ExtJS data store for tree

Question

I've got a basic ExtJS question, which I can't seem to resolve based on reading the docs and searching. Currently I have a TreePanel that loads JSON directly from a URL. I'm trying to separate the data from the view, so that I can also use that data to feed into an OpenLayers map (using GeoExt). How can I point a TreePanel to an Ext.data.Store rather than to a URL?

Answer 1

TreePanels use TreeLoaders, not Stores, to load data. The reason is that trees require hierarchical data, while Stores are flat table structures and do not support hierarchies. The basic data objects are also different (Record vs. Node). Of course you could store your own hierarchical data in a Store using parent/child keys, but there is not anything like this built in for Ext components at this time. If you are trying to cache tree data, you might have to roll your own solution for that.

EDIT: Now that Ext 4 is out, this answer only applies to Ext 3. Ext 4 has a (mostly) unified data model now and trees use a TreeStore (with an additional NodeInterface applied to the models) and no longer have a separate TreeLoader class.