Coolite or Ext JS from Scrach

[vali1993]

.net with coolite or .net with ext js from scratch.

I came acoss an article below. Can the experts here help me with a few concepts?

1. is there something that could not be accomplished in coolite that exits Ext JS? if there is, how do you work around it? (Create the page with EST JS ,put in iframe, add it to coolite page?)

2. Can any extensions or plugins be used with Coolite web controls?

3. is it true about the disadvanges of using coolite in below artical?

http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/as...y-and-asp.net/

Using Coolite / ASP.NET

Don?t want to bother with JavaScript? Well Coolite is your answer. I like Coolite, but I also like JavaScript so it really boils down to your preference. There are advantages to both approaches. Coolite is good because you can drag and drop server controls on your web form and setup the properties in Visual Studio just like you would any other server control. Coolite is free unless you want the source code. The biggest disadvantage of Coolite is when Ext upgrades. Because Ext is encapsulated in Coolite you have to wait for Coolite to upgrade before you can take advantage of the new features and fixes of Ext. Also, when Coolite does upgrade, you have to upgrade all your projects to use the new version of Coolite. It can become very tedious doing this. Basically with Coolite, you get the latest version now and stick with it for the long run. Another disadvantage is the extent to what Coolite implements. Not all the features of Ext are available in Coolite controls. So with that said, don?t let my negativity dissuade you from checking out Coolite. It is very awesome and it continues to become more powerful as time goes on!

[clrnbeek]

Jeez that article you mention is VERY DATED! (dec 2008 ???!!!)
Coolite is very up to date with ExtJs (3.1.1 almost same time to release).
Coolite renders pure javascript, so you can add any ExtJs javascript plugin or extension that you need.
There are a lot more advantages for using coolite over javascript for .net developers, like reusing .net controls, intellisence, ... etc.

[geoffrey.mcgill]

Hi vali1993,

Thanks for posting a link to the article. I hadn't seem that one before.

1. is there something that could not be accomplished in coolite that exits Ext JS? if there is, how do you work around it? (Create the page with EST JS ,put in iframe, add it to coolite page?)

Since the toolkit is based on ExtJS, you should be able to accomplish everything in Coolite that you can in ExtJS. Actually, it's kind of the other way around.

If you do run into something, just let us know and we should be able to offer some advice.

2. Can any extensions or plugins be used with Coolite web controls?

As long as the extjs extension/plugin was coded for the same version of extjs which is being used in you build of Coolite, there shouldn't be many issue. Obviously an extension created for ExtJS 3.x may (will) not work in ExtJS 2.x.

There are a lot of community created extensions/plugins that we may not have implemented in the toolkit, although most are generally simple to convert to a toolkit component. Again, just point it out and we'll see what we can do.

3. is it true about the disadvanges of using coolite in below artical?

http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/as...y-and-asp.net/

I'll break it down and comment about each point individually.

Don?t want to bother with JavaScript? Well Coolite is your answer. I like Coolite, but I also like JavaScript so it really boils down to your preference. There are advantages to both approaches. Coolite is good because you can drag and drop server controls on your web form and setup the properties in Visual Studio just like you would any other server control.

Agreed. Nothing much to comment about here.

Coolite is free unless you want the source code.

The full source code for the project is included with both the "free" Community Edition and Professional Edition. You are not required to pay to obtain the source code. You will always have the full source code for the version you are using.

Professional Edition members with a Support agreement do get early access to the absolutely latest source code and next release which is stored within an SVN source code repository.

The biggest disadvantage of Coolite is when Ext upgrades. Because Ext is encapsulated in Coolite you have to wait for Coolite to upgrade before you can take advantage of the new features and fixes of Ext.

I guess, maybe. The public release of the toolkit does generally come later than the public release of extjs, although for those ok with being on the bleeding edge, the SVN build is generally kept in sync with the extjs svn trunk so you always have access to the latest bits.

Currently our svn is sync'd with the extjs 3.1.+ build, which should all be publicly available very soon.

Also, when Coolite does upgrade, you have to upgrade all your projects to use the new version of Coolite. It can become very tedious doing this. Basically with Coolite, you get the latest version now and stick with it for the long run.

Yes. When upgrading the toolkit to a new build, its all or nothing. Individual components can not be upgraded independently of others.

The v1.0 release is also going to introduce a pile of breaking changes, but everything is ultimately for the better. After the v1.0 release our goal is provide much a more seamless upgrade process with no breaking changes. Can't guarantee anything, but that's the goal.

Another disadvantage is the extent to what Coolite implements. Not all the features of Ext are available in Coolite controls.

The v1.0 release should take care of this issue.

So with that said, don?t let my negativity dissuade you from checking out Coolite. It is very awesome and it continues to become more powerful as time goes on!

Agreed.

[jchau]

Advantages of Coolite:

- Enhanced ExtJS controls. Coolite's extension of ExtJS controls provide much more functionality, such as Coolite's GridPanel and Store. Good luck rewriting all that from scratch.
- Integration with ASP.NET. AjaxEvent/DirectEvent and AjaxMethod/DirectMethod can be used to easily communicate with the server. Easy to serialize and deserialize data from server to client and vice versa.
- Better support. I dont know how they do it but they respond to forum questions very quickly. I think there must be like 20 Geoffrey and Vladimir bots working somewhere.




Even if I have to write a new application using javascript only, I will be loading the Coolite client side library on top of ExtJS.

[geoffrey.mcgill]

Hi Jacky,

Thanks for posting those notes. You bring up some good points.

I think there must be like 20 Geoffrey and Vladimir bots working somewhere.

I can assure you there is only one of me. Not to sure about Vladimir though. Personally I envision him as just a big brain inside a bell jar with a direct ethernet connection.

[vali1993]

Thanks all for replying to my post! very helpful information

[michaeld]

> 1. is there something that could not be accomplished in coolite that exits Ext JS? if there is,
> how do you work around it?
> 2. Can any extensions or plugins be used with Coolite web controls?

What about these differences/challenges related to the above questions...?

A. Let's say I download an extjs extension and try to integrate within a user control I'm building with coolite? Could I make the extjs control a child of a coolite control and integrate it somewhere within "letsay" a group of textfields? I haven't seen an example of this done, wouldn't this be a challenge? More importantly, if it's an input control, how would you get its value into the postback with the others?

B. Let's say I extend textfield with Ext.extend, there is no way to tell Coolite to render this extension instead of Coolite's Textfield and gain all of the coolite features. So basically, it's an either/or proposition - you can use extjs to Ext.extend'ed, but Coolite controls will demand another strategy.

[geoffrey.mcgill]

hmmm. Every <ext:> component in the toolkit is basically an extension. The toolkit mirrors the same class hierarchy as ExtJS. Creating a new server component is possible for any ExtJS UX component.

Do you have a specific ExtJS UX component you need as an asp.net component?


If you inherit from the Field class, your custom control will be available just as any other Field component, such as <ext:TextField>.


There's also a Google Code project of some UX components, see http://code.google.com/p/coolite-ux-toolkit/