If you&apos;re a ColdFusion 8 developer, then you&apos;ve probably used Ext by virtue of using CF8&apos;s Ajax controls. Well, <a href="http://www.extjs.com">Ext JS, LLC</a>, the company that makes the <a href="http://www.extjs.com">Ext JavaScript framework</a> has just released a new version.

The Ext team is proud to announce that Ext v2.0 Beta 1 is available for download. This release of the Ext framework features updated portal and desktop examples, documentation updates, and bug fixes.

<h3>New Sample Application Updates</h3>
In our last release, we introduced two new sample applications which were truly a hit with the development community. The two applications, Web Desktop and Customizing: Portals were excellent examples of the capabilities of the new Ext 2.0 framework. For the beta release, we have dramatically improved the features and functionality of both. The Web Desktop has been drastically enhanced to include a start menu as well as functional icons on the desktop. It truly looks like you&apos;re working within an operating system like Windows.

<strong>Web Desktop</strong>

This sample includes updates to the look, code organization, desktop shortcuts and an excellent StartMenu implementation contributed by Todd Murdock of the Ext community. Thanks also go to Todd for porting the tab scrolling code into the TaskBar so it can handle additional windows without creating additional rows of task items.

<a href="http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/desktop/desktop.html"><img src="http://extjs.com/playpen/screenshots/ext2.0/beta1/desktop.gif" /></a>

<strong>Portal</strong>

This sample received it&apos;s next major revision including new shortcut classes for columns and portlets, new layout enhancements and an overall smoother API for development.

<a href="http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/portal/portal.html"><img src="http://extjs.com/playpen/screenshots/ext2.0/beta1/portal.gif" /></a>

All of the updated Ext 2.0 Beta 1 samples can be seen at <a href="http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/">the Ext 2.0 Samples page</a>. Additional samples are available in SVN.
<h3>New API Documentation Updates</h3>
We&apos;re continuing our efforts to provide top-notch information and documentation for Ext developers. In addition to updating our documentation with new class information, we&apos;ve enlisted the assistance of several community members in developing tutorials specific to Ext 2.0 and migrating existing tutorials to take into account changes in Ext 2.0.

As we mentioned in our last post, our documentation center has been dramatically revamped to help finding information substantially easier.

<a href="http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/"><img src="http://extjs.com/playpen/screenshots/ext2.0/docapi.gif" /></a>

<h3>2.0 Migration</h3>
The Ext 2.0 migration guide is near completion and we will be proofreading it shortly to ensure that it meets our high standards of documentation. As soon as it&apos;s been verified, we will make it immediately available to help expedite the transition from Ext v1.x to Ext 2.0.
<h3>2.0 Availability</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Ext 2.0 codebase has stabilized and several clients have begun to use Ext 2.0 in production environments. <a href="http://extjs.com/download">Ext 2.0 is available for download</a> and code updates are available to <a href="http://extjs.com/ext-store">SVN subscribers</a> in the Ext SVN under branches/ext2.0.</p>

<h3>License</h3>
Ext 2.0 is being released with the same license options as 1.1. Please visit <a href="http://extjs.com/license">http://extjs.com/license</a> for more details.

For many companies and products, Open Source licenses are not an option. Ext offers commercial licenses for these situations and for companies using Ext in commercial applications who want to help support the project. It is a non-copyleft license which gives companies complete freedom when integrating Ext in their products and web sites. During the 2.0 prerelease period, estimated until October 31st, we are offering a 25% discount on all commercial license purchases. If you were considering a commercial license, <a href="http://extjs.com/store">now is the time!</a>