WebExpress

We’ve reached the halfway point in developing WebExpress 0.0.9-alpha and are taking stock of our progress. This release ushers in a new chapter where the framework becomes noticeably more stable, type-safe, and professional - perfectly tailored for modern web applications. A centerpiece of the first phase was migrating countless controls to a Fluent-based API. By chaining methods, UI components can now be configured intuitively, making the code more readable, consistent, and flexible. Strict type safety ensures each form input exposes only the properties that make sense. Text fields work with a string-based Value object, date pickers with a DateTime type, and checkboxes exclusively with a Boolean wrapper. This fine-grained typing catches typos and copy-&-paste mistakes at compile time and gives developers precise IntelliSense suggestions. At the same time, we added over 20 new JavaScript controls and revamped existing components. Our modern, reactive architecture delivers lightning...

In this post, I share the journey behind the creation of the new SmartEdit control - from the initial idea and prototyping phase to final integration and a live demo. I’ll also touch on the accompanying documentation and how smart assistants supported the process. The architecture of WebExpress already includes a range of proven controls. My goal was to seamlessly integrate SmartEdit into this ecosystem. It needed to adopt existing concepts while also reflecting the framework’s design language. To build on established patterns, I analyzed various implementations. This allowed me to quickly gain insights into common approaches and adapt the best ideas to the WebExpress framework. The first drafts were created in a minimal editor setup: JavaScript and CSS snippets were loaded directly in the browser on a test page. Each save triggered a live reload. With the help of AI, the prototype was rapidly developed and continuously refined. Once the prototype stabilized, the control was moved into...