book about Ext JS

[peter.morales]

I want to write a book about learning Ext JS. While I am learning Ext JS.

Seems backwards: learn it before teaching it, one might argue. Except for two points:

the best teachers are those who can put themselves in the student's place; and,
one never learns anything so well as when one must teach it


Besides, what I want to build, through the book, is kinda neat: a Comet client.

I call it an eventspot. A website that pushes distributed real-time coverage of an event to your browser. And allows you to post your own: text, image, video, audio. To one or another mixer who may or may not put your stuff into their main mix. Think, web mashing. But in real time.

Not trivial, a client for that. But feasible. I can't build the Comet server (next book, maybe), only fake it. So a little Ruby mixin. Hopefully, not much more complicated than a web server: a scaffold to test the client.

Who am I, to try this? I programmed for twenty years, I have been writing for the last six. And I have been thinking about the "Comet pattern" before I knew it was called that. The introduction to the book covers why.

Working title: How I learned to stop worrying and love Ext JS

Planned chapter list (thus far):

introduction
what we are building
the live DOM
to <div> or not to <div>
start
plastic layout
flashing & sliding
headline for the main mix
Ajax
outchannel
Comet
inchannel
JaSON


I'm interested in comments, pro or con, from the Ext JS community. Given that you and I both know, Ext JS needs a book :-?. Thanks.

Peter Morales
Toronto, Canada

[dj]

I do agree. ExtJS needs a book and I'm happy someone is working on that.

Your working title should better be something like 'Building a Comet-Client in ExtJS' because that's what your main focus is - derived from the TOC and what you are writing in your post.

[hero2005]

it will be a good work

i agree that Ext needs a book

[peter.morales]

Namely, is the book about Comet, or about Ext JS?

I believe Web 2.0 is about the live DOM (details at length in chapter 3). And I believe Ext JS is a crucial advance for programming a live DOM. While a Comet client seems the most direct illustration of what a live DOM can do.

So the Comet client is a 'teaching device', as well as an interesting problem to solve. The book, is about learning Ext JS.

[chalu]

When are we likely to have this title, it's long overdue for a library as mature as ExtJs.

[Ab_Normal]

Hey, if you need any feedback from a paleo desktop programmer just making the jump to teh internets, drop me a PM. You've described exactly the kind of book I prefer to use when I'm crawling up a learning curve.

[relurks]

[dlethe]

A few suggestions, not necessarily for chapters, but for general content
* Assume audience is an experienced programmer, but not a Java/javascript expert. There are plenty of books on the latter, so use the most simplistic javascript you can and let the extjs framework be the star.
* Please, don't be Windows/IE centric, and address portability issues that arise with 64-bit hardware, and/or big/little endians that might break an application. As this is a moving target, supply things to avoid, or point the reader to URLs devoted to portability. Throw in firefox running on a sun workstation, or a web server running on an IBM AS400. Will certain types of cookies or other content break?

* How does one install extjs, and more importantly, how should developer strip down the extjs libraries so that only bare-minimum gets loaded.
* Run some extjs applications on an older machine with 56Kbs dialup and minimum RAM. Address performance pitfalls in terms of cpu, memory and network overhead. Lots of ways to do things but I would love to know if there are significant differences in overhead if I use technique A instead of B.
* section on code hardening - I.e, how to make it bulletproof. JSON timeouts; try/catch; field validation; buffer overflows; how to address screen refreshes, backspaces, copy/paste URLs into the address bar so the extjs appliction doesn't break, or worse, doesn't become a security flaw
* There isn't enough on the native CSS/Themes/customization. I'm not talking about adding a CSS/HTML/DHTML primer, but I would like to have a document that shows all of the CSS styles and naming conventions so if I wanted to make all corners in certain types of boxes rounded then I could just go to an appendix in the book to see what I need to change.

Good luck on the book ..... and please hurry writing it. :)
David

[mysticav]

I just want to know if ExtJS is planning a publication.

Some people will find the unnecessary, but for me a book is always handy and practical. ( and enjoyable:D)

Thanks.

[tobinharris]

An Ext book would be ace! Anything to ease the learning curve will be really valuable.

