Successful GWT-Ext Project
Last Friday, I completed the release candidate of a commercial RIA product using GWT-Ext 2 and a JSON backend. GWT and Ext are two libraries that I kept reading about in blogs, but initially resisted using. I didn’t think GWT puts enough emphasis on aesthetic appearance out of the box, and I was not thrilled about the Ext license switch from BSD to LGPL.
The tipping point came when I first did a prototype with GWT-Ext, which is a combination of GWT and Ext that was first announced on July 2007. There were some cross-browser glitches, visual artifact issues, and obscure JavaScript exceptions during development. However, the overall result was far better than what I could have created with any other Ajax package for an application that needs to be heavily user-centric.
The client seemed very happy with the end user experience. As far as maintenance issues, the lead engineer of the company was comfortable with enhancing that application within a day of light training. This was due in part to Eclipse’s strong Java support, the well-defined HMVC/PAC-like architecture, and the lead’s excellent technical skills.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Hi,
I have seen this blog post and I am very interesting about your feedback.
I am trying to build up a GWT-EXT app with PHP/JSON backend but I get many development problems…
I am wondering witch kind of glue you used in between GWT and json (post + get)?
Thanks in advance for help
best regards
jeangui
March 19th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Congratulations. Do you have any images of the app you can post? How about some lessons learned. I’m new to GWT-Ext and eager for some guidance from successful projects.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I made a correction to my blog posting. The license for YUI-Ext (the original name of Ext) is BSD and not Apache. I consider Apache/BSD/MIT to be interchangeable business-friendly licenses.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:48 am
@jeangui
I will try to post a new blog entry addressing your question.
@want-to-see
My client’s product is proprietary, and I would need permission from them. However, if you go to gwt-ext.com and look at the demo, my application basically uses most of the major widgets that you see there except trees. I might also create a demo GWT-Ext application on this site so prospective clients can get an idea of what I can do for them.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I read ongwt.com regularly, and I was surprised to see the link to this entry there.
http://www.ongwt.com/post/2008/03/19/Successful-GWT-Ext-Project
March 21st, 2008 at 10:18 am
Can you give a discussion of the “HMVC/PAC-like architecture”?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:24 am
Found an example of HMVC at http://www.thecentric.com/wiki/index.php/HMVC_Tutorial
March 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
@serverguy
Sounds like a good future blog entry. I am currently in talks with a potential new client. Once I get that resolved, I will have more time to spend on the blog.
I also recommend this article (http://www.javaworld.com/jw-07-2000/jw-0721-hmvc.html) to get started.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:08 am
@jeangui
I was going to write a blog entry about GWT communication with JSON, but it looks like there are already several good tutorials out there about this topic. For example, this article (http://angel.hurtado.googlepages.com/tutorialgwt2) specifically addresses GWT and PHP communication using JSON. If you have a particular PHP framework like CakePHP in mind, I might be able to give you further help.