Category Archives: AJAX
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
Chicago Metro App Contest
I was reading the RedEye, a free local daily newspaper, on my train ride to work this morning when I stumbled across an interesting story. The city of Chicago is holding an Apps for Metro Chicago contest to celebrate the … Continue reading
Sencha Touch – Prize Patrol App
Ready for yet another quasi-useful mobile app?
Today I am introducing the Prize Patrol, a small application built on Sencha Touch! Continue reading
Event-Driven Architecture
Events are the glue that binds web applications together. Users click on one thing, expecting that something else will happen. This cause/effect relationship is the key to understanding how to structure an advanced web application built on ExtJS or Sencha … Continue reading
Sencha Chicago User Group
A long, long time ago I tried to get an ExtJS group started in the Chicago area. We had one meeting, but due to a lack of support the group never really got moving. I have recently decided to get … Continue reading
