IDEs and tools for Ext JS 2.0
February 7, 2008 by Jack Slocum
The Ext 2.0 API is very extensive and remembering all of the functions, properties or configs available is virtually impossible. The API documentation is very thorough, but it would be nice if IDEs would provide code assist options in JavaScript as they do in other languages such as Java and C#. Luckily, there are some IDEs and plugins available that do just that — and also have direct support for Ext 2.0.
Aptana Studio
When it comes to IDEs for JavaScript development, Aptana is definitely hard to miss. I personally use it daily for Adobe AIR development. However, the version of Ext (1.1) bundled with Aptana for code assist is a little outdated.
Markus Schmidleitner has created an Ext 2.0 Aptana plugin that works very well. To install it:
- Download and install Aptana Studio.
- Open up your Aptana application directory (for me that is C:\Aptana) and copy the jar file into the plugins folder.
- Restart Aptana.
- Go to Window -> Preferences -> Aptana -> Editors -> JavaScript -> Code Assist and select Ext 2.0 (you may need to deselect Ext 1.1).
Spket Eclipse Plugin & IDE
The Spket IDE has by far the most superior code assist for Ext 2.0. It uses the Ext .jsb project file and embedded script doc to build code assist that includes options inherited from base classes and full documentation.
It doesn’t have much for editing other types of files though (e.g. CSS), so my preference is to install it as an Eclipse plugin in Aptana. To install the plugin in Aptana:
- Download and install Aptana Studio (includes Eclipse).
- Start Aptana and navigate the application menu to: Help → Software Updates → Find and Install… → Search for new features to install → New remote site…
- Name: “Spket”, Url: “http://www.spket.com/update/”
- Restart Aptana
- Watch this Spket IDE Tutorial to see how to easily add Ext code assist (you can point it at the latest /src/ext.jsb to keep code assist up to date with the latest Ext version). The steps are basically:
- Window → Preferences → Spket → JavaScript Profiles → New
- Enter “ExtJS” and click OK
- Select “ExtJS” and click “Add Library”, then choose “ExtJS” from the dropdown
- Select “ExtJS” and click “Add File”, then choose the “ext.jsb” file in your “./ext-2.x/source” directory
- Set the new ExtJS profile as the default by selecting it an clicking the “Default” button on the right-hand side of the “JavaScript Profiles” dialog.
- Restart Aptana
- Create a new JS file and type: Ext. and you should get the Ext Code completion options.
Since you will have installed it as a plugin in Aptana, chances are Aptana will still be your default JS editor. So to try Spket, you need to right click on a file and select Open with -> Spket JavaScript Editor.
Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit has the strongest support for editing multiple types of files, including Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl; plus support for browser-side code including JavaScript, CSS, HTML and XML. It’s also available on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
To install Komodo with Ext support:
- Download and install Komodo Edit.
- Download the API catalog.
- Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Code Intelligence and select the “Add an API catalog” button below the “API Catalog” section.
- Select the ExtJS API catalog CIX file you downloaded above.
Dreamweaver
For those using Dreamweaver, there are two plugins available SpketDW (Dreamweaver MX 2004 or higher) and SpketDWCS (Dreamweaver CS3). Both are made by the same team (Spket) as the Eclipse plugin above, so both are very accurate and thorough. One nice feature available in the Dreamweaver plugins is support for config option code assist.
To download and install, please visit their site.
Other IDEs
There is support for other IDEs, such as IntelliJ and Visual Studio 2008 being actively worked on by the community.
Summary
When working with Ext 2.0, there are quite a few tools available to help boost your productivity. Be sure to check them out. If you know of any other tools we’ve missed, please post a comment and let us know!
What about Visual Studio 2005? Is there any working intellisense support?
tia
nikos
February 10th, 2008
11:32 am
Not that I know of. You might want to search the forums though.
February 10th, 2008
11:54 am
IDEs and tools for Ext JS 2.0…
[…]The Ext 2.0 API is very extensive and remembering all of the functions, properties or configs available is virtually impossible. The API documentation is very thorough, but it would be nice if IDEs would provide code assist options in JavaScript a…
February 11th, 2008
5:34 am
Spket also allows you to easily extend their work to include code hints for your extensions.
February 19th, 2008
7:50 pm
@Nikos
As far as I know VS2005 does not support Javascript intellisense as it is advertised as new in VS2008. There is a post in the forum that links to this page on Spket that should fill your need if you’ve upgraded to VS2008.
http://www.spket.com/ext-intellisense-visual-studio.html
March 4th, 2008
7:40 am
Jack, I am an extJs beginner, just wanted to bring to your attention:
#1: I’m using Spket within Eclipse, and noticed that it has not as thoroughly implemented 2.0 as was touted “most superior code assist”
There are many 2.0 classes/methods missing. For instance, FormPanel has no ‘url’ (but then even the APIs didnt), buttons had no ‘handler’, etc
And then there is no javascript/html support. Makes no sense, when you consider extjs is all javascript, so when we need a js keyword we have to type it manually.
On the plus side, it is better than nothing, and does handle braces well. But I have to constantly switch editors.
I can’t wait for some kind of a pull-down editor so we dont have to remember all the keywords nor bother with getting all the enormous amount of punctuation right.
#2: While doing one of the tutorials, I had inadvertently put ‘textField’ (as it should be by nomenclature) for a FormPanel instead of ‘textfield’ as was expected by the Ext parser.
This resulted in an undecipherable and untraceable (at the time) error, you can try it yourself, Firebug was of no help at all in this case as the error was deeply nested in the classes:
A[C.xtype || D] is not a constructor
[Break on this error] Ext.ComponentMgr=function(){var B=new Ext.util.MixedCollection();var A={};return…
Obviously we must expect a lot of such errors when it is dependent on so much punctuation.
#3: In the ExtJs API, I found no straightforward way (at the time) to get to the valid default types for FormPanel nor was Spket of any help here. I finally found a link under xtypes as I was writing this. When APIs and editors dont offer direct assistance of valid values for a property, it becomes a frustrating experience for us when we dont know what the valid values are/which value is wrong. Also, there is no “url” property listed in the APIs for FormPanel either.
Overall, you have done a very good job with documenting most of the stuff..and the search is very good.
#5: This error dominates the Error Console in Firefox:
Warning: Unknown property ‘zoom’. Declaration dropped.
Source file: http://localhost/ext-2.0.2/resources/css/ext-all.css
Line: 743
Just thought you would like to know..
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Thank you Jack, really helpful.
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The Ext 2.0 API is very extensive and remembering all of the functions properties or configs availab……
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Did you find you answer on Visual Studio 2005 Nikos? I would be interested to hear if you did.
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[…] case you missed Jack’s post, check it out: IDEs and tools for Ext JS 2.0. He goes over several options that developers have when it comes to using an IDE to […]
June 5th, 2008
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Great tool
i just use vim to edit file on the apache server.
Is there any code assist that i can use in vim.
Thanks
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