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I developed Ext-JS applications from 2011 till 2017, and during the ExtJS 4 time, it was great. I loved the quality of their documentation, and most importantly

by LeonM 9y ago

I developed Ext-JS applications from 2011 till 2017, and during the ExtJS 4 time, it was great. I loved the quality of their documentation, and most importantly: the ability to comment on each class/method/property etc. This contained invaluable hints and insights. The community was really good. Then they upgraded ExtJS (can't remember if it was to Ext5 or 4.x) and deleted all the comments as 'no longer relevant'. Then they started to move certain classes (such as a SOAP client) to the 'premium' edition. Which was understandable, but annoying if you just wanted to experiment with the framework. Then they removed the GPL edition from the download page, the only way to obtain the GPL edition was by begging on the forums. Eventually Sencha simply no longer responded on threads about the GPL version. Last year I did a small project and attempted to use Ext6, I found it had become a monster, or even 2 monsters because they split ExtJS into the 'classic' and 'modern' editions, which were promised to be merged eventually, but I'm afraid that's never going to happen. ExtJS now requires a custom build system (SenchaCMD) to compile a project, debugging is becoming a nightmare. Bugs in the build system are rarely solved once reported. The way I see it: extjs was a great product, but they started treating their community like sh*t, and after that it all went downhill. Goodbye ExtJS.

nkg 9y ago
There were a good ideas in that framework, and it felt like they wanted to build a really exhaustive, fully integrated UI building solution. The company I worked for at the time had chosen it for the wrong reasons: their first incentive was the desktop-like UI that comes with ExtJs! But as I dove into it I understood what it was all about. ExtJs is/was a fat framework and I have felt overwhelmed many times, but if I compare it to our current daily tasks of gluing Stores, Components, and Views libs together for the same result, I am not sure we have improved anything. I would like to hear someone thoughts on a potential contender.
idibidiart 9y ago
It was a monster from day one.
- arcosdev 9y ago
  Agreed
albeva 9y ago
I have fond memories of ExtJS until version 4 was released. I used to be huge advocate of extjs at our company, but I remember feeling horror and dismay seeing how down hill it went with 4.0. Communication with the community, their pricing policies, quality, perfomance ... too many issues. We pretty much stopped using it and ported all our projects away from it. It really was a sad day. It was ultimately their mad push to make ExtJS "enterprise" ready and forget all the good people who helped them and were with them from the start. There really was this huge middle finger from Sencha to everyone around that time.
- robpalmer 9y ago
  I met Art, the Sencha CEO, back in 2013 after having some positive experiences using Sencha Touch on iOS to develop consumer-facing apps. He said that the company was going to solely focus on Enterprise because that's what the investors wanted. At the time that felt like it signalled the death of the company. I note that the successful JS ecosystems we have today are not enterprise-only or consumer-only.
wwweston 9y ago
> Then they upgraded ExtJS (can't remember if it was to Ext5 or 4.x) and deleted all the comments as 'no longer relevant'. Oh, wow. My observation is that treating documentation thoughtlessly is frequently a leading indicator that "treating their community like shit" is coming soon. Product folks and developer evangelists: never do this. Never do the thing where you simply blow away a community-grown resource. If you're absolutely sure you're in a situation that's the exception, you are probably still wrong. Wait a year or two after you're sure. Then warn people and give them a year to save whatever they think is valuable. Any other approach is telegraphing either thoughtlessness or contempt, possibly both.

by LeonM 9y ago

nkg 9y ago

There were a good ideas in that framework, and it felt like they wanted to build a really exhaustive, fully integrated UI building solution. The company I worked for at the time had chosen it for the wrong reasons: their first incentive was the desktop-like UI that comes with ExtJs! But as I dove into it I understood what it was all about. ExtJs is/was a fat framework and I have felt overwhelmed many times, but if I compare it to our current daily tasks of gluing Stores, Components, and Views libs together for the same result, I am not sure we have improved anything. I would like to hear someone thoughts on a potential contender.

idibidiart 9y ago

It was a monster from day one.

arcosdev 9y ago
Agreed

albeva 9y ago

I have fond memories of ExtJS until version 4 was released. I used to be huge advocate of extjs at our company, but I remember feeling horror and dismay seeing how down hill it went with 4.0. Communication with the community, their pricing policies, quality, perfomance ... too many issues. We pretty much stopped using it and ported all our projects away from it. It really was a sad day. It was ultimately their mad push to make ExtJS "enterprise" ready and forget all the good people who helped them and were with them from the start. There really was this huge middle finger from Sencha to everyone around that time.

robpalmer 9y ago
I met Art, the Sencha CEO, back in 2013 after having some positive experiences using Sencha Touch on iOS to develop consumer-facing apps. He said that the company was going to solely focus on Enterprise because that's what the investors wanted. At the time that felt like it signalled the death of the company. I note that the successful JS ecosystems we have today are not enterprise-only or consumer-only.

wwweston 9y ago

> Then they upgraded ExtJS (can't remember if it was to Ext5 or 4.x) and deleted all the comments as 'no longer relevant'. Oh, wow. My observation is that treating documentation thoughtlessly is frequently a leading indicator that "treating their community like shit" is coming soon. Product folks and developer evangelists: never do this. Never do the thing where you simply blow away a community-grown resource. If you're absolutely sure you're in a situation that's the exception, you are probably still wrong. Wait a year or two after you're sure. Then warn people and give them a year to save whatever they think is valuable. Any other approach is telegraphing either thoughtlessness or contempt, possibly both.