In Chapter 3, Application Structure, we described the nature of an Ext JS application as, essentially, a collection of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Just a web page. However, taking this point of view not only oversimplifies the issue, but it also means that your application won't reach its full potential; you'll be ignoring things like dependency management, code optimization, and many other matters that a high-quality application should incorporate.
Sencha Cmd can be an important part of architecting your project. It gives you a strong foundation, a smooth workflow, and a polished final product. In this chapter, we'll look at:
At the end of the chapter, you will understand how and why an application built with Sencha Cmd is significantly easier to develop and deploy. You'll have a strong understanding of the various parts of Sencha Cmd and how to configure and augment it to fit your requirements.
In short, Sencha Cmd is an executable that provides a series of further commands to assist with your Sencha application development. Under the hood, it comprises a number of third-party utilities and scripts that combine to provide this functionality. Here are a few of the things it bundles in its installation:
All of this is tied together with some custom glue from Sencha, supported by Apache Ant—a build tool commonly used in the Java world.
The result is a complex yet powerfully customizable tool. The use of Ant allows almost all of the features of Sencha Cmd to be tweaked and extended, while Sencha's additions provide a straightforward command-line interface to this power.
For the application architect, Sencha Cmd provides a centralized workflow for your developers and a reproducible build process. It can speed up development time and provides a way to add customer- or business-specific deployment tasks to your team's toolset.