Just wondering if there is a Rails Plugin/GEM/Framework to aid in letting users move around (adjust) where the main page windows are. Perhaps maximize and minimize. I guess this pretty much sounds like a portlet, however I’m not asking the Rails true portlet integration question here, but rather if there is something in the Rails world that just satisfies the basics of a portlet type experience for a user.
Eg. even something as simple as 4 window panes on a page and the ability for a user to maximize one of them, then drop back to a view with the 4 panes on the screen (e.g. image 4 reports on a dashboard, and the user just wants to zoom into one, or rearrange the layout of the 4 panes).
Many people are doing this sort of thing with the Ext framework
(www.extjs.com). Even though it's a javascript framework, Rails
integration is pretty easy with Rails' to_json method.
that is very cool Mark - do you know off hand how much ramp up it would take to use it just in a page or two for layout like in the example? Is it a couple of hours, days, weeks? Know offhand if there are any limitation to what you put in the portlets? (I’ve got some http://www.fusioncharts.com/ for example, flash based charts)
that is very cool Mark - do you know off hand how much ramp up it would take
to use it just in a page or two for layout like in the example? Is it a
couple of hours, days, weeks? Know offhand if there are any limitation to
what you put in the portlets?
I don't really know, because I haven't used it yet. I was keeping it
in mind for a project that I hope to find time for. I suspect that you
can render any Rails partial in the portlets. How long it takes
probably depends on your level of JS / RJS knowledge. Ext looks like
it has a pretty thoroughly documented API, so I would think hours if
you know your stuff.
I haven't seen a lot of Rails/Ext examples yet, but some people are
doing amazing things. I just found sExt yesterday: http://www.telaeris.com/sext/
and it looks great.
