GWT in Practice

Book excerpt: If you're a web developer, you know that you can use Ajax to add rich, user-friendly, dynamic features to your applications. With the Google Web Toolkit (GWT), a new Ajax tool from Google that automatically converts Java to JavaScript, you can build Ajax applications using the Java language. GWT in Practice is an example-driven, code-rich book designed for web developers already familiar with the basics of GWT who now want hands-on experience. After a quick review of GWT fundamentals, GWT in Practice presents scores of handy, reusable solutions to the problems you face when you need to move beyond "Hello World" and "proof of concept" applications. This book skips the theory and looks at the way things really work when you're building. I also shows you where GWT fits into the Enterprise Java Developer's toolset. Written by expert authors Robert Cooper and Charlie Collins, this book combines sharp insight with hard-won experience. Readers will find thorough coverage of all aspects of GWT development from the basic GWT concepts to in depth real world example applications. The first part of the book is a rapid introduction to the GWT methodology The second part of the book then delves into several practical examples which further demonstrate core aspects of the toolkit The book concludes by presenting several larger GWT applications including drag and drop support for UI elements, data binding, processing streaming data, handling application state, automated builds, and continuous integration. Along the way GWT in Practice covers many additional facets of working with the toolkit. Various development tools are used throughout the book, including Eclipse, NetBeans, IDEA, Ant, Maven, and, of course, the old fashioned command line. The book also addresses integrating GWT with existing applications and services along with enterprise and team development.