sencha paris meetup switching from titanium to sencha...
TRANSCRIPT
Sencha Paris Meetup
Switching from Titaniumto Sencha Touch:
a reallife exampleLaurent JoliaFerrier
12 June 2014
Foreword: I have always favoured development tools targeting several OSs with "one" code (LiveCode formerly Revolution, Xojo formerly REALSoftware, Titanium, Sencha Touch...)
Background and context● Background
– A certified Titanium (Ti) developer since 2011
– 1st mobile app (ObjC)
● Clostermann
– Several Ti mobile apps
● corinnelepage (iOS)● France Boissons (iOS and Android)● Time management and invoicing app
(Android)● Nagios frontend (iOS and Android)● ...
– My interest in Sencha Touch dates back to 2011
Background and context● Context
– Client: public sector
– Several statistical brochures are produced every year (1000's of prints)
– Objectives● Program the client's 1st statistical app (kind of PoC)
● Reduce the # of prints● Provide users with an enhanced experience (access to statistical data behind the charts, connections to relevant web sites, etc.)
Project main highlights● Main targeted devices: iPad and
Galaxy Tab 7' in "landscape" mode
– Tested so far on: Google Chrome, Galaxy Tab 2 7', iPhone 3GS + iOS6, iPhone 4S + iOS7, Wiko Oozie phone (Android)
● Same interface for all devices ("immersive" app as per Apple jargon)
● Extensive use of Sencha Charts (50 charts)
– Charts are build dynamically
– Charts' data is stored in JSON files (easy maintenance)
● "Portrait" and "landscape" modes
● A "Hamburger menu" function has been developed (approx. 25 CSS3 lines + 10 JS lines)
● An i18n function has been developed (1 model/store + less than 10 JS lines)
– All strings are in the i18n store
– Translation will be easy
Why Sencha Touch rather than Ti?● Reasons against switching to Sencha Touch
– Excellent mastering of Ti
– Ti can make it
– Can Sencha Touch make it?
– Excellent integration of Ti with underlying OS (see SQLite databases or app variables for example)
– Native look and feel of Ti apps
– Speed of execution
– Lot of additional tools (see Appcelerator Cloud Services ACS or Facebook integration for example)
● Reasons for switching to Sencha Touch
– We didn't like Ti's recent development path● No GUI design tool (UI defined in XML files)● Compiler is being rewritten● Additional tools lacking integration
– Sencha Architect
– Need of a charts' library anyway, and graphael or Sencha Charts where likely options
– Google Chrome testing
– Ti's MVC framework a little bit cumbersome
– 'HTML5' and 'CSS3' (i.e. Sencha Touch) were magic words for the client
– No need of low level hardware functions (compass, camera, etc.)
Sencha Architect
Ti Studio
1st feedback: the good,the bad and the ugly?
● The good
– Sencha tools have proved they can 'make it' on this project
– The Sencha MVC model is outstanding once mastered (particularly as regards Models and Stores)
– Sencha Architect is a great tool that helps you keep your code clean
– The Sencha Charts module is extremely powerful
– Debugging in Google Chrome (Developer Tools + App Inspector for Sencha) is great (beware of iOS and Android specificities/bugs though)
– Excellent integration of Sencha Touch with Android (better than with iOS in most cases)
– Sencha's forums are a great source of information
– Some great books are available if you cannot take/afford a Sencha Touch training
1st feedback: the good,the bad and the ugly?
● The bad
– Workload grossly underestimated
● Forecast: 25 days● Actual:
– [Much] more– 81 hours (approx. 10 days) since May 26th only (2.5 weeks)
● Impact on planning
– Coding started in February 2014– Should have taken 3 months (elapsed time)
– Will actually have taken 5 months (elapsed time)
● Main reasons
– Learning curve underestimated (same occured with 1st Ti app)
– Lack of familiarity with the DOM (I am not a web developer initially)
– iOS, Android and Sencha Touch bugs had to be learnt
– Some people told me that Sencha Touch was full of bugs
● At the beginning of the project I sometimes thought similarly
● Now I think that people who say so do not master Sencha Touch: there are actually very few bugs
1st feedback: the good,the bad and the ugly?
● The ugly?
– Sencha does not seem to be really interested in a few critical iOS and Android bugs (most of them viewportrelated): users have to develop their own patches
– There is apparently an oldold bug with scatter charts: the legend color for the scatter series is always black, no matter the color of the series (did you ever wonder why there is no Sencha Touch example of a scatter chart with a legend?)
Conclusion 1: a small wish list● Correct or develop official patches for critical bugs
– Sencha Charts: scatter charts' legend issue
– Android: poor handling of 'orientationchange' event
– iOS: problem when viewport dimensions expressed in 'vw' or in 'vh'
● Develop an upgrade policy
– For example allow developpers to move from Sencha Architect to Sencha Touch Bundle by paying only the difference of price between the two products
● Cheaper classes?
Conclusion 2:knowing what I now know...
● Would I do the same choices for this project?
Yes.
● Shall I use Sencha Touch for my future mobile developments?
As much as possible...
... except if I need a greater integration with theunderlying hardware (for example background execution)