Google Web Toolkit Applications

by Dewsbury, Ryan

• ISBN13: 9780321501967
• ISBN10: 0321501969
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-05
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

"Ryan clearly understands the GWT value proposition and how GWT integrates into a diverse web technology stackand not just in a theoretical way. With the popularity of gpokr.com and kdice.com, Ryan can speak with the authority of concrete success." Bruce Johnson, creator of Google Web Toolkit "This book distinguishes itself from other books on GWT in that it walks through the entire process of building several nontrivial GWT applications, not the toy applications that most books present." R. Mark Volkmann, Object Computing, Inc. "Googletrade; Web Toolkit Applicationsis an excellent resource for any GWT developer. Solutions to challenges commonly encountered in GWT are presented through the design and development of actual applications. The applications developed throughout the text demonstrate best practices from simple UI design all the way to custom code generation, and are presented with little pretext about the amount of Java knowledge a given developer may have. Advanced concepts are not withheld but are presented in a way that will be understood by both novice and seasoned developers alike. Good application development practices and proper Model View Controller design is reinforced throughout the book, nearly guaranteeing that the reader will come away a better programmer. " Jason Essington, Senior Web/Java Engineer, Green River Computing "Dewsburyrs"sGoogletrade; Web Toolkit Applicationsis a book for both experts and beginner programmers who want to discover this open source Java software development framework, as well as write Ajax applications. A very detailed book!" Massimo Nardone, Advisory IT Security Architect Accelerate and Simplify Ajax Development with Google Web Toolkit Get the edge you need to deliver exceptional user experiences withGoogletrade; Web Toolkit Applications,a guidebook that provides web developers with core information and instructions for creating rich web applications. Whether yours"re a developer who needs to build a high-performance front end for Java, PHP, or Ruby applications, or to integrate with external web services, this resource from expert Google Web Toolkit (GWT) developer Ryan Dewsbury delivers the in-depth coverage yours"ll need. In this valuable book, insider Ryan Dewsbury provides instructions for using the robust tool set and gets you on your way to creating first-class web applications by providing a comprehensive overview of GWT technology. In addition, he shares his "in-the-trenches" insights on Building elegant and responsive user interfaces with Cascading Style Sheets and GWTrs"s Widgets and Panels Creating seamless user experiences through asynchronous communication with HTTP, REST, JSON/JSONP, and RPC Interoperating with web standardssuch as XML, RSS, and Atomand web servicessuch as Google Maps, Amazon Books, Yahoo! Search, Flickr, and Blogger Overcoming browser security restrictions, such as HTTPrs"s two-connection limit and the Same-Origin policy Accelerating development, using software engineering, code generation, internationalization, application patterns, and Java tools Deploying for optimal performance with resource compression an

Author Biography

Ryan Dewsbury is a developer, architect, and consultant who started working in C++ and Java in 1998 and has used GWT since its first release. His recent projects include developing software applications with GWT (most notably gpokr.com and kdice.com). As a consultant, Ryan helps companies develop great online user experiences using cutting-edge software.

Table of Contents

Preface

Understanding the Google Web Toolkit

First Steps with the Google Web Toolkit

User Interface Library Overview

Server Integration Techniques

Software Engineering for Ajax

Using the Toolkit Effectively

Rich Web Applications by Example

Gadget Desktop

Multi Search

Blog Editor

Instant Messenger

Database Editor

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

I've always had an interest in the nontechnical side of software development: the user experience. It started back when I was working on teams building the core of application servers in C++. We admired the beauty of the C++ language and its expressiveness. We made large, complex systems run seamlessly with elegant code. We marveled at our templating techniques, which made the C++ compiler churn out code just like a code generator would. Then I would leave work and was not able to mention a word of it without receiving blank stares in return. I decided to find time to write a client-side application that would be as elegant to the user as well-written code can be for a developer. I chose to build an instant messenger application, mostly with C++, that combined the four major networks into one interface. At the time, instant messengers were becoming bloated with featuresthere were too many buttons distracting users from sending a simple text message. The instant messenger application I developed resulted in a much better user experience for instant messaging: instead of users downloading a 10MB application with a five-step installation process, I optimized the messenger to be 200K with a clean interface (much like the Google Talk messenger is today). As a result, it was downloaded over a million times. While developing interfaces in C++ I was always impressed by the ease of creating a nice-looking interface on a web page. If you compare the code required to set a font in C++ to cascading style sheets, you'll see what I mean. Then Ajax started to become popular, producing web interface behavior similar to desktop interface behavior. Combine this with the ease of making things look better with CSS, and you have a much better platform for interface development. I was really impressed when I saw Google Maps for the first time. The user experience was perfect. I simply typed maps.google.com into my browser and I was instantly provided with a fully functional map application. I could drag the map around in different directions, traveling around the world, zooming in and out without waiting for a page referesh. I had a brief look at the technology needed to do this, specifically JavaScript, and was disapointed. I knew there were limits to what you can build with JavaScript. It would be nearly impossible to build large complex client-side applications with it. Then the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) was released, and I decided to try writing an application using it. In only three weeks I had built the client and server side for a poker application. I put it up at http://gpokr.com . You could simply type the URL into your browser and be instantly presented with a live poker game. No downloads, no installations, and the interface could be styled nicely and easily with CSS. Scott Blum, Bruce Johnson, and Joel Webber from the GWT team came by to do some "testing," and I had the opportunity to thank them for building an incredible tool. I marveled at being able to write elegant Java code that could be transformed into JavaScript by the GWT compiler. I was really impressed by how GWT so solidly let anyone create applications that delivered great user experiences. After GWT's initial release, I found that its great abilities weren't clear to many and that it would take a book with several real examples to illustrate this. I had never written a book before, and to write one on a technology that was not my specialty didn't seem quite right. But then again, nobody specialized in GWT at this point. I believed enough in the technology to give it a shot. To make up for my lack of experience and before writing any of the chapters, I spent several months exclusively developing GWT applications to explore every part of GWT as