Which Javascript library?

[eluser]marlar[/eluser]
Hi,

For the CI application I am developing, I would like a rich user interface, somewhat like the Google apps (Gmail, Google Calendar etc). But not quite as ambitious, though.

I am seeking a Javascript library that is reasonably browser independent, don't have too steep a learning curve and is well documented. I have looked at Google's own library, but it seems to be Java based on the developer side, and I know nothing about Java.

Which one can you recommend?

Thanks,
Martin

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]
I prefer jQuery - it's speed is unmatched.

But, you mentioned a lot of visual elements - and there isn't a "prettier" more functional library out there these days than extJS when it comes to visual elements.

You can use extJS with a jQuery bridge-script, but there's really no point. extJS' baseline library is very nice, just not quite as fast (which you would lose a lot of the speed gains by bridging between the two libraries anyways).

[eluser]ejangi[/eluser]
I'm personally a MooTools fan. It has a great library for building visual effects (as well as many in-built ones) and takes care of all the cross-browser issues for you.

[eluser]Nick Husher[/eluser]
I'm a big fan of Yahoo User Interface (YUI). It's not as fast as jQuery, doesn't have the user base of Scriptaculous, and can be a bit heavyweight at times, but the code is very well documented and very easy to extend. It also smooths out cross-browser problems, and features one of the few Safari-compatible rich text editor widgets.

[eluser]WolfgangA[/eluser]
I am using extjs, after i started with yui (when ext was yui-ext).
Its a very well designed library with good docs and a large community base and useful user extensions.

[eluser]marlar[/eluser]
I have looked at the demos of Extjs. It looks very impressive, and by looking at the source code it seems to be easy to use.

As Michael Wales points out, it's not very speedy, but I find it responsive enough.

Will also have a look at jQuery and Yui.

WolfgangA, how do you think Extjs compare with yui?

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]
I really like extJS - it was born from the YUI library.

Choose extJS if you like to hack at things on your own, think it looks nice, and you don't mind going searching for tutorials and such.

Choose YUI if you want all the documentation in one place, need step-by-step tutorials to explain how to do things, intend to implement some of the other Yahoo Developer features (like their CSS library), or want to hot-link to a library to save some bandwidth (Yahoo hosts the files for everyone to use).

[eluser]WolfgangA[/eluser]
[quote author="marlar" date="1197434490"]I have looked at the demos of Extjs. It looks very impressive, and by looking at the source code it seems to be easy to use.

As Michael Wales points out, it's not very speedy, but I find it responsive enough.

Will also have a look at jQuery and Yui.

WolfgangA, how do you think Extjs compare with yui?[/quote]

I think you need to make your choice upon what you expect from a js lib (also in the long run)

Extjs does provide a lot of utilities that are not widgets as well as ready to use widgets, all of this is one very well designed lib.
(take your time and have a look a the source, it is very elegant, simple, structured... studing the src really helped me to improve my js coding skills a lot)

In comparsion to yui i have to admit that i am no longer uptodate with yui, because i never had to again.

I think Ext is speedy. For example have a look at the domquery performance comparison released a while ago (even before ext 1.0)
If one refers to load times: Just load what is needed instead of the entire lib, or yo can build your lean custom extlib.

What i like really though is the new configuration model in EXT 2.0 for any components using a config configuration object. Basically you can construct components entirly from JSON data, something that i am trying to feed from CI using matchbox and the view lib.


When you want to get an idea about ext, look to the beginner tutorial or (if you are a more experieced js developer) have a look at the migration doc from ext 1.1 to 2.0, because it covers a lot of the new cocepts.
But, as said before, it depends on your requirements.

Regards

Wolfgang

[eluser]Derek Allard[/eluser]
jquery is my new favourite... and I expect to work some kind of CI integration in there at some point. I've used and liked scripto, and also mootools. Really, you can't go "wrong" with any of the big boys.

[eluser]marlar[/eluser]
Thanks for the feedback. I will probably go for jQuery or Extjs (or both). They both look very promising for my project.

One thing I couldn't find in either of them is a spellchecker like widget. While I don't need a spellchecker on the site, I do need the ability to choose between a few alternatives for some words.

For example if the word "tomato" is highlighted, clicking on it would show a menu with choices like "cucumber", "eggplant", "melon". Selecting a word from the list would then update the highlighted word.

Does such a thing exists in jQuery or Extjs?