I agree that any mention of Comet should be secondary, I'm much more interested in ExtJS and associated JavaScript techniques, although some Comet information would be interesting. The DOM, div and Ajax stuff would be invaluable.

I'm currently working with the folks at Manning on a book (nothing to do with ExtJS), and they might be interested in an "ExtJS in Action" or similar. Their books often cover Open Source technologies, so could be a good fit. I could put you in touch with the "book concepts" guy if you're interested?

A final thought... I recently read a book by Jimmy Nilson about Domain Driven Design and .NET. The great thing about the book is that he had invited loads of friends/collegues/experts to write chapters or sections on various things. This seems really smart, because you get knowledge on particular sub-topics from real experts in that area. I think that it would be great if an Ext book did this, because you could then have core ExtJS team members submitting sections, and perhaps other willing ExtJs and JavaScript gurus.

[FitzChivalry]

I'm currently working with the folks at Manning on a book (nothing to do with ExtJS), and they might be interested in an "ExtJS in Action" or similar. Their books often cover Open Source technologies, so could be a good fit. I could put you in touch with the "book concepts" guy if you're interested?

Can you say what book you're working on, or is it still confidential? I contacted Marjan putting my vote in for an Amazon Web Services book, and they asked if I was interested in being the writer. Alas, that would be me writing it as I was learning about it, which is obviously more daunting for me than for the original poster! :)

I would love to see Manning come out with an ExtJS book. They seem to be loading up the Ajax space with books lately: JQuery, Wicket, Zend, Adobe AIR, GWT, ...

-Fitz

[americos]

I would like to know what Jack and others inside the Ext JS team think about this. I am sure they all ready have consider it, what's your opinion?

[jay@moduscreate.com]

I would love to see Manning come out with an ExtJS book. They seem to be loading up the Ajax space with books lately: JQuery, Wicket, Zend, Adobe AIR, GWT, ...

-Fitz

I hear something is in the works.

[jack.slocum]

There are a few books in the works. I am not involved with any, but I am hoping to be able to take a look at them and provide feedback before they publish.

[jay@moduscreate.com]

Jack,

I'll be sure to put you in contact with one of the authors soon. ;)

[elfkid]

where to buy :D

[owensw]

It's available now

http://www.packtpub.com/learning-ext-js/book

[mankz]

Great news!

How "official" is it? Has it been read/reviewed by anyone in the Ext team prior to release?

[VinylFox]

Check out this post: http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54091

Or just visit the publishers web site directly: Packt Publishing (http://www.packtpub.com/learning-ext-js/)

-Shea
http://www.vinylfox.com

[mastachef]

I did come across a posing of a book call "Learning Ext Js" on Amazon.com. Anyone who finds a books or puts one together please let me know. I am having difficulty putting my head around this... :-(

[jay@moduscreate.com]

you can buy it here:
http://www.packtpub.com/learning-ext-js/

[VinylFox]

The book is available on Amazon as well.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1847195148

However its cheaper if you purchase it from the publisher directly.

https://www.packtpub.com/learning-ext-js/

If your having trouble getting your head around ExtJS then this book is a great place to start.

-Shea
http://www.vinylfox.com

[jay@moduscreate.com]

Shea,

why don't you add your site link to your signature instead of including it in every post body? :)

[VinylFox]

Jay;

Its either a combination of life and too much coffee, or life and not enough coffee I will have to do some research to find out which scenario is the culprit.

Thanks for the suggestion :)

[jay@moduscreate.com]

N/P dude. We should set up a time to meet. I'm not too far from your neck of the woods ;)

[elfkid]

Does it apply to extjs2.2?

[VinylFox]

2.x and up.

This includes 3.x, but not any new developments that are specific to the 3.x line.

[elfkid]

chap1-7/Chapter6/5_cell_server_sync.php

i have setting correct
but
it cannot add movie

[VinylFox]

chap1-7/Chapter6/5_cell_server_sync.php
i have setting correct but it cannot add movie

Is there some sort of JS error your receiving?

Whats the JSON response from movies-update.php look like?

I do see an oversight on my part with that particular code, but lets find out what you ran into first.