Category Archives: AJAX
Sencha Touch Demo: Forum Browser
I’ve had some extra time over the last week, so I decided it was time to learn a bit more about Sencha Touch. All I needed to do was find a small project…
One of my favorite examples from the ExtJS demo collection is the forum browser, and it occurred to me that I haven’t seen this implemented using Sencha Touch. How hard could it be?
As it turns out… not that hard. Continue reading
Building CSS Sprites with Compass/SASS
I’ll be honest and admit that I never really thought much about CSS tools like SASS and LESS until the recent 2010 Sencha Conference. At the conference, we learned that Sencha Touch (and the upcoming 4.x release of ExtJS) use … Continue reading
Theming Sencha Touch
Over the past few weeks I’ve been playing with the Sencha Touch framework quite a bit. I’m far from an expert on the library at this point – but I thought I would share my experience theming Sencha Touch as there don’t appear to be too many tutorials available at this point.
Let me start from the beginning. I recently launched a mobile version of my website targeted for iPhone/Android devices. While developing the site, I wanted to go the extra mile and match the theme to my company’s branding (black and orange). In order to accomplish that I had to learn to use SASS and Compass. Continue reading
Mobile Website is Live!
A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend the 2010 Sencha Conference in San Francisco. Of the many interesting topics discussed at the conference I was most excited to learn more about the Sencha Touch framework.
When I left the conference, I immediately began playing with the Sencha Touch library. My entire 4-hour plane ride back to Chicago was spent building a new mobile website (incredible considering my laptop battery lasted that long!) – and after a few more hours of tweaks over the past 2 weeks it’s finally ready for production! Continue reading
SenchaCon 2010 – Day 1
Wow. I’ve been here at the Sencha Conference 2010 for less than a day now, and there’s little more to say other than that. As one of the few (200-ish) developers who went to the conference last year, I have … Continue reading
JavaScript Singletons: Object Literals vs. Closures
I have been a big fan of JavaScript singletons for some time now, and I frequently use them in large web applications. Their benefit is fairly straightforward: since only one instance of the object is needed, singletons provide a quick and clean way to define and organize data.
Object literals are one of the most convenient constructs in JavaScript. They allow us to immediately format an anonymous object and assign its attributes and methods.
Closures are a bit more mysterious – or at least many JavaScript developers aren’t acutely aware of them. In essence, closures are a closed environment containing methods and properties that are inaccessible to namespaces outside the scope of the object. Continue reading
My First Sencha Touch App
So I’m a few months late to this party, but I finally started playing with Sencha Touch!
My first project is a simple mobile version of my website – it’s not finished and the contact form doesn’t work, but I managed to get something that actually “works”. I suppose it’s nothing to be proud of, but it has been a good excuse to use Sencha Touch. Continue reading
Web Application Architecture with ExtJS
I’ve spoken at great length about the need for developers to have an organized User Interface, and I frequently see questions posted to the ExtJS Sencha message boards asking about “Best Practices” for creating a web application with the ExtJS framework.
As I recently started a new project using ExtJS, I thought I would share some of my own advice on the subject. Continue reading
ExtJS, Flickr and WordPress
I recently built a website for my sister (Jennifer Kay) to showcase her professional work as a reporter for the Associated Press. The design is simple – but I thought I might share something cool with everyone. For starters, byJenniferKay.com … Continue reading
Ext Scheduler
Here’s a look inside the Ext Scheduler application developed by Mats Bryntse! There’s been a lot of buzz in the ExtJS community over this tool, so I jumped at the chance to peek inside his code.
Included is an example of the Ext Scheduler tool that I built using the Twitter API. It’s a crappy example… but you still might like it!
Overall, my impression is that the Ext Scheduler will be an invaluable tool for most developers working with “events”. It’s easy to work with, offers an impressive set of features and should impress a lot of end-users. I would encourage everyone to check out the other Ext Scheduler examples and see for yourself! Continue reading
