[Yanel-dev] GWT usage for AJAX features in Yanel

Fri Jan 11 09:36:56 CET 2008

Hi,
We were discussing that with Simon. One should know that GWT allows both 
server and client side development. I don't know how to deal with the 
server side, I can only tell you that it allows you to create "servlets" 
with methods that you can call via RPC. I am not sure how and where to 
put it in Yanel.

Client side is pretty straightforward:
1. You develop the JS library as a separate JAVA (GWT) project, then you 
need to put the compiled JS files where appropriate
2. You develop in JAVA and then build everything together with the Yanel.

If we decide to put GWT, and make content management more AJAX-oriented, 
I think it is a good idea that we all sit together, I show you how it 
works and we think on how to put it into Yanel. I think not more than 2 
hours would be needed for that, and another hour for documenting this.

Evaldas

Michael Wechner wrote:
> Evaldas Taroza wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone,
>> I played with Google Web Toolkit (GWT) a bit (I used it before and 
>> really loved it) and tried to use it in Yanel. And I liked the outcome.
>>
>> As you might know GWT enables AJAX development in JAVA: you develop in 
>> JAVA, then translate everything into JavaScript. To my mind this is 
>> valuable, because you don't need to search and learn new JS libraries 
>> that usually don't work the way you want (modifying JS libraries is 
>> really error prone). For instance, I find it easier to program your 
>> own AJAXy table with GWT than learning LiveGrid and similar JS 
>> libraries. Moreover, many widgets are already developed and available, 
>> and everything is in JAVA! All you need is simply to run it through a 
>> tool to get corresponding JavaScript. Well, you can read about GWT in 
>> http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/overview.html
>>
>> Now a bit on how to integrate GWT into Yanel. There is at least one 
>> way: develop a widget with GWT, compile it into JavaScript and use it 
>> as any other JS library inside Web pages. So you can develop Web page 
>> UI almost like Swing. For instance:
>> <html>
>> <body>
>>   <script language="javascript" src="$path$/widget.for.panel1.js">
>>   </script>
>>   <div id="panel1">
>>   </div>
>>   <script language="javascript" src="$path$/widget.for.panel2.js">
>>   </script>
>>   <div id="panel2">
>>   </div>
>> </body>
>> </html>
>>
>> In this example I have two panels that would have the contents 
>> generated by respective JS. Each of them is developed with GWT (in 
>> pure JAVA, like Swing).
>>
>> As far as the server side is concerned, GWT is also quite developer 
>> friendly as it provides a fully fledged RPC API, hence the servlets 
>> may be made more fine grained.
>>
>> In general, I think, that Yanel users will always want AJAXy features, 
>> so having a nice framework for it is a step forward, and for that I 
>> suggest GWT. 
> 
> 
> sounds great resp. what would be the next steps to get this going?
> 
> WDOT?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Michi
> 
>> Maybe there other alternatives?
>>
>> Evaldas
>>
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>>
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> 
> 