Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Sencha offers plug-in-free charting in JavaScript upgrade

news
Apr 26, 20112 mins

The upgrade to the Ext JS 4 framework also leverages MVC paradigm

Sencha is releasing on Tuesday Ext JS 4, an upgrade to the company’s JavaScript framework that leverages plug-in-free charting technologies like SVG and VML instead of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in.

Removing this dependency frees developers from having to rely on different versions of Flash and risking incompatibilities, said Aditya Bansod, Sencha senior director of product management. Previously, Flash was used for functions like bar charts. “Now, in 4.0, we’re going directly to the browser technologies,” Bansod said. Ext JS 4 can be used for browsers ranging from Internet Explorer 6 to Chrome 10 with no need for plug-ins. The framework itself is used for building desktop Web applications in JavaScript.

“We’re going with industry trends toward using more browser-native technologies, which we believe is more attractive to developers,” said Bansod. Version 4 boosts cross-browser support, via a split browser document object model. Through this method, the framework tunes pages for specific browsers such as IE or Chrome. “You write the application once, and our framework manages all those differences for you,” according to Bansod. Also featured in version 4 is use of a MVC (Model View Controller) development paradigm. “It separates the UI and the action and the data so you can have independent teams work on these three components.”

On modern browsers, Ext JS 4 takes advantage of HTML5 capabilities, such as CSS3 styling. The upgrade features more than 270 new APIs, 35 new classes, and new documentation. A new theming engine in the upgrade makes it easier to style Web applications, Sencha said. Ext JS has been used by more than 1 million developers to build cross-browser applications, according to Sencha. The framework can be used with the Eclipse or Microsoft Visual Studio IDE and is available via open source or commercial licensing.

This article, “Sencha offers plug-in-free charting in JavaScript upgrade,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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