June 25, 2007

Ext, Yet another Ajax &UI Library!

Here is another Ajax & UI library worth looking at! Ext is a client-side, javascript framework for building web applications. It’s developed by Jack Slocum, who started off creating extension utilities for the Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) library. It was then called “yui-ext”. Now Ext is an independent framework which is gaining popularity at a rapid pace.

Ext is dual-licensed under the LGPL and a commercial license. And this is an important flexibility option that you will find in Ext. With regard to support of different server platforms, Ext runs on any platform hat can process POST requests and return structured data. Remember, Ext is a client-side framework!

Ext is built on a slightly different architecture. I would say it’s an enhancement framework. It requires you to include one of the following base libraries: YUI, jQuery or Protoype/Script.aculo.us. Apart from that Ext also have native Ext adapter, so the external libraries are no longer required. But this feature is available only from version 1.1 onwards. You can also use Ext along with GWT and other libraries. I am sure the library support of Ext will increase in future.

Now for development using Ext you will find best tool combination for debugging your application is to use the Mozilla Firefox browser with the Firebug add-on and optionally the Web Developer add-on. If you are looking for an IDE, Spket IDE will be the one you should use! It’s a toolkit for JavaScript and XML development. It supports Support for ExtJS 1.1 development. It also supports JavaScript code completion. Apart from that Spket IDE supports Laszlo, Silerlight and Yahoo! Widget.

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