For those out there that want to build Domino based web applications or simply want to convert existing Notes client apps to work on the web, please check out Ext.nd. It is a javascript framework that integrates the Ext JS framework with Domino.
Rich Waters and I have been working on this framework for over a year and we would really appreciate any and all feedback on what you like and/or don’t like.
Subject: Ext.nd Beta 1 available (for web enabling your notes apps)
I can think of one thing that’s missing, and that’s documentation. Not in the JavaDoc sense – I mean, the methods, inputs and outputs and so on are well-documented. It’s documentation in the “what does it do” sense that’s missing. That’s almost a universal failing in the world of JavaScript frameworks/toolkits (starting with Prototype, which, as a facilitator for Rails, was never meant for humans to use in any case). Neither Ext nor Ext.nd is particularly developer-friendly in this regard, and that’s a pity – it’s easy to use once you know the tricks, but it’s damnably hard to find out what the tricks are.
Subject: RE: Ext.nd Beta 1 available (for web enabling your notes apps)
Hi Stan,
Thanks for the input. We know we need more documentation and examples and we are working toward that. However, is that what you mean? Ext itself is very well documented (http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/) and has lots of examples (http://extjs.com/learn/). We were planning on going that route but do you think we should do something different?
Subject: RE: Ext.nd Beta 1 available (for web enabling your notes apps)
It’s not so much the API doco – that’s necessary, of course, but not particularly helpful until you know where you want to go. The example pages are a great appetite-whetter, but they won’t get you from point a to point b. What’s missing, really, is the tutorials – specifically, how to “wire” Domino elements to use Ext.nd, add pass-thru elements, and so on.
As I said before, it’s easy enough, but at this point the developer needs to grok both Notes and web development at a level that some of us take for granted until we spend time reading the questions posted in forums like this one to get the job done. I think we need to take the price of admission down a little bit.
Oh, by the way, I’ve nearly finished reconstructing my formula language JS library. (And I still thirst for the blood of the who stole my computers and backup drives last summer – that was a LOT of work to lose 'cuz somebody needed twenty bucks worth of crack.) Would you folks have a use for it?