There are trade-offs, without a doubt, and I don??™t believe there is a one-size-fits-all answer. Some feel
that we should always use Hibernate, or some other ORM tool, and there should be no debate. I for one do
not agree with that and believe it leads to bad architectures in at least some cases. No, I believe my father
was right: if you need a hammer, go get it out of the toolbox. If it??™s a screw and not a nail though, the hammer
will still probably work, but it??™s not the right tool for the job!
CHAPTER 9 n TIMEKEEPER: DWR EVEN MAKES PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUN! 460
Ext JS
With Hibernate on board to make our database requirements a piece of cake, let??™s discuss how
we??™ll make the UI easier and fancier. The answer there is a popular JavaScript library called
Ext JS (http://extjs.com). While Ext JS does more than just widgets, that is frankly what it??™s
primarily known for, and for very good reason!
Ext JS provides a wealth of UI widgets that cover a wide field of needs, including
??? Grids, both static and editable, and all sorts of variations of that theme
??? Various forms of pop-up windows, both purely informational and data entry types
??? Tabbed panes and other kinds of layout-related components
??? Entry form??“type controls such as combo boxes and autocomplete fields
??? Toolbars, menus, progress bars, and tons more
All of these widgets look really, really good, and what??™s more are fully skinnable so you can
have any sort of look you can dream up (and write style sheets for).
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