Category Archives: AJAX
#ThatConference: Summer Camp for Geeks
Apparently I’ve developed some serious JavaScript credibility in the Chicago-land area. I just found out that both of my sessions were accepted for ThatConference in August! The titles of my sessions are: Sencha Touch 101: Mobile Apps Built with HTML5 … Continue reading
Building Apps with Sencha Touch 2
Last night at the
Book Review: Sencha Touch Mobile JavaScript Framework
For many web developers, JavaScript seems like a magical language that simply modifies an existing page built with HTML and CSS. Sencha Touch (much like ExtJS) approaches web development from an entirely different angle – developers create an application by almost exclusively writing JavaScript, and the framework handles most of the HTML and CSS for you.
Sencha Touch Mobile JavaScript Framework is a wonderful starting point for web developers looking to make the jump into highly interactive mobile web applications. Continue reading
Book Review: ExtJS 4 First Look
Are you an experienced ExtJS developer currently using version 3.x but looking to migrate your application to version 4.x? ExtJS 4 First Look will be an excellent place for you to start.
ExtJS4 First Look is an excellent book for the right audience, and I hope those people choose to read this book. I will probably recommend this book to a lot of Sencha developers! Continue reading
Pong: Built with Sencha Touch
How many of you played Pong when you were little? I’m old enough to remember playing it in the arcade and on my Atari 2600. I’m such a nerd that I decided to recreate Pong using Sencha Touch!
I did some searching on the interwebs to find the original Pong AI algorithm… but it seems like everyone and their mother has a different take on it. I’d love to hear your thoughts. How can I improve this game? Continue reading
Automating JavaScript Unit Tests with Git
How many of you JavaScript developers out there write unit tests?
The key to unit tests is that they’re run EVERY TIME you touch your code… otherwise your tests aren’t going to do anything (obviously). If your tests don’t do anything, there’s no point in having them.
I’d like to share an example app in which I create a bash script that runs my unit tests via PhantomJS. By utilizing a Git pre-commit hook, I ensure my unit tests are run EVERY TIME I touch my code, and (best of all) it won’t allow me to commit code that doesn’t pass my tests! Continue reading
Sencha SDK Tools – JSBuilder
I’ve been working onsite with a client for the past few weeks, and I was recently asked to implement a minification tool for our JavaScript files. Naturally, I turned to Sencha for the answer… although I hadn’t actually used the SDK tools before.
I’m detailing my experience using the Sencha SDK tools on Mac OSX for posterity – because inevitably I’m going to need to re-reference this. Hopefully it helps someone else, as the documentation for the SDK tools is (currently) a bit sparse. Continue reading
Code Reviews: Why Your Code Sucks
Over the past few years I’ve been asked to perform Code Reviews on many web applications, often projects utilizing ExtJS or Sencha Touch.
I always enjoy peeking into the thought process behind an application because you never know when you’re going to learn something useful. As someone who takes an immense amount of pride in my profession, I strongly believe that education should never stop because someone will always do something better than you. At the very least, reading someone else’s code will trigger ideas of your own.
That being said, code reviews are sometimes fun… but more often frustrating. Continue reading
Mobile App Hackathon Chicago #mobileappchi
I spent all day today at the AT&T Mobile App Hackathon in Chicago helping developers build some really cool applications using Sencha Touch (among other technologies). Here’s a recap of what you missed. The day started with introductions from the … Continue reading
aKa Web Design – Now with Turbo!
Last night at the Sencha Chicago User Group, I gave a presentation titled AJAX Communication in Sencha Touch and ExtJS. The premise of the talk was that all websites (and web applications) should be optimized to be as fast as … Continue reading
