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ExtJS 6 DataBinding vs. Premium Licensing

I recently ran into some frustration as I was doing some refactoring and my databinding stopped working for some view. Turned out I misspelled “viewmodel” where it should’ve been “viewModel” and it didn’t get declared for one of the views. As a result, a simple HTML bind like this stopped working:

xtype: 'component',
bind:'<div class="stacked-label-group">' +
        '<div class="label-title">{i18n:translate("appointment_info.appt_info.promise_time")}</div>' +
        '<div class="label-value">{promisedDateOrWaiter}</div>' +
     '</div>'

Turned out that I didn’t have a “promisedDateOrWaiter” to bind to (since I didn’t actually have a view model), which caused even the label data binding to fail to render (even though that one did exist at a different higher level). So the danger with these view models is that even if one of many fails in the binding, the whole binding fails (at least in case of html type of bindings).

Unfortunately this isn’t easy to troubleshoot as there are no error messages in the console or exceptions to pause on.

However, Sencha does offer an Inspection tool: https://www.sencha.com/products/inspector/

I evaluated it and one of the features it offers is being able to catch faulty bindings like this one. The ironic part is that you need to purchase a “premium” license to get the tool, which is almost double the cost of the standard license just to get the framework. I really hope Sencha will write some tutorials on how to debug these data bindings effectively without the custom tool.

Rating: 4.9/10 (23 votes cast)

Layout Run Error: Case of Toolbar

Last year I wrote about the rather grim approach to troubleshooting ExtJS 4 (or 6 Classic) “Layout Run Error” issues:

Debugging ExtJS “Layout Run Error”

Now I came across a scenario now with a rather simple and unexpected fix. Consider this scenario where a panel specifies defaults for the “collapsible” behaviors of its child panels, but also has a toolbar as a child:

{
    title: 'Floating Footer',
    autoScroll: true,
    defaults: {
        xtype: 'panel',
        collapsible: true,
        collapsed: true,
        titleCollapse: true,
        margin: '0 30 0 30'
    },
    items: [{
        title: 'Panel 1',
        margin: '30 30 0 30',
        html: 'Panel content!'
    },{
        title: 'Panel 2',
        html: new Array(1000).join('Lorem ipsum '),
        collapsed: false
    },{
        title: 'Panel 3',
        html: 'Panel content!'
    },{
        xtype: 'toolbar',
        margin: '30 30 30 30',
        items: [{text: 'Back'}, '->', {text: 'Next'}]
    }]
}

A seemingly harmless configuration, this would throw “Layout Run Error” all day long with ExtJS 4.2. Why? Because apparently the “collapsible” configurations in the defaults somehow affect the toolbar (who while not a panel, but is a container). Easy fix – negate those configurations on the toolbar:

{
    xtype: 'toolbar',
    margin: '30 30 30 30',
    collapsible: false,
    collapsed: false,
    titleCollapse: false,
    items: [{text: 'Back'}, '->', {text: 'Next'}]
}

Rating: 4.7/10 (21 votes cast)

Hybrid Apps: Staged Rollouts

I love native apps, but for large enterprise projects they’ve been making less and less sense as mobile devices have become more powerful and the modern browser capabilities have exploded in the recent years.

One particularly important aspect of mission- critical mobile app is the risk involved with rolling out each new version. Imagine waiting out the 10 day approval period from Apple only to discover that you had a royal screw up and now the production version is unusable. Now you need a day or two to fix the issue, then another 10 days for approval, all while your app is unusable? A single occurrence can be enough to destroy your business.

Consider the advantages that a hybrid app can offer you in this case, illustrated in the following fictitious scenario, based on real life implementations I’ve been involved with:

The hybrid app stack is based on PhoneGap and Sencha ExtJS6
Has not needed an app store redeploy in years because the native code has no need to change
The app downloads its JavaScript code dynamically
Depending on the organizational unit that the user belongs to, or whatever organization they are choosing to operate in during their session, a different version of the JavaScript code is downloaded
A seamless transition between different versions of code occurs as the user navigates between different organizational units

This approach allows you to perform staged rollouts of new production code, or to perform AB testing on potential code candidates, within isolated organizational units, without risking mass disaster, with no regards for the app store or the 10 day waiting period. Try doing that with a native app.

Now some of you might be thinking “but it’s against some policies to remote download code” and I say “welcome to the big league, boys”. When we are talking about multi billion dollar enterprises, it costs peanuts to “persuade” Apple to “overlook” these policies and countless businesses operate based on this model.

Rating: 9.4/10 (5 votes cast)

ExtJS 6: Responsive HBox vs. VBox

A basic ExtJS6 Classic Toolkit responsive technique for going from vertical to horizontal based on tall/wide screen, is by using responsiveConfig on a Viewport running Border layout, and change desired child’s regions from i.e. South to West. However, what if you want to do the same, but using an HBox vs. VBox layout, to get that additional flex functionality? Turns out it’s not as straightforward, however still pretty simple. You just need to use Box layout (ancestor of HBox and VBox) with “vertical” boolean config changing inside the responsiveConfig of the viewport. Here is the sample source code from Sencha Fiddle; click the link below to experiment with it in different window sizes:

https://fiddle.sencha.com/fiddle/sls/preview

Rating: 6.9/10 (7 votes cast)

ExtJS 6: the best IE8-Modern Web Apps

Recently I wrote about my dissatisfaction with ExtJS 6 for being an “ExtJS 5 + Sencha Touch in disguise”.

However, I came to realize that the beloved IE8 browser is essentially what’s paying my bills. IE9 as well. It is easy to make jokes about how bad the browser is (compared to the latest and greatest):

You can do these all day long; just hit up image search for “ie8 meme”.

However, let’s address this one:

Continue reading ExtJS 6: the best IE8-Modern Web Apps

Rating: 9.0/10 (9 votes cast)