Ext JS Upgrade Adviser

upgrade_advisor

Overview

The Ext JS Upgrade Adviser is a tool for scanning Ext JS apps that identifies and reports problems in source code that need to be addressed before upgrading. Problems currently identifiable are the overriding and use of removed, private and deprecated classes, methods, configs and properties​ and the overriding of existing aliases, classes and methods. Additionally, some problems can be automatically fixed​. The tool uses a custom ESLint plugin designed specifically for Ext JS that can optionally be run from the command line or integrated in an IDE​. For more information visit (https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/11505/360623) and (https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/11505/383213?utm_campaign=communication_missed_you&utm_medium=email&utm_source=brighttalk-transact&utm_content=webcast)

Installation

Request Access

Before you can install the tool or the optional ESLint plugin, you must sign up. After signing up you will be given access to Sencha’s MyGet npm repo where the Upgrade Adviser installers and custom ESLint plugin are located.

Username Note:

After signing up, note that the email you used in the sign up form will become your username for Sencha’s MyGet npm repo. However, remember to replace the @ character with '..' two periods, so the username would look something like this after it’s converted: yourname..gmail.com.

Installing the Tool

The tool can be downloaded and installed onto Mac, Windows, or Linux machines by first logging into Sencha’s MyGet npm repo using the email address you used in the sign up form with the @ character replaced with '..' two periods, and then by using these links: Windows, MacOS, Linux. Or you can use the search feature under the extjs-upgrade-adviser feed and search for upgrade.

Using the Tool

After you have installed the tool, launch the app from the install path, desktop icon, or (Windows) Start Menu icon or (Mac) Launchpad. The app will start in the Application tab.

Application tab

From the combos on the Application tab, pick the Toolkit, Current Version, Upgrading to version and use the file input field or icon to enter or select a folder or file to scan. The Folder/File button to the left of the file input field can be used to toggle between a Folder or File.

Click the Analyze button and wait for the results (NOTE: this could take a while if a folder is selected that contains a great number of JavaScript files). After the results have loaded you can click the Export button in the bottom right corner to export the results to an excel file. Or, you can click the Apply autofixes button to fix any problems that have the wrench icon.

Details about each problem can be seen by expanding the Problem Detail section and then selecting a problem from the grid or by simply double clicking on a problem row.

Note about the icons in the results grid:

warning This icon means that the severity level of the problem found is a Warning.

error This icon means that the severity level of the problem found is a Error.

fixable This icon means that the problem that was found is fixable and if the Apply autofixes button is clicked, the code should be fixed.

Settings tab

The Settings tab in the left navigation can be used to configure which rules to report on and what to set their severity level to. This screen also lets you enter ignore patterns of files and folders you wish to ignore.

API Docs tab

The API Docs tab can be used to load and view the API for all toolkit versions supported by this tool.

Note about the icons on the API Docs tab:

private This icon means that the item was explicitly marked as private or it was undocumented.

deprecated This icon means that the item is deprecated and in most cases should also have a deprecated message on what the replacement action should be.

undocumented This icon means that item is not documented and therefore is probably not in the normal online docs but is used by this tool in order to report when the usage or overriding of an undocumented item is being done.

Installing the Ext JS ESLint plugin

This is optional and only needed if you want to run the Ext JS ESLint plugin from the command line or integrated through an ESLint extension in your favorite IDE then you must install ESLint first and then the Ext JS ESLint plugin.

Install ESLint

ESLint needs to be installed either locally or globally

To install locally:

  1. $ npm install eslint --save-dev

To install globallly

  1. $ npm install eslint -g

Detailed Installation Instructions

For detailed installation instuctions on ESLint, follow the installation and usage instructions from the https://eslint.org site.

NOTE: You must install the plugin (next step) at the same scope, global or local, as the ESLint dependency you just installed.

Install the Ext JS ESLint plugin

First, log into Sencha’s MyGet npm repository using the @sencha scope.

  1. $ npm login --registry=https://sencha.myget.org/F/extjs-upgrade-adviser/npm/ --scope=@sencha

Note: When prompted for your username, remember that it is the email address you used in the sign up form but witht the @ character replaced with '..' two periods, so the username would look something like this after it’s converted: name..gmail.com.

Next, install the Ext JS ESLint plugin:

Again, if you installed ESLint locally in your project then use the —save-dev option.

