We've established the ideal UI for our application, but how does this translate into technical requirements?
- We want line charts to show trends
- We want these charts to be able to update when they receive new data
- We want to be able to choose a date range and update charts and grids accordingly
- We want to be able to choose a data category and have grids update accordingly
Let's look at each of these in the context of Ext JS:
- Ext JS charts have area, line, scatter series, and so on, so we can plot the data in a way that allows you to visualize a trend.
- The
loadmethod ofExt.data.Storecan accept anaddRecordsparameter, which when set totruewill cause newly loaded records to be appended to the store rather than overwriting the existing data. This will allow us to provide update data to a chart. - Ext JS provides a date field component that can be linked to a view model to filter data based on a date range.
- Grids have a reconfigure method that allows you to change the columns of the grid on the fly if necessary.
Looks good!
We've set out our own criteria for this project, but we're still being explicit at spelling out what we need before we start coding, and we're making sure that our technical framework will support what we need. Why not just get on with the job and put fingers to keyboards?
Although this isn't a job that has an explicit paying customer, it's still something that needs accountability. It's not enough as a professional developer to say that it'll be "done when it's done" because this attitude won't wash with the people who pay your salary. We must plan our projects in as much detail as to give us confidence in the delivery of our work—both from a time and quality perspective—as possible.
No matter who we are building software for, we must always strive to create something robust, something that meets or exceeds expectations.