[TYPO3-v4] The future of ExtJS 4 in TYPO3 4.7

[Ingmar Schlecht]

Hi guys,

as for the decision between the two options, I think we have no option 
then to revert to ExtJS 3. Even if we extend the feature freeze by, say, 
3 months, it's still not guaranteed we can get the release stable with 
ExtJS 4.

Whether we increase the development time of 4.7 is another question, I 
think, and should be looked at separately then (once we agree that even 
with 3 months more time it doesn't really make sense to force ExtJS 4 in 
the core).

cheers
Ingmar


Am 11.01.12 16:47, schrieb Oliver Hader:
> Dear TYPO3 enthusiasts,
>
> currently we all are busy in the development phase of the next version
> TYPO3 4.7. There shall be one additional alpha3 release and in three
> weeks the first beta version with the regular feature freeze. The
> current state and the next steps for TYPO3 4.7 have been discussed in
> the Release Team Meeting last Monday. So, this mail aims to share the
> thoughts and issues with you.
>
> The current state in our main development branch (master) comes with
> ExtJS version 4, as foundation for further development of the Media
> Management Module (the next generation of DAM) and the "Vidi" (versatile
> and interactive display, a new generic list component) - both were part
> of the "BLE project" [1] and are currently actively used for the new
> File Abstraction Layer.
>
> We had ExtJS version 3 in the core already for some years now and
> components like the Recycler, Workspaces Module or the Form Wizard rely
> on that. However, ExtJS4 is a "bit different" to ExtJS3 and thus needs
> further non-trivial changes to the whole JavaScript code - Sencha, the
> ExtJS distributor provided a very basic guide for that migration [2],
> but rather than a straight migration, in some aspects it's more like a
> rewrite. With all the custom ExtJS based components in TYPO3, that was
> and to some degree still is a very tough job.
> In addition, Sencha - the product owner of ExtJS - seems to have stopped
> working on ExtJS 4.0 due to some major problems and concentrated on
> version 4.1 which would need further adaptions - even to already
> migrated parts [3].
>
> However... most of the ExtJS 3 components in the TYPO3 Core have not
> been forward ported to ExtJS4 yet, since it really takes some time and
> also requires a good understanding of the the whole application to be
> modified (e.g. knowing what the Workspaces Module or Form Wizard are
> really doing in the ExtJS part). For the time being, an intermediate
> compatibility layer has been added in the TYPO3 Core which allows "old"
> ExtJS 3 applications to be executed in a framed environment. It turned
> out that this is not really a long-term solution and besides that,
> external extensions using ExtJS 3 would require additional changes to
> use that compatibility layer. Further investigations of a sandboxed
> ExtJS 4 or using it side-by-side in IFRAMEs, turned out to problematic
> as well, when it comes to the details of integrating it in the backend.
>
> These are the facts for the time being. In essence, we have a rather
> unstable TYPO3 4.7-alpha concerning ExtJS components and a rather
> pessimistic perspective to get all of them stable until feature freeze
> in the next three weeks.
>
> That means, that we have these possibilities:
>
> a) postpone the final 4.7 release a lot and hope things will get better
>     - forward port all components to ExtJS 4
>     - introduce a great backward compatibility layer for
>       ExtJS 3 extensions
>     - create documentation on how to use ExtJS 3 and ExtJS 4
>       side by side
>
> b) revert the ExtJS 4 changes in the Git master branch of the TYPO3 Core
>     - get back a stable TYPO3 4.7 with working Workspaces,
>       Form Wizard and Recycler
>     - accept the "collateral" fact that the work on ExtJS 4
>       migration is lost, which means to disappoint developers
>       who invested a lot of time in what already has been achvieved
>     - find (better) alternatives for the mentioned "media" and
>       "vidi" components
>     - find alternatives to ExtJS in general in the long-term view -
>       however, ExtJS is good for widgets, but not as a one-fits-all
>       JavaScript solution
>
> It's really understandable that it must be frustrating for somebody
> having put a lot work into the ExtJS4 migration by reading these lines
> above. However, the end of these tasks cannot be predicted and as
> always: time and resources are limited.
>
> So, our suggestion is to revert the ExtJS 4 parts and continue with a
> clean TYPO3 4.7. However, if somebody out there has a good alternative
> on how to proceed with ExtJS 4, please share your thoughts and ideas. If
> there are no major objections and no solution that really saves us, we
> will proceed very soon with reverting back to ExtJS 3.
>
> Thanks for your understanding and for your passion in TYPO3!
>
>
> Cheers,
> Olly - on behalf of the TYPO3 4.7 Release Team
>
>
> [1]
> http://news.typo3.org/news/article/typo3-receives-german-governmental-funding-for-accessibility-and-usability-project/
> [2] http://www.sencha.com/blog/ext-js-3-to-4-migration
> [3] http://www.sencha.com/blog/whats-new-in-ext-js-4-1/