Ext

Ext JS is pleased to announce the Ext GWT 1.0 beta2 release. This release includes numerous enhancements and bug fixes since the beta1 release and is a recommended upgrade for those using beta 1.

What’s New

Getters / Setters
Based on community feedback, getters and setters where added to replace public fields for component configuration. This should be more in line with Java best practices and the JavaBean standard.

HtmlContainer
Beta 2 includes a new container that can be built from static markup, a remote URL, an existing element, or element id. Child components can then be inserted into the container using CSS selectors to control the insert location (for example: panel.add(button, “td:first-child”;). This allows easy use of complex HTML layouts designed outside of GWT.

SelectionModel
The selection model code was refactored for Table, Tree, and List. SelectionModel is a new interface that all selection models implement.

SelectionService
The new selection service allows selection providers (all viewers for example) to register with the service. Any listeners are notified of any selections by a registered provider. In the Explorer Demo, the applications navigation tree, navigation list, and main tab panel share selections with each other using the new service. This allows all 3 components to stay “synchronized” no matter where and how selections are made.

Themes
In beta 2, there is a new Themes module which includes the Slate theme by J.C. Bize. Unlike with beta 1, it is only necessary to add ext-all.css to your host page html. Other style sheets are added dynamically based on the users current theme.

State
Restore and save state functionality has been added to component. StateManager now supports the serialization and deserialization of Map types using cookies. BorderLayout uses the new API to persist region sizes and collapse state across user sessions.

Events
New fine-grained event hierarchy. The event code has been updated and revised to support component level events. Also, a new template method has been added to component that allows subclasses to specify the type of component event created when a DOM event is received which stops the need to “translate” component events.

Menu
The Menu and all MenuItems are now fully implemented. This includes sub menus, checkbox, radio, and date menu items.

Download

To download the beta 2 build or view the full release notes, please visit the Ext GWT download page. To find out more about Ext GWT and view the latest beta 2 samples, please visit the Ext GWT overview. To see beta 2 in action, take a look at the Explorer Demo.

With our recent change to the GPL v3 some concerns have been brought up by the Ext Community. We are hoping to address some of those concerns via community discussion of two new FLOSS exceptions.

The first step for us is the Open Source License Exception for Extensions. It is currently in draft status and we are seeking input from the community before we have it finalized.

The intention of this exception is to allow for more liberal licensing of extensions, language packs, themes and open source developer toolkits and frameworks for Ext libraries under a variety of open source licenses. (Note: this exception is not for applications and does not grant any exception for the library itself. A FLOSS exception on the libraries for open source applications will be addressed in the exception discussed in “Next Up” below).

The discussion is here:

http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33891

The latest draft is here:

http://extjs.com/products/ux-exception.php

Please chime in and provide input and feedback.

Next Up

After the Extension Exception is complete, the next step will be drafting a FLOSS exception similar to the one by MySQL AB for both Ext JS and Ext GWT:

http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/foss-exception.html

This exception will be for open source applications that use Ext JS. It will have a few distinct additional grants the Extension Exception doesn’t have (e.g. “bundling” will be ok) but won’t be applicable to extensions or toolkits, as that’s what the Extension Exception is for.

We would appreciate any input and feedback you can provide on it as well. We expect to move quickly and we will let the community know when there is a draft ready for review and input.

Once both those are complete, we also hope that those that participate in their review and drafting can also help us to create an FAQ explaining what they cover, how they work, etc by contributing questions that will be asked by open source developers looking to use them.

Summary

The community speaks very loudly and we have heard you. We are hoping these exceptions will not only provide for continued usage for open source users that are not able to use GPL code in their projects, but also with greater open source license flexibility than has ever been available for Ext JS.

Ext JS is pleased to announce the latest release of the Ext JS toolkit and the introduction of a new product, Ext GWT 1.0 (beta 1). The Ext JS version has been updated to 2.1 and includes new components, performance improvements, bug fixes and documentation enhancements. Ext GWT 1.0, is a Java library for building rich internet applications with the Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

Ext JS 2.1

Performance Improvements
Portions of Ext JS have been refactored to optimize performance including core functionality which will benefit the entire library. Many people will see significant performance gains when upgrading to 2.1 from 2.0.2. The typical Ext JS application will use much less memory, and many applications will see a memory usage improvement of over 300%! 2.1 is fully backwards compatible.

Slider
The slider component supports vertical and horizontal orientation, incremental snapping, tooltips, custom styling and a lot more. Check out the new slider example page.

StatusBar
The StatusBar can be rendered into any panel or window, providing a standard area for status text and icons indicating what’s happening in your application. The StatusBar supports automatic “busy” notification for indicating in-process activity, and can also be easily extended and customized as in the screenshot below. It also supports all standard Toolbar items. Try out the interactive example yourself (there’s also a great new example of customizing the StatusBar via a form validation plugin).

