You are hereMonthly archive / May 2010
May 2010
Comprehensive Javascript/Ajax Frameworks
If you have been a regular reader of my blog entries, you would be knowing that I have been using ExtJs/Ext.net for a considerable time now. When I first encountered Coolite (through a Newsletter from Red-gate Software), I was pretty impressed, and it took me a while to understand all its nuts-and-bolts and its integration with ExtJs. And after I had some experience using these two frameworks, I believed I had in my arsenal the most comprehensive web frameworks for Ajax applications built.
ExtJs - Date-Time field plugins for efficient data entry
DateField & TimeField from ExtJs/Ext.net arsenal are two really useful controls for entering date/time into forms. However, one of my clients complained that these fields can sometime take too much time in filling out, e.g. when the Date to be entered was months/years behind or ahead of the current date. Moreover, if you fill a partial value in these fields (e.g. 2 for timefield), the fields do not validate, and clear out the content.
Dynamic Helper Controls for ExtJs/Ext.net elements/components
Layer (Ext.Layer) is probably one of the lesser used element of the ExtJs framework. However, I recently discovered one great use of Layer, for showing dynamic helper controls for any element on the page.
jQuery - Encode & Decode arbitrary objects to and from JSON
Working with ExtJs for a long time now (and deliberately avoiding jQuery whenever I could), I finally dumped ExtJs in favor of jQuery with my upcoming Document module for Drupal (mainly for avoiding users from having to download ExtJs separately when Drupal comes bundled with jQuery). And I was really pleased on how easy, flexible and powerful the library was for tasks I thought were best handled with ExtJs.
Drupal - sub-directories in the files directory must be created through the file_check_directory method
While working on my next open-source module, Document for Drupal, I had a peculiar situation trying to create sub-directories under Drupal's files directory (usually located at /sites/default/files).
The module allows users to upload files to Drupal, and the admin interface of the module has a setting to allow administrators to specify the sub-directory under the files directory where the uploaded files should be saved to.
Assertions in .NET - The Assert class
No doubt Visual Studio provides extensive Unit Testing framework. Plus there are feature-rich third-party frameworks (e.g. NUnit) available for Unit Testing your .NET code.
However, I was disappointed by lack of .NET support for Assertions. As you might be able to recall, Assertions guarantee that a given expression evaluates to a true value. If it doesn't, the Assertion fails and languages have their own ways of dealing with failed assertions.
Ext.Net - Register Icons embedded into the Toolkit Assembly on client-side
As I am using more of Ext.Net/Coolite toolkits, I find myself delegating some of the UI creation from server-side markup to client-side javascript. This allows me to reuse the code better across different projects, plus enables me to introduce more dynamicity in the User Interface without needing to send unnecessary code generated from the server-side markup to the client.
