A few years back, I was looking around for a JavaScript library for building interactive web applications. I took a list of JavaScript libraries [Wikipedia], read some reviews, and tried a few of them out. Eventually I settled on Ext JS for several reasons, but what really whetted my appetite was their samples and demo page. Their samples were elegant, powerful, and usually worked on any browser. If you have acquired a hunger for Ext JS, then Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook by Jorge Ramon, can certainly serve you a good number of dishes.



When I learned Ext JS, there were no books. I had to learn by playing with the product and by using resources on the Ext JS [extjs.com] website. The examples on site are almost pure code and no explanation (the code is self explanatory!). The API documentation is good but terse and dry with few examples. The forum is excellent and is probably the greatest Ext JS resource --it's like talking to Ext JS experts about your specific problems. As on of the few books on Ext JS, the Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook is a welcome resource. It has examples and explanations!



The set up of Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook is useful and simple. Related "recipes" are organized into chapters. A recipe is a specific task of something you want to do with Ext JS. Each recipe is set up, pictures are provided if applicable, then the ingredients (code) is put together step by step. Specific things are emphasized, and explanations are given of how it works.



Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook is a great way to jump start a new programmer on Ext JS. The programmer should already know HTML, JavaScript, and client-server interaction across the Web. This book would have been quite useful when I started learning Ext JS, but even now it covers parts of Ext JS that I haven't used yet.



Overall, if you need to get a good foothold on Ext JS, then I recommend Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook (2009) by Jorge Ramon and Packt Publishing. If you're using Ext JS and it can help you get over that one little point that you've been stuck on for a few hours, then it's worth it.