I should say that im not the kind of guy that this book is targeted at, but I ended up enjoying it anyway. I prefer a little more explanation in my books instead of the example driven cookbook style, but I gave it a read through because Jorge is an awesome guy, and it’s Ext JS related, so I cant resist – im an Ext JS addict.

The Author

I was surprised when I initially found out that this book was being put together, mostly because it was being written by a person I had never heard of. The author, Jorge Ramon at the time of starting this book had not a single post on the ExtJS forums, which is where most people head when they need to figure something out, or when they have something to share. This fact alone is a great testament to the authors intelligence and the quality of the documentation and examples that are provided with Ext JS.

Aside from the occasional quirk in the book, Jorge has done an amazing job putting together a quality product that will no doubt be useful to everyone. There can be slight grammatical problems in the text, such as incorrect tenses, and odd sentence structure, but like I mentioned earlier, the book is sparse on text.

The Approach

The cookbook style of book has a unique format where you have each example broken down into ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘why’ and ‘more’.

For Example:

• Subject (what) – short explanation of what is to be done.
• How to do it… – actual code with minimal explanation.
• How it works… – short explanation of what happened.
• There’s more… (optional) – other related uses or features.
• See also… (optional) – related sections within the book.

If you read anything, it should be the “How it works” sections, which have brief explanation of the example. The “Subject” section in big black headings is also quite useful to read before looking at the code. I would suggest ignoring the “See also…” sections while reading through, as they seem to just be used for looking up related tasks, though I found them quite unhelpful for even that.

The Recipe Code

In general, the code examples are of good quality, and the suggested methods and practices in the book are inline with whats recommended. There are a couple places where variables are not defined (var’d), making them inherently global, but hey, we all are guilty of this flaw. Probably the most confusing portion of this book is where the author uses the Ext.ux namespace to place application layout code, which is specific to your application, therefore not likely to be a “User Extension” which is what the Ext.ux namespace is reserved for.

The screenshots that go along with each example are excellent, and most have arrows directing you toward the change made. These changes also have a corresponding bold line in the code sample.

This book has a huge amount of XML examples, which can be a hard thing to come across in the JavaScript community since most of us despise XML and cant wait to get rid of it. For those of you that need to use XML, the Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook will no doubt be a huge resource for learning the oddities involved in using XML data with Ext JS.

Summary

Probably what you want to know is “would I buy this book” – the answer is yes. I have no doubt that this book will help anyone working on an Ext JS project.

Were only a few days into voting, and I heard (from an unnamed source) that im currently in the top position. What I need is for everyone who found my book useful – as a monitor riser or otherwise – to go and place your vote!

For more details, visit the Packt Author Award 2009 web page.

Learning Ext JS takes a top-down approach to teaching Ext JS … this approach will certainly immerse the reader quickly into a number of common techniques used througout the framework, like XType, configuration objects and common component configuration parameters.

Chris Scott

Both Learning ExtJS and ExtJS in Action take differing paths to get to the end result of learning the ExtJS library.

Ext JS In Action, will make an excellent companion to Learning Ext JS below, since it takes a more-technical bottom-up approach to teaching Ext JS

Chris Scott

Ive noticed this myself when talking to Jay about projects, we have quite a different approach. This will definitely help the ExtJS community grow by appealing to the different learning styles of newcomers.

But in all seriousness, I really appreciate that a company producing such a robust ExtJS integration toolkit would include my book. If your a ASP.NET developer, and are interested in creating a truly amazing user interface experience, then give Coolite’s web site a visit and check out their demo section.

http://www.coolite.com/blog/2008/11/support-subscription-sale-extjs-book.aspx

Here is a quote from Peter’s blog about the event:

“At our first meetup, we talked about EXT some and also raffled off a copy of the new ExtJS book called Learning Ext JS generously given to us by one of the authors, Shea Frederick. We also talked about things we could do together as a group. For our first group project, we decided to work on the sessions page of Silicon Valley Code Camp (the site I wrote) and make that page EXTd. We broke down parts of that into little pieces and each of us went home with a small assignment to work on. We plan on meeting again January 20th, 2009 and continue the fun.”

If anyone else is interested in hosting an ExtJS meetup in their area, im sure we can work out a deal to provide a book for raffling off at your event. I am hoping that we can get something like this together for the Baltimore/Washington area soon, so everyone keep your eye out for news about that. I know many of you in the area are already excited about the prospect of this happening (Jay, that means you!)

UPDATE: It official now, http://www.meetup.com/baltimore-dc-javascript-users/

Anyone interested in the most up to date code samples to accompany the book is welcome to check out a copy from SVN – http://code.google.com/p/learning-extjs-book-samples/

The list of current errata can be found on the publishers site as well – http://www.packtpub.com/support/book/learning-ext-js

Cutter, Colin and I worked together to bring all the most used widgets of ExtJS together into one place.

So here is the meat and potatoes…

I wrote chapters 1 through 7:

1. Getting Started
   Setup Ext JS to be used on your page and troubleshoot common installation problems.
2. The Staples of Ext
   Explore some of the foundational components and configuration of Ext JS.
3. Forms
   Create complex forms, database-driven combo boxes, and populate form fields with data.
4. Buttons, Menus, and Toolbars
   Use toolbars to create compact complex navigation for your web application.
5. Grids—Making Data Intuitive
   Render database-driven grids that include paging, complex rendering, and user interaction.
6. Editor Grid
   Go past the standard grid, and set up an editor grid that edits data in line.
7. In an AJAX World, You Need a Good Layout
   Create a layout that provides a very flexible and attractive user interface.

Colin wrote chapters 8 through 11

8. Ext JS Does Grow on Trees
   Demonstrating how to display and manipulate hierarchical data.
9. Windows and Dialogs
   Focusing on displaying information in pop-up containers.
10. Effects
    Add spice to your applications with compelling visual effects.
11. Drag and Drop
    Learn how to move and rearrange elements within your application.

and Steve wrote chapters 12 through 14

12. It’s All About the Data
    An introduction into the various types of data Stores, the kinds of data they can consume, how that data is defined, and how to get it.
13. Code for Reuse: Extending Ext JS
    An introduction to creating custom application components by extending existing components of the framework.
14. The Power of Ext JS: What Else Can You Do?
    A look at many of the utility classes of the library, including formatting and state management, as well as Community Components and resources.

We put together a great book, that will no doubt help new ExtJS users jump right in.

Visit the publishers web site for more information.

http://www.packtpub.com/learning-ext-js/