Dan Vega on cfExt
ColdFusion 8 introduced a number of new and impressive Ajax features. The most notable of which is probably the complete Ajax-based forms generation, which uses Ext 1.1. There are a couple drawbacks to the ColdFusion 8 implementation however, most notably that it is Ext 1.1 when the current release is Ext 2.0, and that you have to have ColdFusion 8. Dan Vega has come to the rescue though with a project he calls cfExt. During a pre-release tour user group stop in Cleveland, OH, I had the chance to connect with Dan and get his thoughts on the project, its origins and its direction.
There’s a number of interesting side-effects of Dan’s work. The first, as I already mentioned, is that ColdFusion developers can leverage Ext 2.0. Notice that I didn’t put a version on that “ColdFusion”. That’s because with Dan’s implementation, you don’t have to use ColdFusion 8. In fact, you don’t even have to be running ColdFusion. You can even run cfExt on Blue Dragon and Railo. Since this project started out as a way for Dan to learn more about JavaScript, cfExt also serves as a great place for you to do the same. Ext is an excellent framework, but it can be overwhelming at times and I think cfExt makes a perfect introduction.
Download the audio interview (MP3, 16 Mb).