Coolite vs ExtJs Extender

  1. #1

    Coolite vs ExtJs Extender

    I've only recently discovered ExtJs in the past few days, and since I'm a .NET developer I'm obviously looking for the best controls that I can find. ExtJs looks pretty impressive, but obviously I don't really want to spend a lot of time mucking around with JS if I can do it in C#.

    So, I've come across you guys, ExtJs Extender, and ExtSharp. Why is Coolite better? Especially since Extender is quite a bit ahead in terms of ExtJs controls support, from what I can tell just by reading and looking at samples.

    Thanks
  2. #2

    RE: Coolite vs ExtJs Extender

    Also, what's the timeframe for the TreePane control? I don't think I'm seeing it on your roadmap. And sadly, that's the one control that I need the most right now. (Though I'm really looking forward to refactoring two projects to use the controls across the board.)
  3. #3

    RE: Coolite vs ExtJs Extender

    Hi vulgrin,

    I'm going to have to respond in two parts to your questions. The first post is going to take a bit more work/time to respond.

    Support for the TreePanel support is coming, although unfortunately there is no firm time frame. Our immediate goal is to
    complete the GridPanel and ViewPort/Layout controls. Both controls will be available with our version 0.5 release which *should* be available around the end of March-2008 or beginning of April. They are both very complicated controls to build Designer support for, butwe're making great progress.

    The TreePanel and Menu controls should follow immediately after the version 0.5 release.
    Geoffrey McGill
    Founder
  4. #4

    RE: Coolite vs ExtJs Extender

    Both ExtJs Extender and ExtSharp do an excellent job and I have no problems recommending either project.


    Here's a few points of interest that may be valuable when making your decision to move forward with Coolite.

    1. The Coolite ASP.NET web controls for Ext are an official licensed product of ExtJS LLC. Among the benefits include Coolite having direct access to the ExtJS core development team and future Coolite Commercial licensing will include an official Ext Commercial License.
    2. One of the core goals of the Coolite controls is providing rich design-time support within Visual Studio. Ultimately every control will feature full Visual Studio drag/drop design-time support. This may not be a requirement for you, although designer support does help uncover hidden properties and features for all controls not easily discovered otherwise. It's a great way for developers new to the framework to *play around* with the controls while knowing all the required JavaScript and HTML will be properly hooked-up.
    3. Technical support. The Coolite controls are fully supported and backed by a real company with a full-time team. At the moment technical support is provided exclusively through these forums, but shortly we will be offering paid premium support contracts.
    4. If you email us (support@object.net), we will reply promptly.
    5. No ASP.NET AJAX dependency. The Coolite controls work perfectly in conjunction with the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX and AJAX Extender controls, but in no way do we depend on the ASP.NET AJAX framework. For some developers avoiding ASP.NET AJAX is a priority.
    6. The Coolite controls are pure ASP.NET Web Controls. They fully support the old-school PostBack/ViewState model (if that's a requirement) as well as AJAX asynchronous postbacks.


    The Coolite controls are still young, but we're working hard on filling out the suite. We not only want to provide the highest quality ASP.NET web controls in the industry today, but also the highest quality customer service and support.


    If you have any questions, comments, "constructive feedback" (i.e. criticism) or suggestions for improvement, please let us know.
    Last edited by geoffrey.mcgill; Feb 22, 2011 at 3:37 AM.
    Geoffrey McGill
    Founder
  5. #5

    RE: Coolite vs ExtJs Extender

    Sounds good.

    I think for the meantime, I'm going to write my own controls just for the pieces of ext2 (and other frameworks) that I need right now, and will either flesh it out over time, or your code will catch up with my efforts and I'll stop. :)

    One thing you might consider, if there isn't danger with it affecting the underlying interfaces of your controls, is to work on the run-time parts of the controls first, and just simply putting in a "grey square" where the controls are going to be displayed on the page, handle the simpler width and height properties in the design view and expose the other properties via the property tab. THEN go back in there and add in the rest of the design time templates control by control.

    I too have run into oddities with the design time stuff when dabbling with controls. Maybe prioritizing toward function first would get the full library out the door faster, then work on the form needed by the more novice developers later.

    My 2 cents - regardless I'll keep an eye out for release announcements on the newsletter.


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