EXT JS is a powerful Javascript Framework which provides a lot of visual components like Grid, forms and Windows.
The grid family is especially rich. I used it in combination with BI PUblisher XML Output in order to render data in a grid component.
Prerequisites:
EXT JS library must be installed on the same Web tiers than BI Publisher. The domain and the port must be the same but we can imagine to allow cross domain scripting. The user must be already authenticated because the JS will not ask for authentication itself.
EXT JS can use an XML reader, and we use the XML output delivered by BIP: ie:
http://localhost:7001/xmlpserver/vlrb2b/cm_vmonline.xdo?_xpf=&_xpt=1&_xdo=%2Fvlrb2b%2Fcm_vmonline.xdo&_xmode=&_paramsPORDER=*&_paramsPORD_STATUS=*&_xt=cm_items101&_xf=xml&_xautorun=true
Advantages: the component are really nice and pleasant to use. The XML output generated by BI Publisher is really suited for this approach
Drawbacks: debug seems painful !
