TabPanel, and they load some Javascript into it through its autoLoad, and that Javascript renders a Grid into the Panel's body... they want to know why the Grid doesn't size to the Panel correctly.

There should be a large, bold section about adding dynamic components into the nesting rather than simply rendering their HTML into some Panel's body.

To make a dynamically created Component part of the nested items structure, it must be added to an existing Container object, which is itself part of the structure through that Container's add method. This Container must then have its doLayout method called. This will ensure that the added Component is rendered into the document, and is managed as part of a Layout.

[alexi]

Animal, an example script would go a long way to make your suggestion more tangible for the rest of us who aren't that familiar yet with Ext JS. Thank you.

[qiang]

in Tutorial:Introduction to Ext 2.0, there is a line:

Ext.get(e.target).highlight();

there is getTarget public method from EventObject doc. however, i couldn't find any public method named target.

also the doc refered from the tutorial links to url like http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/?class=Ext.EventObject

but i couldn't find a direct link to Ext 2.0 doc from the 'Learn' Page, it is linked to 1.1.1 doc now.

[NoahK17]

I just posted something to the Wiki that might be helpful in understanding the layout of the API: http://extjs.com/learn/Image_talk:Ext2-Layout-hierarchy.gif