Team Dev Overview
Many classes have shortcut names used when creating (instantiating) a class with a
configuration object. The shortcut name is referred to as an alias (or xtype if the
class extends Ext.Component). The alias/xtype is listed next to the class name of
applicable classes for quick reference.
Framework classes or their members may be specified as private or protected. Else,
the class / member is public. Public, protected, and private are access
descriptors used to convey how and when the class or class member should be used.
Public classes and class members are available for use by any other class or application code and may be relied upon as a stable and persistent within major product versions. Public classes and members may safely be extended via a subclass.
Protected class members are stable public members intended to be used by the
owning class or its subclasses. Protected members may safely be extended via a subclass.
Private classes and class members are used internally by the framework and are not intended to be used by application developers. Private classes and members may change or be omitted from the framework at any time without notice and should not be relied upon in application logic.
static label next to the
method name. *See Static below.Below is an example class member that we can disect to show the syntax of a class member (the lookupComponent method as viewed from the Ext.button.Button class in this case).
Let's look at each part of the member row:
lookupComponent in this example)( item ) in this example)Ext.Component in this case). This may be omitted for methods that do not
return anything other than undefined or may display as multiple possible values
separated by a forward slash / signifying that what is returned may depend on the
results of the method call (i.e. a method may return a Component if a get method calls is
successful or false if unsuccessful which would be displayed as
Ext.Component/Boolean).PROTECTED in
this example - see the Flags section below)Ext.container.Container in this example). The source
class will be displayed as a blue link if the member originates from the current class
and gray if it is inherited from an ancestor or mixed-in class.view source in the example)item : Object in the example).undefined a "Returns" section
will note the type of class or object returned and a description (Ext.Component in the
example)Available since 3.4.0 - not pictured in
the example) just after the member descriptionDefaults to: false)The API documentation uses a number of flags to further commnicate the class member's function and intent. The label may be represented by a text label, an abbreviation, or an icon.
classInstance.method1().method2().etc();false is returned from
an event handler- Indicates a framework class
- A singleton framework class. *See the singleton flag for more information
- A component-type framework class (any class within the Ext JS framework that extends Ext.Component)
- Indicates that the class, member, or guide is new in the currently viewed version
- Indicates a class member of type config
- Indicates a class member of type property
- Indicates a class member of type
method
- Indicates a class member of type event
- Indicates a class member of type
theme variable
- Indicates a class member of type
theme mixin
- Indicates that the class, member, or guide is new in the currently viewed version
Just below the class name on an API doc page is a row of buttons corresponding to the types of members owned by the current class. Each button shows a count of members by type (this count is updated as filters are applied). Clicking the button will navigate you to that member section. Hovering over the member-type button will reveal a popup menu of all members of that type for quick navigation.
Getting and setter methods that correlate to a class config option will show up in the methods section as well as in the configs section of both the API doc and the member-type menus just beneath the config they work with. The getter and setter method documentation will be found in the config row for easy reference.
Your page history is kept in localstorage and displayed (using the available real estate) just below the top title bar. By default, the only search results shown are the pages matching the product / version you're currently viewing. You can expand what is displayed by clicking on the button on the right-hand side of the history bar and choosing the "All" radio option. This will show all recent pages in the history bar for all products / versions.
Within the history config menu you will also see a listing of your recent page visits. The results are filtered by the "Current Product / Version" and "All" radio options. Clicking on the button will clear the history bar as well as the history kept in local storage.
If "All" is selected in the history config menu the checkbox option for "Show product details in the history bar" will be enabled. When checked, the product/version for each historic page will show alongside the page name in the history bar. Hovering the cursor over the page names in the history bar will also show the product/version as a tooltip.
Both API docs and guides can be searched for using the search field at the top of the page.
On API doc pages there is also a filter input field that filters the member rows using the filter string. In addition to filtering by string you can filter the class members by access level, inheritance, and read only. This is done using the checkboxes at the top of the page.
The checkbox at the bottom of the API class navigation tree filters the class list to include or exclude private classes.
Clicking on an empty search field will show your last 10 searches for quick navigation.
Each API doc page (with the exception of Javascript primitives pages) has a menu view of metadata relating to that class. This metadata view will have one or more of the following:
Ext.button.Button class has an alternate class name of Ext.Button). Alternate class
names are commonly maintained for backward compatibility.Runnable examples (Fiddles) are expanded on a page by default. You can collapse and expand example code blocks individually using the arrow on the top-left of the code block. You can also toggle the collapse state of all examples using the toggle button on the top-right of the page. The toggle-all state will be remembered between page loads.
