Developer Stories: Fabio Junior Policeno, Sencha Ext JS And His App Genesis

Developer Fabio Junior Policeno has been using Ext JS for over 11 years. He is a Sencha MVP, and the creator of an app built entirely with Ext JS called Genesis.

In addition to his own projects, Policeno is a remarkably successful freelancer and full-stack developer with over 10,000 hours logged, impressive career earnings, and a long list of successful projects and happy clients.

Most importantly, Sencha Ext JS is the first tool he turns to when he begins a project.

When did you start using Sencha tools and have long have you been using them?

In 2010 I started using Ext JS version 3 for my final project in University and I just loved it.

Since then I have been using many Sencha tools with Ext JS — tools like Sencha Cmd to build production applications.

I’d say that over the past few years I have 98% of my time working with the awesome Ext JS framework. I have used Ext JS and other Sencha tools to complete many different projects.

What was it like building software before you had Sencha tools?

It was tough. Before I discovered Ext JS I was working on PHP projects using Vanilla JavaScript and CSS.

The biggest difference was the sheer amount of work I had to do manually — work like creating new visual components, especially ones that needed to have a lot of rules defined in CSS to be visually appealing. I also had to write many lines of code just to make a simple request.

Basically, I spent many hours working to create simple things that I can now create in seconds using Ext JS. It has taken hours off the time it takes me to create an application.

How do Sencha tools help you create your applications?

With Sencha tools, I can create a perfect MVVM structure for my projects. It is just easier to develop apps that are well-organized, perform well, and are easy to maintain.

SASS is fantastic for developing my own themes for use in my apps. It is very flexible. I can change properties easily to modify a whole application.

Sencha’s Rich Components are brilliant for developing and tweaking the perfect modern UI for the end-user. I also love that Sencha Tools give me the ability to design a base component and extend it by reusing code rather than writing new code from scratch.

What made Sencha tools stand out from other options?

One of the reasons I chose Sencha Ext JS was the large and helpful support community on the internet. Having a resource that I could turn to easily solve my simplest of my most complex questions was a game-changer for me

But while the support community drew me to Ext JS, what kept me using it was that the framework offered me the richest and most flexible components on the market.

You can’t beat having the flexibility to extend your components and easily reuse them within your applications.

What made you happiest about working with Sencha tools?

First off, once I started using Sencha Tools, my productivity increased a lot. For the first time, I was easily creating screens for my apps in minutes.

Next, when I looked at my project structure — all those files and folders organized with MVVM, where previously I could only see the visual component code without actions or data — it was awesome.

Finally, just opening my browser to see the results of all my work running perfectly is incredibly satisfying!

What have you been able to achieve through using Sencha tools to create your applications?

I think the best thing is that now I can create perfectly structured applications.

Then, there are my own packages with my base classes which I can repurpose to create new modules by modifying just a few lines of code.

The Sencha Ext JS modern toolkit makes it possible for me to use what is basically the same view code to run my apps on desktop, tablet, or even phone. It’s perfect!

What are some future plans for your application?

I have plenty of plans. Genesis is just starting out. I am working on and planning to add many new features to it.

I am updating the theme with more modern colors and styles.

I am also building the mobile versions into native applications for publication on the Apple and Google Play stores.

Even after 11 years, I am just getting started with Ext JS and everything it makes possible.

Wow, thanks Fabio. It’s great to have you part of the Sencha community!