Utilizing Sencha Cmd Build Options and Dynamic Package Loading with ExtGen

With Open Tooling, @sencha/[[email protected]](https://docs.sencha.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection), and later you can unlock many build features of Sencha Cmd by passing environment options through your npm scripts. These options are then sent to Sencha Cmd via Sencha’s custom webpack plugin.

Open Tooling uses Sencha Cmd under the hood to drive Ext JS build process. You may want to read this Sencha CMD Reference before getting started if you haven’t used Sencha Cmd before.

npm Scripts

To take advantage of this new ext-gen feature, most of our work will happen in the package.json file that npm uses as a manifest. This file is created when you create an Ext JS open tooling application using ext-gen.

Notice the scripts object in the package.json file. These scripts are written as usual JSON key-value pairs where the key is the name of the script and the value contains the script you want to execute.

Here is an example:

"scripts": {    "start": "node index.js",    ...}

Cmd Opts: Dynamic Packages

Sencha CMD offers a smart way for your production app to load packages dynamically by using the package-loader package. This package is available on Sencha’s private npm registry, https://npm.sencha.com or through Sencha’s package repository managed by Sencha Cmd.

1. Add the package-loader

Configure app.json to use the package-loader package by adding it to the requires:[] array like this:

"requires":[
            "package-loader"
         ]

Sencha Cmd will automically downnload and install the package-loader package into the packages directory of your application.

2. Add Your Packages

Configure the packages you need to load dynamically by adding a uses:[...] array to app.json and adding a new entry for each package you want dynamically loaded.

"uses":[
        "my-custom-view-package",
        "ext-calendar"
     ]

3. Update Your npm Build Scripts

Enable the dynamic package loader from your scripts by passing an environment variable through the webpack plugin: --env.cmdopts=--uses. You may recognize this is the same flag used by Sencha Cmd CLI. Sencha’s custom webpack plugin exposes the variable cmdopts to your npm scripts. Within the webpack plugin, this variable is parsed into an array of build options for Sencha Cmd.

Example production build script:

"build": "npm run clean && cross-env webpack --env.profile=desktop --env.treeshake=yes --env.verbose=no  --env.cmdopts=--environment=production --env.cmdopts=--uses"

4. Try it!

Run your build scripts (defaults are provided with 7.4 generated applications), ensuring the cmpopts are set in environment variables and watch your packages load dynamically!

Explore the Dynamic Package Loader docs for more information.

Cmd Opts: Build Types

There are 3 different build types for an Ext JS application.

development: uses non-bundled assets, local manifest files, for debugging purposes.
testing: Simulates the production build assets.
production: Build a production, deployment-ready set of arifacts for your application.

NOTE: --env.cmdopts supersedes --env.environment

Building for Development

When developing an app with ext-gen you need to a local webserver that updates automatically with as you develop your source files. The npm start default script uses the Sencha Cmd app watch command to build a development copy of your app and host it on a local webserver. app watch “watches” for file changes and triggers a reload.

// Development build
"dev": "webpack-dev-server --env.profile=desktop --env.browser=yes --env.verbose=no --env.cmdopts=--environment=development --env.cmdopts=--uses",

Building for Testing

Before building for production it is very important to test your built app. Testing builds provide you a way to build and compress your code without minifying and obfuscating. This gives you an easy way of debugging a built application in a “human-debuggable“ mode. Run the testing build script and ensure --env.cmdopts are set. This will instruct webpack pass the options to Sencha CMD.

// Testing build
"build:testing": "npm run clean && cross-env webpack --env.profile=desktop --env.treeshake=yes --env.verbose=yes --env.cmdopts=--build=desktop --env.cmdopts=--environment=testing --env.cmdopts=--uses --env.cmdopts=--destination=testing"

Building for Production

// Production Build
"build": "npm run clean && cross-env webpack --env.profile=desktop --env.treeshake=yes --env.verbose=yes --env.cmdopts=--environment=production --env.cmdopts=--uses",

Available Cmd Opts

The following cmdopts are allowed in Open Tooling ext-gen applications as options for the Sencha Cmd build sequence

Options

--archive, -a - The directory path where all previous builds were stored.
--build, -build - Selects the name of the build specified in the ‘builds’ app.json set to use for the build
--clean, -c - Remove previous build output prior to executing build
--destination, -des - The directory to which the build output is written
--development, -dev - Sets the build environment to: development
--environment, -e - The build environment, either ‘development’, ‘testing’ or ‘production’
--fashion-debug, -fashion-d - Enables / disables node dev tools when running fashion builds.
--fashion-symbols, -fashion-s - Enables / disables stack traces in scss code.
--locale, -l - Selects the app.locale setting to use for the build
--packages, -pac - Only build one or more of the packages specified in the “uses” property on app.json
--pkg-environment, -pkg - The build environment for used packages, either ‘development’, ‘testing’ or ‘production’
--pkgdevelopment, -pkgd - Sets the build environment for used packages to: development
--pkgproduction, -pkgp - Sets the build environment for used packages to: production
--pkgtesting, -pkgt - Sets the build environment for used packages to: testing
--production, -pr - Sets the build environment to: production
--run, -r - Enables automatically running builds with the native packager
--testing, -te - Sets the build environment to: testing
--theme, -th - Selects the app.theme setting to use for the build
--uses, -u - Build the packages dynamically used by this application (see “uses” on app.json)