Looking for recommnedation on JavaScript libraries in the leage of ExtJS and Qooxdoo for serious web application.

Hello. I'm looking for a JavaScript library for my web application. The application is very data intensive and has rich form controls (almost windows like). AJAX will be used liberally. The development platform is ASP.Net (mostly ASP.Net MVC will be used).

I cannot pursue with ExtJs due to the price/license factor. I checked Qooxdoo but it is very windows-unfriendly. YIU fell short of my needs w.r.t. form controls it offers.

Other libraries like jQuery do not offer rich form controls. So I am looking recommendations for a library that satisfies most of following needs:

Rich UI controls
Solid API for AJAX handling
Employs good programming practices for scripting in frontend (preferably OO but not mandatory)
Free. Else has only development cost and not production
Windows friendly (or at least not unfriendly)
Not monolithic.
Should be independent (Not have development & production dependencies)
Theme'ing should be easy (preferably wrapped by the library)

I am not mentioning other basic needs (like browser compatibility). I hope any popular library will honor those.

As per the GPLv3 license I'll have to release the source code of my client's application. This is not acceptable to my clients.

Kabeer 2010-05-22 07:26:50

It's JavaScript. You're sending the code to the client anyway.

RibaldEddie 2010-05-23 00:42:02

Ribald, I'm not sure if the license agreement is as simplistic as you've portrayed. As per the license, one has to open source the entire application that uses ExtJS. In that case it would be my back-end that will comprise of the code of my ASP.Net pages with business objects, business processes and also subsequently my database schema. Basically anything and everything that is part of my 'whole' application. Please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

Kabeer 2010-05-23 18:45:13

If you are that unsure about it, you need to get a lawyer that understands these issues. However even a cursory Google Search would indicate that the GPLv3 does not force you to provide the source code to the server-side program.

RibaldEddie 2010-05-23 18:54:44

Friend, I guess SmartClient is a good candidate. Prima facie it looks like it doesn't provide a non-monolithic option. Capability-wise, I believe it is not as sophisticated as ExtJS but certainly ahead of many others. My initial POCs don't speak very high of it's performance viz-a-viz ExtJS, but there is still some work to be done. But surely, I feel more confident with SmartClient and will give it a serious consideration after looking at still what others recommend and my practical experience with SmartClient.

Kabeer 2010-05-23 18:52:10

Glad my answer was useful :-)Personally, I use ExtJS (My company pays for it, so we don't have to go open-source).I was evaluating both of them, and decided to go with ExtJS due to an easier learning curve (a lot of public content to help get started) and nicer default look and feel.I do remember it was feature packed at about the same level as ExtJS, and that it was divided by default to ~6 different .js files (re the monolithic mini-discussion)

ob1 2010-05-24 06:55:39

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Looking for recommnedation on JavaScript libraries in the leage of ExtJS and Qooxdoo for serious web application.

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