When will there be some Suite 6.0 demo applications?
The DHX website only has demo applications for Suite 5.x. Is this because it’s more difficult to write a demo application in DHTMLX Suite 6.x?
There hasn’t been any examples of loading data from databases or dealing with large datasets.
As a user of your products it would be nice to see some useful examples for DHTML Suite 6.x which include database examples of data loading, data inserts, data editing and large data sets.
I realise DHTMLX Suite 6.x uses REST API - some real-world database examples would be extremely useful and would make it easier to move away from DHTMLX Suite 5.x
DHTMLX Suite 6.x looks good but it doesn’t feel as complete as DHTML 5.x which had lots of great documented examples and demo applications.
I had a lot of the same issues and struggles when I started trying to figure out Suite 6.x. I will say that I’ve seen improvements along the way, especially with 6.3 and 6.3.1. The documentation is definitely confusing in some places and could use a lot more clarity. I did learn a lot using the “How to Start” demo application as a starting point, and modifying and expanding it to fit my application. Seeing where things broke and figuring out how to fix it piece by piece helped me find a lot of the documentation pieces I hadn’t seen before. console.log() has also been my friend; it’s not uncommon for me to look at the available functions for different components to see if what I’m trying to do is functionally there.
One major improvement that I’m not even sure when it showed up (somewhere between 6.0 and 6.3) is the return of the Ajax helper functions. It’s nice not having to set that up manually.
Since the connectors went away in 6.x, you do have to implement your own REST API. I used this tutorial to create my API. Once you have the API, though, you can use the AJAX helper functions to get your data sets. Then use the .then(function(data){}) of the AJAX promise object to call the .load() function of your component to set the data elements. That means it is of course helpful if the data field names returned from your REST API match the names of your Form/Grid/etc. elements. If for some reason they don’t match, there are a number of ways you can manipulate the data (create another object and copy data into it, modify the original data object, or manually set the field values with .setValue()) to have the proper data showing.
Yes, 5.x documentation was much more robust, but judging from forum post history, it looks like they had the better part of 10 years of work on it as the suite grew and developed; 6.x is a radical change in approach, so it’s practically like starting from scratch for documentation. I was frustrated too, when I first saw 6.0 and the available documentation, but the changes I’ve seen in just the last 3 months tell me that they’re dedicated to improving it.
I guess my short version would be this: if you intend to use DHTMLX 6.x, at this point you should approach it as an “early adopter”. It still feels to me like it’s working to come out of a beta phase, but it’s improving rapidly so it won’t be long until it’s got more of that smooth finish shine you’re used to with version 5.x.
kcasarez, thank you for taking the time reply and for providing resources - they’re really useful.
I agree that DHTMLX 6.x feels like it is working to come out of a beta phase; the components are functionally and visually great, just the documentation is lacking in places.