  1. $ npm install @sencha/eslint-plugin-extjs --save-dev

Otherwise, if you installed ESLint globally (using the -g flag) then you must also install eslint-plugin-extjs globally.

  1. $ npm install @sencha/eslint-plugin-extjs -g

Configuration

If this is your first time using ESLint, please refer to their Configuration section of their Getting Started guide.

For the Ext JS plugin, you can enable all of our recommended rules by adding plugin:@sencha/extjs/recommended to the extends section of your .eslintrc configuration file.

  1. "extends": [
  2.     "plugin:@sencha/extjs/recommended"
  3. ]

To add only the rules you want, add @sencha/extjs to the plugins section of your .eslintrc configuration file.

  1. "plugins": [
  2.     "@sencha/extjs"
  3. ]

And then configure the rules you want to use under the rules section.

  1. "rules": {
  2.     "@sencha/extjs/rule-name": 2
  3. }

The Custom ESLint Rules

Overrides

Deprecated items

Private items

Removed items

Using the plugin

After ESLint and the Ext JS ESLint plugin have been installed and configured for your project, you can run the eslint command from a command line or integrate it with your favorite IDE.

Running from the Command Line

To run ESLint from the command line you simply run a command such as:

  1. $ eslint file1.js file2.js

Or, to run against an entire folder:

  1. $ eslint app/src

For detailed instructions on how to run ESLint from the Command Line and what options are available, please refer to the ESlint Command Line Interface guide.

Using in an IDE

Additionally, after ESLint and the Ext JS ESLint plugin installed and configured for your project, you can also view problems reported by the plugin in your favorite IDE. To do so, simply follow your IDE’s instructions for installing and integrating ESLint.

Visual Studio Code

For Visual Studio Code, the VS Code ESLint extension can be used. Once this extension has been installed and enabled for your workspace you can view the errors and warnings from the PROBLEMS panel. Some Warnings and Errors can provide Code Actions (also known as Quick Fixes) to help fix issues. These will be displayed in the editor in the left margin as a lightbulb. Clicking on the lightbulb will either display the Code Action options or perform the action.

Known Issues

Misreported Lint Issues

The custom ESLint plugin that the Ext JS Upgrade Adviser tool uses depends on the JSON output produced from Doxi. Doxi, a Sencha CMD tool, is a source parser that rips through code and exports JSON files. This CMD tool has a few known issues that cause some items to be flagged as private and without any documentation even though the documentation can be found in the source code. As a result, some ESLint issues are reported by the Upgrade Adviser tool that should not be.

For example, you might see a message like the following:

  1. Usage of private config 'displayField' found for 'Ext.form.field.ComboBox'

However, when examining the docs, you will find that the displayField is actually a public config that is documented on the Ext.form.field.ComboBox class and thus this lint issue should not have been reported and can be ignored.

Performance Issues

When analyzing/linting a directory, the time to finish the analysis could take several minutes based on many factors (number of files, number of lines of code, etc.). To reduce the amount of time it takes to analyze a directory, ESLint can be configured to ignore certain files.

When running from the command line, you can use either the --ignore-path or --ignore-pattern options. Additionally, ESLint supports .eslintignore files to exclude files from the linting process when ESLint operates on a directory.

When using the Ext JS Uprade Adviser tool, go to the Setting tab and adjust the ESLint Ignore Patterns section from the default patterns to actual patterns of the files you wish to ignore.

Application Specific Classes

Currently, the Ext JS Upgrade Adivser tool can only report on issues from classes that extend Ext classes. If you create your own base classes and then have specific classes extend these base classes, the tool will not be able to report on any of these issues.

For example:

  1. Ext.define('MyApp.view.BasePanel', {
  2.     extend: 'Ext.panel.Panel'
  3. });
  5. Ext.define('MyApp.view.CustomPanel1', {
  6.     extend: 'Ext.panel.Panel'
  7. });
  9. Ext.define('MyApp.view.CustomPanel2', {
  10.     extend: 'MyApp.view.BasePanel'
  11. });

In the above example, the Upgrade Adviser tool will be able to properly analyze the MyApp.view.BasePanel and MyApp.view.CustomPanel1 classes since they extend the Ext.panel.Panel class. However, the tool will not be able to properly analyze the MyApp.view.CustomPanel2 class since it extends the MyApp.view.BasePanel class.