mobile and gis dev notes

Just a quick example on creating floatable windows

Note that renderTo: ‘document.body’ would result in an error, use renderTo: document.body instead

Time and time again, I have debugging bugs and redeveloping code which some I wrote but mostly done by others as well. Experience is still my best teacher in web development and I believe it would be a heavier burden later on if we continuously pursue rapid development without any testing at all.

You may have heard of writing test cases before diving into code which is well known as Test Driven Development. This methodology has been widely adapted in programming (Java thru JUnit, etc). Following Kent Beck’s Test Driven Development (TDD) we will follow this simple method:

1. Write the test first
2. Watch the test fail
3. Write the component
4. Watch the test pass

Read more…

I recently downloaded Aptana Studio 1.1 Community Edition and have been using it mostly for my Javascript/ColdFusion development.

• Intellisense for ExtJS by using com.extjs.ext.2.0_1.0.0.00000.jar from the ExtJS blog. Umm, I am hoping someday OpenLayers can provide a similar jar file to provide code assist.
• I like the fact that it could clearly display an outline of my javascript objects but sometimes not for all.

But one of the major problems I encountered was the startup. Sometimes, for some unknown reason, Aptana cannot start using the executable it provided during the install. However, I was able to weed that problem out by instead launching it from startup.jar. All of these is documented from Aptana’s JIRA ticket.

1. Downloaded and install Aptana

2. Watched Aptana TV Overview

3. Installed cfeclipse http://www.cfeclipse.org/update

4. Installed viPlugin http://satokar.com/ (Note that the viPlugin would not work with files = *.html)

5. Added the extjs2.0 code assist

I have an ongoing project which utilises Yahoo UI’s Javascript Libraries. There are also plans of even extending the application to use ExtJS for a more powerful window/container/layout lib. In regards to these Javascript pursuits, I need a Javascript editor for Eclipse besides my almighty vim.

JSEclipse from Adobe Labs

JSEclipse Installation

Eclipse Update Site:
Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install -> New

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/jseclipse/autoinstall