First-Class REST Support
Developers using a RESTful architecture will be excited to know that Ext JS now has full support for all HTTP verbs (no longer just POST and GET). We’ve also added support for passing in additional header information to ease integration with server-side platforms.

Examples and More Examples
We have added a much improved example explorer for Ext JS, in addition to a brand new one for Ext GWT, along with the site re-design. You can find several new Ext JS examples indicated by the red “New!” text appearing by the description. There are several notable new examples that you may have missed:

Grid Filtering: Filter your grid using specifically-typed filter controls that plug directly into the grid header. Special thanks goes to community member ambience for contributing his user extension so that it could be distributed directly with Ext JS.

Layout Browser: Includes examples for each standard Ext layout, several custom layouts and combination examples.

Custom Drag & Drop: Enabling drag and drop between a DataView and a grid using DragZone and DropZone extensions. Thanks goes to Nige “Animal” White for putting together this sample.

Consult the 2.1 release notes to get a complete listing of all changes.

Ext GWT 1.0

Ext GWT 1.0 is a Java library that enables developers to create web applications built in pure Java. You can leverage your existing Java skills to create full featured applications in Java using your favorite Java IDE and tools. Code, debug, refactor, and test your Ext GWT applications as you would any other Java application.

Ext GWT has a number of high performance, customizable widgets that provide a great foundation for building your applications. Let us worry about cross-browser issues, html and CSS. Ext GWT is more than just widgets. Ext GWT includes a convenient model abstraction allowing your domain object to be passed transparently between server and client side components. Building a complex application? Ext GWT includes a hierarchical MVC implementation with full history support.

Ext GWT is a native GWT solution using the latest GWT release and takes full advantage of GWT 1.5 and Java 1.5 features.

Ext GWT includes:

• High performance, customizable UI widgets
• Full theming support with standard CSS
• Well designed, consistent and fully documented source code
• Native GWT solution with no external JavaScript or 3rd party libraries
• Full remote procedure support using GWT RPC, JSON, and XML
• Support for Java 1.5 features, including generics, enums, and varargs

GPL License

Until version 2.1 Ext was released under it’s own license, the “Ext License”. That license granted usage (provided certain conditions were met ) under the LGPL license terms. The CSS and images (”Assets”) distributed with Ext before 2.1 had a license all of their own which was not open source compatible at all. We received quite a bit of negative feedback from some prominent members of the open source community about our license not being friendly for open source projects. Some even said Ext was not open source at all since these licenses did not offer the same freedoms that standard open source licenses offer. Since we have been an open source company since our inception, these comments and concerns struck home and we felt a need address the issue.

We are pleased to announce that all of Ext JS 2.1 is now available under the GPL v3. We anticipate this will allow broader usage in open source software and should make licensing questions and choices much easier. To help answer general questions people may have, we have added some useful pages to the extjs.com website: Licensing Overview and Dual Licensing Model.

Ext JS 3.0

We are also pleased to announce that an early rev of Ext 3.0 has hit the SVN trunk! This is pretty early code (release date expected towards end of ‘08) but here are some demos to give an idea of some of the things we have already added. We have big plans for Ext JS 3.0 and I think it is moving in the right direction!

ListView

A high performance tabular view based on the DataView class for when a GridView is overkill.

Button

New super-flexible button implementation.

Toolbar

New grouping in toolbars and enhanced button support.

Toolbar Overflow

Dynamic overflow of toolbars to a menu similar to expected behavior on Windows.

The team at Spket Studio continues to enhance their Eclipse-based Spket IDE announcing today the release of Spket IDE 1.6.11. Of special interest to Ext developers is the new Ext Theme Builder included in this new Spket release.

The new theme builder provides a very simple method of changing the colors for theme by using a slider to adjust to the desired color. Simply drag the slider until you’ve reached your desired color and choose the export option. The Spket theme builder handles the rest. By combining the Spket plugin with Aptana’s Studio IDE, you now have the ability to greatly enhance the development cycle by using Aptana Studio’s professional suite of editing tools with Spket’s theme builder.

More Options

The Spket Theme Builder is a great new tool for those wishing to have a unique look-and-feel for their Ext applications. Back in early March, we also posted about the various community-driven themes and how Ext developers continue to extend the Ext UI with their own personal touch. More themes have been released since then so it’s important to keep an eye on the Ext user forums for updates.

In addition, the Ext team can assist in customizing applications to suit your specific color schemes. The themes included in the standard Ext framework are excellent choices for many developers but we realize that in many cases, you’ll may want to have a customized theme that matches a specific brand, marketing campaign or corporate guideline. Through the use of our Expert Services, we can tailor the look-and-feel of your Ext application to match your individual needs. In addition, we can also assist in creating a complete user interface for your Ext application. With extensive experience in RIA design and layout development, we can create application layouts that are unique to your target audience and business requirements.

If you’d like to get more information on how the Ext UI team can assist, please contact us at services@extjs.com.