Feature Overview

A typical qooxdoo application is created by leveraging the integrated development tools and the client-side programming model based on object-oriented JavaScript. Developers can fully concentrate on creating application without worrying about low-level cross-browser issues.

Runtimes

  • qooxdoo supports a wide range of JavaScript environments:
    • desktop browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome)
    • mobile browsers (iOS, Android, Windows Phone)
    • browserless JS engines (node.js, Rhino, ...)
  • No plugins required (neither ActiveX, Java, Flash nor Silverlight needed)
  • Non-critical modifications of the native JavaScript objects to allow for easy integration with other libraries and custom code

Object-orientation

  • Framework is fully based on classes
  • Minimal pollution by global variables due to namespacing
  • Besides regular classes, it offers abstract, static or singleton classes
  • Constructors and destructors
  • Public, protected and private members by naming convention, that can (partly) be enforced during development
  • Single inheritance, full polymorphism
  • Java-like interfaces
  • Ruby-esque mixins
  • So-called dynamic properties, a very convenient and powerful way to have optimized setter and getter methods generated from simple configuration

Programming

  • Pure JavaScript
  • No HTML knowledge required
  • No CSS knowledge required
  • No DOM knowledge required
  • Complete support for event-based programming
  • Development of qooxdoo applications fully supported on all platforms, e.g. Windows, Linux, all Unixes, Mac OS X
  • Skeletons as pre-configured basis for full-featured custom applications
  • Many sample applications and examples
  • Designed for high performance
  • Aid in developing memory-leak free user applications
  • Extensive logging capabilities (e.g. different log appenders, Firebug support)
  • Straightforward debugging (e.g. object introspection, benchmarking)
  • Browser history management, i.e. browser back/forward button, bookmarks
  • Cookies
  • Generic JavaScript pretty printer / code formatter for unified code style
  • Alternative development platforms offered by third parties

Internationalization

  • Built-in internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) support
  • Supporting all languages and locales, at least of this planet
  • Based on the comprehensive Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR)
  • Well-known translation file format (.po)
  • Support by professional, free translation tools ("po editors") on all platforms

API reference

  • Extended Javadoc-like source code comments
  • Full API reference for both framework and custom application
  • Online and offline API viewer application
  • Search functionality

Testing

Deployment

  • Generation of a self-contained and easily deployable "build" version
  • Complexity of the build process hidden behind user-friendly commands
  • JavaScript compression (removal of whitespaces, etc.)
  • Automatic dependency resolution of JavaScript classes; no need for manual "require" statements or tweaking a custom build
  • Automatic linking of JavaScript classes ("JS linker")
  • Copying of required static resources like images or other external files into a self-contained build
  • String extraction
  • Shortening and obfuscating local variables and/or private members
  • Optional browser-specific variant generation for selected feature sets (e.g. Firefox-only build)
  • Generation of build versions depending on user-defined variants, which allows for different products from the same code base
  • Removal of debug statements within the application code before deployment

Migration

  • Support for easy migration of custom applications from one framework release to another
  • As painless as technically feasible
  • Fully integrated into the regular build system
  • All non-ambiguous changes are done automatically for maximum convenience and to avoid manual find/replace errors
  • All ambiguous or semantic changes that require some developer decision are put into a comprehensive checklist
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