Ext (pronounced "extent") is an open-source JavaScript library, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as AJAX, DHTML and DOM scripting.
 ExtJS 2.0 Web Desktop | |
| Developer(s) | Jack Slocum |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.0 Beta
/ 2007-10-29 |
| Type | JavaScript library |
| License | LGPL, commercial |
| Website | extjs.com |
Originally built as an extension of YUI, Ext can now also extend jQuery and Prototype. As of version 1.1, Ext can run stand-alone without relying on any of those external libraries, though they remain an option for integration.
Ext version 2.0 can now use many different base libraries (adapters) like YUI, jQuery, Prototype or it can work Stand-alone
Supported functionality
A diverse set of form controls (or "widgets") is available for use within web applications, including:
- text fields and textareas
- date fields with a pop-up date-picker
- numeric fields
- comboboxes (both HTML-style drop-down-lists and also "proper" combo-boxes which also allow non-list values to be typed in)
- radio and checkbox controls
- html editor control
- grid control (with both read-only and edit modes, sortable data, lockable and draggable columns, and a variety of other features)
- tree control
- tab panels
- toolbars
- Windows-style menus
- region panels to allow a form to be divided into multiple sub-sections
Many of these controls are able to communicate with a server using AJAX just by providing appropriate configuration information.
There are several other useful functions that can add interactivity to HTML pages, including:
- dialog boxes
- "quicktips" to display validation messages and information about individual fields
Demonstrations of many of these features can be seen at the Ext documentation page in the 'Examples and Demonstrations' section.
Other features include a powerful DOM selector class allowing operations to be performed on elements within the page with a high degree of flexibility, data stores that can be used to contain and manipulate complex sets of data, and classes to create and manipulate data in JSON and XML formats.
Ext 2.0
A new enhanced version of Ext, version 2.0, is currently in development and was released as an alpha version on September 28th 2007. This version focuses on enhancing the desktop-like experience that Ext already provides by introducing new functionality, improving performance and keeping the overall file size down. A new documentation centre has also been introduced with expanded and better organised samples.
The final version of Ext 2.0 is expected to be released during November 2007. Although the final version is not yet ready, there is already plenty of documentation available covering the complete API, the Ext architecture, and a migration guide for applications written for earlier versions of the library.