Class members are collapsed on a page by default. You can expand and collapse members using the arrow icon on the left of the member row or globally using the expand / collapse all toggle button top-right.
Viewing the docs on narrower screens or browsers will result in a view optimized for a smaller form factor. The primary differences between the desktop and "mobile" view are:
The class source can be viewed by clicking on the class name at the top of an API doc page. The source for class members can be viewed by clicking on the "view source" link on the right-hand side of the member row.
This guide discusses the mechanics of developing Architect applications as part of a team. The MVC application architecture that Architect uses, not only creates applications that are robust and portable, but is also conducive to a team development environment. Specialists can contribute an appropriate portion of the code, user-interface specialists create the View, and business and data experts develop the Models and Stores.
Developing an Architect application as a team includes the following steps:
Architect includes facilities that allow you to share bits of code between different projects and different developers.
Sencha strongly recommends that the source code for all projects be maintained under a Source Code Management (SCM) system. This provides a detailed history of all changes made to the files and backup protection for the code. Most modern SCM systems also provide tools to merge changes when multiple people modify the same file. The SCM should also enable you to maintain branches for different releases.
Sencha source code is developed under Git and our example projects are publicly available for download using Git. A number of other excellent SCMs are available and should work fine with Sencha Architect.
Before beginning your project, you should set up your SCM and define where Architect projects will be stored, who has what sort of access to the source, set up back-up procedures if appropriate, and arrange for administration and maintenance of the SCM. These topics are beyond the scope of this guide.
One person, probably the team lead, needs to start the Architect project.
Choose the framework and version you want to use and choose an appropriate App Template or choose the Blank Template to start a blank project.
The first step in creating an Architect project is to name the application.
To name an application:
Click "Application" at the top of the Project Inspector window located on the upper-right side of the screen.
Find "name" in the config panel and set it to the name of your project, such
as "MyProject". A project name should begin with a capital letter.
This sets up the Application node class that represents the application. Typically, this is a single page using a Viewport that enables all the classes in your application -- its models, views, controllers and stores -- to reside under a single namespace. When the single page is ready and all JavaScript for your application is loaded, the launch function for your application is called. The launch function typically runs the "bootstrap" code that starts your application.
For a simple application, just setting the "name" for the Application Node is usually
adequate. For more complex applications, you may need to set other configurations.
Follow the instructions in Save your Project to save your project.
When you first save your project, Architect creates a project directory for the project.
The dialog shows you where it is saved. The convention is to name the directory using a
lowercase version of the Application name you assigned in the previous step. So, if
the name you use for the Application name is "MyProject", the directory for the
project would be named "myproject". This convention is not enforced by Architect but
it makes it easier to keep track of what you’re doing.
See the next section for a detailed list of the files and directories Architect creates.
The entire project should be versioned with the following exceptions:
You can safely set up your SCM to ignore these files.
Each member of the development team should install and set up Sencha Architect and a web server on their local system. See the Installation and Set-Up guide for instructions.
After the project lead checks the project into SCM, each team member can clone the repository to their own system then use the "Open an Existing Project" link on the Architect Splash screen to open the project locally and begin coding.
Team members should save their work often and check their changes into SCM regularly.
A Project Archive is a file that contains all the components of an Architect Project. It can be made available to users outside your development team, who can download it to their local disk, load it into Architect, and review or modify it. This can be useful when you want to share your Architect project with the Sencha community or others outside your project team.
To create a project archive:
Architect creates a file with the .xda extension that can be uploaded to a server, sent in email, copied to a USB drive, and so forth. Another person can then download this file and open it inside Architect. If they make modifications to the project, they can create an archive that contains those changes.
The .xda file should always be checked into your SCM but archives are not meant to provide or replace source control management to store and track changes.
Each top-level component is a class that is stored in its own .js file. These components can be exported from your app to your toolbox or exported to a file that can be shared with other users. Child components can be promoted to classes so they can be shared and instances of a component can be linked so that changes applied to one instance are automatically applied to all instances. This is all discussed in greater detail in the Working with Classes guide.
If you need to share chunks of code rather than a single class, you can create Custom App Templates that are used to start a new project or User Extensions that can be installed in the Toolbox and used like other components in different apps. See Creating App Templates and Creating User Extensions for more information.
Some portions of your project code may be developed outside Architect and included as "Resources" to your project. Typically this includes:
To add a Resource to your project:
Note that beginning with Sencha Architect 3.0, JavaScript code that is developed outside Architect can be packaged as a User Extension that is then incorporated into your project instead of including it as a resource.
See Using Resources for more information.
Architect | Terms of Use
