Ext.js - Containers and Layout

Containers

Container in Ext JS is the component where we can add other container or child components. These containers can have multiple layout to arrange the components in the containers. We can add or remove components from container and from its child elements. Ext.container.Container is the base class for all the containers in Ext JS. Ext.panel.Panel, Ext.form.Panel are mostly used containers in Ext JS.

Containers

Basic syntax of creating container and adding elements to it:

Ext.onReady(function(){
   // create first child component:
      var child1 = Ext.create('Ext.component',{
      //component properies
      Height: 100,
      Width:100
   });
   // create another child component:
   var child2 = Ext.create('Ext.component',{
      //component properies
      Height: 100,
      Width:100
   });
   // create container and add components to the container
   Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
      renderTo: Ext.getBody();
      layout: 'auto' // auto is one of the layout type.
      items: [child1, child2]; // this way we can add differnt child elements to the container as container items.
   });
});

Layouts

Layout is the way the elements are arranged in a container. That could be horizontal, vertical or any other. Ext JS has different layout defined in its library but we can always write custom layouts as well.

Different type of Layouts:

Layout Type	Description
Absolute	This layout allows to position the items using XY coordinates in the container.
Accordion	This layout allows to place all the items in stack fashion (one on top of other) inside container.
Anchor	This layout gives the privilege to the user to give the size of each element with respect to the container size.
Border	In this layout various panels are nested and separated by borders.
Auto	This is the default layout decides the layout of the elements based on the number of elements.
Card(TabPanel)	This layout arranges different components in tab fashion. Tabs will be displayed on top of the container.Every time only one tab is visible and each tab is considered as different component.
Card(Wizard)	In this layout every time the elements comes for full container space. There would be a bottom tool bar in the wizard for navigation.
Column	This layout is to show multiple columns in the container. We can define fixed or percentage width to the columns. The percentage width will be calculated based on the full size of the container.
Fit	In this layout the container is filled with a single panel and when there is no specific requirement related to the layout then this layout is used.
Table	As name implies this layout arranges the components in container in the HTML table format.
vBox	This layout allows the element to be distributed in the vertical manner. This is one of the mostly used layout.
hBox	This layout allows the element to be distributed in the horizontal manner.

Syntax of adding layout to the container:

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   ..
   layout: 'auto' // auto is one of the layout type.
   ..
});

Or

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   ..
   layout: {
      type : 'vbox',
   }
   ..
});

Basic container with different layout example:

Absolute

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo: Ext.getBody(),
   layout: 'absolute' ,
   items: [{
      title: 'Panel 1',
      x: 50,
      y: 50,
      html: 'Positioned at x:50, y:50',
      width: 500,
      height: 100
			},{
      title: 'Panel 2',
      x: 100,
      y: 95,
      html: 'Positioned at x:100, y:95',
      width: 500,
      height: 100
   }]
});

Output:

Absolute Layout

Accordion

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : 'accordion' ,
   items : [{
      title : 'Panel 1',
      html : 'Panel 1 html content'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 2',
      html : 'Panel 2 html content'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 3',
      html : 'Panel 3 html content'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 4',
      html : 'Panel 4 html content'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 5',
      html : 'Panel 5 html content'
   }]
});

Output:

Accordion Layout

Anchor

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : 'anchor' ,
   items : [{
      title : 'Panel 1',
      html : 'panel 1',
      height : 100,
      anchor : '50%'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 2',
      html : 'panel 2',
      height : 100,
      anchor : '100%'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 3',
      html : 'panel 3',
      height : 100,
      anchor : '-100'
   },{
      title : 'Panel 4',
      html : 'panel 4',
      anchor : '-70, 500'
   }]
});

Output:

Anchor Layout

Auto

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : 'auto' ,
   items : [{
      html : 'First Component' 
   },{
      html : 'Second Component'
   },{
      html : 'Third Component' 
   },{
      html : 'Fourth Component'
   }]
});

Output:

Auto Layout

Column

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : 'column' ,
   items: [{
      html : 'First Component',
      columnWidth : 0.25
   },{
      html : 'Second Component',
      columnWidth : 0.50
   },{
      html : 'Third Component' ,
      columnWidth : 0.125
   },{
      html : 'Fourth Component',
      columnWidth : 0.125
   }]
});

Output:

Column Layout

Border

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : 'border' ,
   items : [{
      title : 'panel1',
      region : 'south'
   },{
      title : 'panel2',
      region : 'center'
   },{
      title : 'panel3',
      region : 'east'
   },{
      title : 'panel4',
      region : 'west'
   }]
});

Output:

Border Layout

hBox

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : {
      type :'hbox' 
   },
   items : [{
      html : 'panel 1',
      flex : 1
   },{
      html : 'panel 2',
      flex : 2
   },{
      html : 'panel 3',
      flex : 0.5
   },{
      html : 'panel 4',
      flex : 0.25
   }]
});

Output:

hBox Layout

vBox

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : {
      type :'vbox',
      align : 'center'				
   },
   items: [{
      html: 'panel 1',
      height: 50,
      width : 100
   },{
      html: 'panel 2',
      height: 50,
      width : 100
   },{
      html: 'panel 3',
      height: 50,
      width : 100
   },{
      html: 'panel 4',
      height: 50,
      width : 100
   }]
});

Output:

vBox Layout

Fit

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : {
      type :'fit'	
   },
   items : [{
      html : 'panel 1',
      height : 50,
      width : 100
   },{
      html : 'panel 2',
      height : 50,
      width : 100
   },{
      html : 'panel 3',
      height : 50,
      width : 100
   },{
      html : 'panel 4',
      height : 50,
      width : 100
   }]
});

Output:

Fit Layout

Table

Ext.create('Ext.container.Container', {
   renderTo : Ext.getBody(),
   layout : {
      type :'table',
      columns : 3				
   },
   items : [{
      html : 'panel 1',
      height : 50,
      colspan :2
   },{
      html : 'panel 2',
      height : 50
   },{
      html : 'panel 3',
      height : 50
   },{
      html : 'panel 4',
      height : 50
   },{
      html : 'panel 5',
      height : 50
   }]
});

Output:

Table Layout