Migration guide from Ext to SmartClient

[uno200405]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. Is there any better way to migrate from Ext to SmartClient?

Thank you!

[Isomorphic]

Hi uno,

You can get fairly far with simple search-and-replace, especially if you are coming from Ext 2.0, where the APIs for certain components are very nearly clones of SmartClient APIs for the corresponding components.

For example, take the "Array Grid" Ext example source:

new Ext.grid.GridPanel -> isc.ListGrid.create
columns -> fields
stripeRows -> alternateRecordStyles

Then in each field:

id/dataIndex -> name
renderer -> formatCellValue
sortable -> canSort
header -> title

If you come up with a more complete list, or even a code transform script, it would be great if you could share it with the community. Thanks!

[uno200405]

Thank you

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I will try a proof of concept first. If it looks fine then I can convert an existing web applications.

Thanks
Uno

[ftftft]

I would say it would be great helpful to clone some of ExtJS samples(functionality, not visually), like FeedViewer and Grid sample. My coworker is looking for an alternative to ExtJS.

It is weird that I never heard smartClient before, even though I am keeping an eye on javascript library two years ago.

Hi uno,

You can get fairly far with simple search-and-replace, especially if you are coming from Ext 2.0, where the APIs for certain components are very nearly clones of SmartClient APIs for the corresponding components.

For example, take the "Array Grid" Ext example source:

new Ext.grid.GridPanel -> isc.ListGrid.create
columns -> fields
stripeRows -> alternateRecordStyles

Then in each field:

id/dataIndex -> name
renderer -> formatCellValue
sortable -> canSort
header -> title

If you come up with a more complete list, or even a code transform script, it would be great if you could share it with the community. Thanks!

[krycek]

I have a good experience with ExtJS. I think a guide showing how to port application from extjs to smarclient would be perfect.

Maybe something simple at the begging, like:

Ext.grid.GridPanel -> isc.ListGrid.create
Ext.DataView -> xxxxxxx
Ext.data.Store -> xxxxxxx

Someone with experience in there 2 libraries wouldn't take more than an hour to do a guide like that.

So, one more vote to a guide :)

[Isomorphic]

Hi Krycek,

Unfortunately, as you might expect, we here at Isomorphic don't have a lot of hands-on coding experience in other frameworks :) However if you think it would take only an hour, we'd be more than happy to sponsor your creation of first draft once you've become familiar with SmartClient as well.

[krycek]

Sure,

but I'm not ready yet.

After creating my first app I'll be able to create a guide :o)

[Isomorphic]

Great - get back in touch then, we were not joking about sponsoring the creation of a basic migration guide.

[ftftft]

An hour is definitely not enough. My coworker has been working on a prototype to compare SmartClient with ExtJS. We use ExtJS on the current internal project.

Overall, he likes smartclient.

Pro.

1. layout is easier to use.
2. Live grid is very nice.
3. code seems more clear.

Con.

1. form validation. When there is an error. Smartclient displays error information beside the form field. That often makes the form panel look mess. It is neat for ExtJS to use a red circle and qtip to show the error message.
2. Community is small. I think Smartclient needs more market exposure.

Great - get back in touch then, we were not joking about sponsoring the creation of a basic migration guide.

[Isomorphic]

Hi ftftft (is that supposed to be the sound of arrows?),

We didn't actually think it would take an hour :) But we'd be prepared to sponsor the effort by a qualified person.

On your con #1, you can present errors in multiple ways, including a compact way that does not reflow the form (an error icon only). See showErrorIcon, showErrorText, etc properties.

On con #2, this community appears to be doubling weekly or so, and yes we're working on getting the word out. But it is already easy to find help, and to hire from this community (Isomorphic has done so, twice).

On your pros - keep going - that's the tip of the iceberg :)

[azuroff]

I hate to resurrect an old thread, but did the ExtJS -> SmartClient migration guide ever happen?

We currently have an ExtJS application in production that we need to move to a different framework and SmartClient is currently at the top of the short list of replacements. A migration guide would save us a lot of work if there's one out there.

[sjivan]

azuroff,
I'm not sure what the status of the migration guide is, however feel free to fire questions and those of us who have experience in Ext will do our best to help you guys out.

I expect that you'll be very pleased as you work through the migration to SmartClient and the final outcome. Depending on the size of your current application you're going to face some initial effort with the port or grunt work, however you'll not only end up with a cleaner architecture, but you'll also find that tons of boiler plate Ext code can completely be eliminated because so much is handled natively by the SmartClient components itself.

Perhaps once there's sufficient information in the form of Q&A out here, the relevant information can be extracted and placed in a more formal migration guide.

Sanjiv

[azuroff]

First question - is SmartClient 7.0 mature enough now that we could just start with that, or should we go with the latest 6.5 release and upgrade later? Obviously it would be better if we could use 7.0 so that we wouldn't have to migrate and then upgrade.

Second question - the one widget that we use a lot that I don't see in the SmartClient demos is what they call the LovCombo - basically a multiselect combo box. (http://lovcombo.extjs.eu/). Is there an equivalent widget for SmartClient? If not, is it easy to create new widgets in SmartClient?

[sjivan]

You should definitely use SmartClient 7.0. It is stable and close to a final release.

LovCombo is not available out of the box. You could try writing an extension of put in a feature request for it.