Jesus Garcia - Sencha Touch in Action

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Development editor: Frank PohlmannTechnical proofreader: Jamund FergusonCopyeditor: Liz WelchProofreader: Melody DolabTypesetter: Dennis DalinnikCover designer: Marija Tudor

ISBN: 9781617290374

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To my wife Erika and my sons Takeshi and Kenji

J.G.

I started my career in the world of Sencha back in 2006 when the precursor to whats known as ExtJS today (Senchas desktop JavaScript framework) was still an experiment. Soon after my introduction, I became addicted to the design patterns that were promoted by the quickly evolving framework. But more importantly, I fell in love with the thriving community of developers looking to contribute.

I was inspired by many of the active members and decided to become a contributing member myself, spending tens of hours per week answering peoples questions, writing blog posts, and eventually publishing instructional screencasts.

I can remember the feeling of excitement when I learned of the development of Sencha Touch back in 2009. Back then, HTML5 was something that people didnt talk about much, and it was only a draft specification. In 2012, Sencha Touch 1.0 arrived and was the first HTML5 mobile framework on the market. A lot of the technology driving Sencha Touch is considered revolutionary in the industry. For example, the Sencha Touch scroller is one of the most robust and smoothest available for single-page applications for mobile devices.

To be honest, Id never done mobile development before then. I didnt own a smartphone and I didnt know much about WebKit. Im happy to say that Sencha Touch changed all that for me!

The reason I got into mobile development was because Sencha Touch allowed me to use my existing HTML, JavaScript, and CSS skills to build applications for smart-phones. Back in 2009, I didnt have time to learn Objective C and I honestly didnt care much for Java.

Fast forward to 2013, and Im in awe at what Ive been able to accomplish with this framework. From all of the activity that Ive been a part of over the past few years, I was led here, to share with you what I know, once again contributing to the now known and still thriving Sencha community.

J AY G ARCIA

Anthony DeMossFrom the beginning, youve worked with me to get this manuscript developed for Sencha Touch 1.0 and then worked feverishly to get it migrated to 2.0. Im happy we got a chance to work on this together.

Mitchell SimoensYour knowledge of the framework has been ever-evolving and its been a pleasure to follow your career growth. Being a coauthor of this manuscript is a testament to how much youve achieved over the past few years.

Abe EliasYou have been an amazing friend and mentor to me. Thank you for your continued advice throughout the years and for affording me the opportunities to work closely with the various Sencha teams and gain experiences that help me push my knowledge forward.

Jamie AvinsThank you for your continued support with the Sencha Touch framework. Having you available to ask questions and bounce ideas off has been immensely helpful and Im grateful to you for that.

Jacky NguyenAs part of the Sencha community, we recognize the technical achievements youve made possible with Touch 2.0. You were there for me when I was faced with technical challenges that were beyond my experience.

Ed SpencerEven though youre no longer with Sencha, your contributions to my early knowledge of Touch havent been forgotten. Your presence in the Sencha community is missed.

Don GriffinThank you for the back-and-forth when it came to Sencha Cmd! Gaining access to this tool in its infancy helped me close the final chapter for this book.

Sebastian SterlingThe publication of this book has taken a lot longer than we anticipated. As my primary developmental editor at Manning, you challenged my writing and helped me bring out the best content.

Frank PohlmannFrank, you came in at a busy point in the development of this manuscript and you did a hell of a job getting things right for production. Thank you.

Liz WelchThank you for the hard work in getting this manuscript better organized during the copyediting phase. Its been an absolute pleasure working with you.

Jamund FergusonThank you for your careful technical proofread of the final manuscript shortly before it went into production.

Our reviewersThanks for reading the manuscript at various stages of its development and for providing invaluable feedback: lex Madurell, Darragh Duffy, Doug Warren, Frank Ableson, Grgur Grisogono, J.J. van de Merwe, Loiane Groner, Matt Goldspink, Pawankumar Tripathi, Robi Sen, Stuart Davies, Tony Niemann, and Vincent Winckelmans.

Finally, to my wife, Erika: Youve supported me in everything Ive aimed for, and I know that youve sacrificed time with me so that I could share my knowledge with others. You always push me to do better and Im truly grateful to you. Also to my sons, Takeshi and Kenji: Thank you for the adventures you put your mom through while I worked on this book in my basement man cave. The stories shes told me certainly have been colorful.

J AY G ARCIA

This book is designed to walk you through the flexible and powerful mobile HTML5 framework, Sencha Touch, from explaining the basics all the way to developing and deploying production mobile web applications. After youve read this book, you should be able to develop mobile HTML5 applications for tablets and phones.

This book is intended for developers who want to create rich mobile HTML5 applications that feel native using Sencha Touch. Although Sencha Touch is highly customizable, this book is targeted at those who primarily do the programming part of specification implementation.