I just couldn’t stop using it. I used this grid for so many things. I decided that after my failed attempt forking the prior grid, I would not do the same for this one, and instead I created an angular directive that managed the extra stuff I needed for the grid.

I added user preferences for column sizes, columns order, pinning, grouping and sorting. These were remembered in browser storage. I added views, so you could work on the same grid several times but with a different customised look for every one of them, and one time I went as far as dumping the client’s database to the user (around 150K rows and 150 properties) and created a customised reports generator. Every kind of administrator on the system could now just create reports with the data relevant to them, and save the configuration for future uses, and it saved me around 30 minutes a day to create some made up report for some division in the company. Success.

Later, I added my own data virtualization (before it was refactored on ag-Grid) and enjoyed some cool things the grid’s API has to offer. When that was done, development of that CRM was swift. Every new page had at least one table, with adding/editing/deleting for rows, which I just controlled programmatically with the switch of a Boolean. Life was awesome and I can’t thank this grid enough.

The problems along the way:

Early Issues

In the beginning of my usage of this grid, I mostly relied on the main example’s source code. For anything that was not there and I didn’t know what to do, I used the forum for my questions and GitHub for my issues.

Not long after, I realised that there is documentation so I read it — several times — to the point where I started answering other people’s problems. I also began opening my own issues but now they had real merit.

As of today, I have opened 26 issues with the grid (23 closed) and 6 issues with the enterprise version (all closed). I found that these were professionally handled by the ag-Grid team.

Outcome:

Love

So I fell in love with this grid. It is awesome and it was there for me at the right time. I knew I messed up before, I stopped and realised I needed to change things. Now I couldn’t be happier with it.

I am often asked by web development beginners that I know “Do you know data-tables?” or “Do you know smart-table?”. Even “Do you know “INSERT_GRID_NAME_HERE? It’s superior to anything else!”. Now, educated and experienced with data grids for JavaScript in general, and AngularJS 1.x in particular, I just laugh and teach them about ag-Grid. ag-Grid gives the foundations to make everything you want to make, and that is a winner for me.