In times gone by, JavaScript was used to provide minor enhancements to the Web in order to decorate pages with amusing effects or to validate user input. Slowly but surely, as browsers implemented faster JavaScript engines and new features and as developers and engineers came up with new techniques and ideas, JavaScript became near-ubiquitous in providing the functionality that end users have come to expect. With Ext JS, you have a toolset that allows you to build advanced JavaScript applications, but with great power comes great responsibility.
An application architect is the guiding hand of a project. They help to ensure that client expectations are met, timescales are achieved, and costs are contained. While juggling these requirements, the architect must provide the foundations for a technically successful project consisting of high quality, understandable code.
In Ext JS Application Development Blueprints, we'll go through the theory and practice of designing and building Ext JS applications. Over the next 11 chapters, you'll learn how Ext JS gives developers the key to a professionally designed software project and how to take this knowledge and use it in a range of real-world scenarios.
Chapter 1, Introduction, describes why software architecture is important and how this book will help you learn it.
Chapter 2, MVC and MVVM, introduces two classic patterns in software development and how they're implemented in Ext JS.
Chapter 3, Application Structure, shows how the various parts of an Ext JS application can be organized into a form that eases the development process.
Chapter 4, Sencha Cmd, looks at the way Sencha's command-line tools act as a powerful companion for your developers, enabling a leaner product that is delivered on schedule.
Chapter 5, Practical – a CMS Application, shows how to design and build a simple CMS application and how to start employing the ideas you've learned so far.
Chapter 6, Practical – Monitoring Dashboard, involves the creation of a log viewer dashboard using charts and grids that adapt to user input.
Chapter 7, Practical – an E-mail Client, shows off the responsive features of Ext JS 5 while continuing to demonstrate advanced use of the MVVM pattern.
Chapter 8, Practical – Questionnaire Component, uses Sencha Cmd to demonstrate code reuse by designing and building a wizard component.
Chapter 9, A Shopping Application, brings all the techniques from previous chapters to bear on a tablet-centric shopping app.
Chapter 10, Debugging and Performance, teaches you advanced techniques to diagnose a range of problems in development and production.
Chapter 11, Application Testing, provides you with techniques to build automated tests that allow for the kind of robust application expected from an application architect.