Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Packt to review
I finished reading a copy of Sencha Touch Mobile JavaScript Framework that Packt Publishing provided me with. In this post a review of the book.
What is this book about / what will you learn?
See also packtpub:
Overview
- Learn to develop web applications that look and feel native on Apple iOS and Google Android touchscreen devices using Sencha Touch through examples
- Design resolution-independent and graphical representations like buttons, icons, and tabs of unparalleled flexibility
- Add custom events like tap, double tap, swipe, tap and hold, pinch, and rotate
- Plenty of well-explained sample code with the essential screenshots added in for thorough understanding
You will learn:
- Make use of technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3 to provide native-quality application experiences without the need for plugins
- Create a sample application using Sencha Touch that will run on Apple iOS and Google Android
- Efficiently use the list of components available in Sencha Touch framework libraries such as tab panels, scrollable list views, and toolbars
- Add custom touch events like tap, double tap, swipe, tap and hold, pinch, and rotate
- Discover the rich event communication that is available in every Sencha Touch component, allowing you to quickly respond to your users and create intuitive, native-quality applications
- Completely control the look of your application with Sencha Touch themes and styling options.
- Quickly put together simple components backed by the data package
- Allow your users to store information with forms, or access remote information from other services like Google maps and Flickr
- Learn about web storage features to store data offline, or communicate with online databases for richer storage options.
- Explore expert topics like syncing data and compiling applications for sale on an App store.
My review
++ Easy accessible
The entry level is low, somebody with a general idea about touch devices and having some HTML/CSS skills, preferably also some knowledge of Javascript, can jump in with great ease.
++ Clear and concise explanations
The explanations and code examples were comprehensive and well structured (one caveat with the code, see further down). Especially Chapter 8 was useful: it combined the concepts building a Flickr Finder app - cool.
++ Wide range of technologies make it an interesting read
Apart from Sencha Touch a lot of other technologies are introduced like writing CSS with SASS, the Safari Error console, REST / building an API and AJAX, PhoneGap/ NimbleKit, working in offline mode. I liked this, it gives you some relevant context you need as a developer.
- - All code == Sencha Touch 1.1.0, you want to use Sencha Touch 2.x !
Here is where the book lost a bit my appetite. It uses Sencha Touch 1.1.0 and this is not the latest release. Release 2.x is out and contains important changes. The Sencha Touch 2 Developer Preview was already presented in October last year, yet this book came out if February 2012. I don't understand it doesn't take a sneak preview at least as the Facebook graph title I reviewed did with the Open Graph that was even fresher when that book was released.
I noted that when I loaded the 2.x library files into the 1.1.0 code examples things started to fail. This demotivated me a bit because I didn't see any use in trying examples of an older release especially knowing that performance was the key improvement between 1.x and 2.x. I guess this is inherent to writing a book about any software topic, but I had expected a bit more here, knowing that Packt books are heavily focussed on practical code samples.
++ Overall: good book
That aside, as I already stated the material was presented in a clear and wide scope. It was an interesting and joyful ride to get familiar with the Sencha Touch framework. After reading I can clearly see this is a good approach to mobile web development. I am looking forward to dive into the release 2 documentation soon to actually build something myself.
More info
You can read more about the book here. Please let me know in the comments if you have any experience and/or example apps built with Sencha Touch.
