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davidber
1 Jun 2007, 8:09 PM
I am not sure if this is too off topic for this forum or not. If it is, could the moderators please move this to the appropriate forum :)

We are looking at using Ext JS in an upcoming project. First and foremost, I am not a programmer by any means. I am the guy who signs the checks and says, this is neat, make it happen. With our progammers away for a week, my curiosity is killing me to see if this will be a good fit for us.

I was brought here by doing a search on jquery and interface. I had no idea that this library existed prior to this search and now am extremely intriqued about it. We have standardized on using jquery for our base library. We have standardized on a few addons from interface for jquery. I went through the flash presentation and am completely impressed at some of the features that this library has.

One demonstration has me particulary impressed and thus had me thinking about using ext JS for our project. In a simple nutshell we need to emulate Windows Explorer. The demo under Tree/Photo Organizer w/ Tree is extremely close to what we are trying to accomplish.

My questions are, when the user drags a photo over (I assume this can be any object) they can place it into a folder. I see that they can create new folders as well. When they 'move' the object into a folder, can it remove it from the list of available objects. In essence, a move not a copy. Can the user delete the object from a folder? For example, could they drop it onto a 'trash can' and then get a prompt to confirm deletion? Can you lock the folders so that at a certain path level that they are not renamable? In your example, you have Album1, Album2, Album3 - is there a way to not let those be renamed but ones that are created a path below it? Can the user create 'copies' that are shortcuts and place them in other folders? I guess again, the best way to say this is can we completely replicate Windows Explorer using this library?

Thanks in advance for your time, and sorry for the non-technical talk.

dave

brian.moeskau
1 Jun 2007, 10:29 PM
I guess again, the best way to say this is can we completely replicate Windows Explorer using this library?

While I won't quite commit to saying yes to such a wide-open question, the easy answer is that if it can be done in JavaScript, then yes you'll be able to do it with Ext and the odds are that you'll do it more productively than you would with most other frameworks. Ext makes it extremely easy to stitch components together, as in the organizer example, but also makes it easy to get down and dirty into the API whenever needed to do more complex things. For replicating a rich desktop environment like Windows Explorer, I can't really think of a better place to start than Ext. But then, I am biased :)

Sliver
2 Jun 2007, 4:10 AM
My questions are, when the user drags a photo over (I assume this can be any object) they can place it into a folder. I see that they can create new folders as well. When they 'move' the object into a folder, can it remove it from the list of available objects. In essence, a move not a copy. Can the user delete the object from a folder? For example, could they drop it onto a 'trash can' and then get a prompt to confirm deletion? Can you lock the folders so that at a certain path level that they are not renamable? In your example, you have Album1, Album2, Album3 - is there a way to not let those be renamed but ones that are created a path below it? Can the user create 'copies' that are shortcuts and place them in other folders? I guess again, the best way to say this is can we completely replicate Windows Explorer using this library?

Hmmm.... yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and... yes :D

Frank
2 Jun 2007, 4:36 AM
oh ~windows explorer, that's the 'Shell' what I'm working on,here's a screencut.

http://www.ajaxjs.com/yuicn/web_temp/sc.gif

humpdi
2 Jun 2007, 9:11 AM
theres only one answer to your questions... YES! yes, this all can be done! ;)

GalaxySong
4 Jun 2007, 12:32 AM
Why do you guys want to create another IE which will work within IE?
I know Ajax and Ext make it fully possible to introduce many characteristics of a browser into a web page. I am interested in and looking forward that too. But an in-page IE seems to be too far.
BTW, Frank, are you Chinese too? Glad to see Chinese here.

efege
4 Jun 2007, 4:19 AM
Hi GalaxySong. I read "windows explorer", not "internet explorer". So it's not a web browser within a web browser, but just a file browser within web browser...

EDIT: ok, so it's file manager, not browser (see below) :)

davidber
5 Jun 2007, 9:12 AM
Yes, to clarify it is a file manager, not a browser :)

We are looking at objects being able to be dragged and dropped onto a folder. Some folders will be set to read only and they can not, some will be able to. Some times they will only be able create shortcuts within the folder.

But yes, again, file manager, not browser.

Thanks for the replies! I am still waiting for the dang programmers to get back from vacation to see if they feel comfortable enough writing this. If they are not . . . HINT: Anyone here up for writing it?


dave

dnixon
5 Jun 2007, 9:39 AM
Unless I am missing something I think there will be a problem with multiple file selections.
As far as I know the only way to do this in a browser with the sandbox restrictions is to use a signed java applet. <input type='file'> can only select a single file and doesn't do drag and drop. On the other hand if your server is local and can do file system stuff then there may be hope.

Dave

davidber
6 Jun 2007, 4:38 AM
Unless I am missing something I think there will be a problem with multiple file selections.
As far as I know the only way to do this in a browser with the sandbox restrictions is to use a signed java applet. <input type='file'> can only select a single file and doesn't do drag and drop. On the other hand if your server is local and can do file system stuff then there may be hope.

Dave

The drag and drop functionality would be pointers in the database.

We have two tables that looks like this:

Table:files
File_Name : xyz.xyz
Folder: /private/albumn1


Table: albumns - three records shown here
Albumn: /private
Albumn:/private/albumn1
Albumn:/private/albumn2

When the folder view is shown, it shows the records from albumns. When the user changes albumns, queries the files table and displays them. Then if the user moves the file from albumn1 to albumn2 it changes the record for that file to reflect the new folder.

dave

dnixon
6 Jun 2007, 9:34 AM
OK so you are not using the browser to access the local file system directly, just manipulating UI elements and then the server side does the actual file transactions. So there's no problem - I misunderstood what the app was doing.