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ColdExt (http://www.madfellas.com/blog/index.cfm/ColdExt) is a ColdFusion extension-library that supports more-recent versions of the ExtJS (http://extjs.com/blog/category/community/) library.
The superficial appeal of this, to me, is that (with CF-8) you can move beyond some of the "kid gloves" with which CF8 wrapped-up ExtJS 1.1. I'm also hoping that it will offer some advantages by being a custom-tag library. ("What's the <cfimport> tag really all about?" "Now you know." "Oh. Say, this is cool!" )
Given what is coming in CF9, what do you think now of libraries like ColdExt? Are you using them? What's your experience with them?
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Maybe I am missing something big here, but unfortunately it superficially looks to me like ColdExt might be a poster-child for what is sometimes wrong with open-source development projects:
What do you think? Cut my losses and move on?
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I'm the author of ColdExt Maybe I can clarify a couple of things for you:
- Yes the documentation is lacking. The code examples are the main way of learning how to use ColdExt, in addition to the Ext JS documentation and demos which explain each component and it's properties (in CFML speak, each tag and it's attributes).
- I think 100% of the tag attributes should be documented when using the CFEclipse integration as it is generated directly from the Ext JS documentation
- I moved to London about 10 month ago and you'll notice I've done 2 releases since, and the next major release is on the way which will include Ext JS 3.0 support (not trivial as there are a bunch of new components that I need to implement and demo!). Partial support is already in SVN though.
cheers,
Justin
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I think that I owe you a public apology, Justin. ("That was not a very good day...")
ColdExt is good, and I will continue to watch it closely as the 3.0 release support is rolled out.
Interestingly enough, I am finding that my own development-direction seems to be veering straight toward using the xtype capabilities of ExtJS 3.0, where essentially all of the user-interface specification can be done using a data structure (items). I haven't gone through this development cycle often enough to really know, yet, where it's all going to wind up.
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As a final update to this matter . . .
It turns out that I veered completely away from ColdExt for this application, because I veered completely away "nearly everything server-side." The interaction is completely JavaScript-based, and CF is left handling AJAX calls.
Here's my summary assessment of the ... ordeal:
Very important: do not go anywhere near any cliffs, tall bridges with low guardrails, or similar temptations. If you choose to bungee-jump during this time period, resist the temptation to omit the bungee cord... Your (present and/or future) offspring will thank you.