Having slept on you proposal if you can develop a handler that creates the js, taking it from ofbiz instead of GWT file, you have great idea.
Harmeet Bedi sent the following on 11/30/2008 6:50 PM: > Why not use gwt to give same scope. > > We spent some time writing a complete UI layer on top of ofbiz in gwt to > make ofbiz oriented towards a niche market. We changed approach as it > was too much work to redo entire UI layer and we felt not the right > approach. However we are still working to do same same scope as you - a > UI that is more rich. > > Couple of things we learned that may apply to SWT were: > - Java was not a very good domain language for UI making it cumbersome > to be productive for large application > - It is very nice to use HTML as the frame and embed rich elements > > We are now taking the approach of adding rich elements to existing pages > and if necessary replacing pages in parts. > Gwt gives rich client like things in javascript and still keep app web > page pages > > > Here is what we have started doing with dashboard - found the current > mypage not as pretty and myportal not yet ready. > Wanted to pretty it up. > > So framed mypage screenlets tags with portlets and portlets under a > portal. Gives collapsible, drag drop etc. Still reuses all the work done > (so no need to write complete new) as you are only framing html. > > our new page looks something like this: > > <!-- from header --> > <script language="javascript" > src="emforium.gwt.WidgetFactory.nocache.js"></script> > > <div em-type="portal" columnWidths=".4,.6"> > <div em-type="portlet" em-children-type="html" headerVisible="true" > heading="portlet" collapsible="true" expanded="true"> > ---- screenlets go here > </div> > </div> > > As an example of what this gives see : > http://extjs.com/examples/portal/portal.html > > > The header javascript walks the entire page DOM and replaces div tags > having em-type='rich widget' with gwt widgets. These gwt widgets could > frame html, or be completely standalone. e.g. we are also replacing date > selections with a gwt > > We could also replace entire segments. e.g replace paginated table with > a gwt grid. > > > There are a few libraries that are rich with widgets in GWT that can be > applied. We started with gxt : http://extjs.com/products/gxt/. Some > other good candidates are smartgwt ( http://code.google.com/p/smartgwt/ > ) and default GWT toolkit and associated google projects have some > decent widgets too. (GWT is under apache license so compatible). > > It would be very nice if Ofbiz team can consider more GWT. We could > provide code.. developer help etc. to promote this. > We could start with creating a demo that you can see and see if you want > to evaluate this direction more. I feel GWT + HTML is a very good choice > for people writing java servers. > > GWT theoretically is just a mechanism where you write java code and that > is generated into javascript and dom manipulation, but it is much more. > - Strong typing in java, debugger support makes it far more productive > and reliable to create rich applications. > - Due to better approach applied with GWT to rich javascript/ajax/dhtml > applications.. one can now write much more complex user interfaces. i.e. > take a leap in rich web application capabilities. i.e. write an entire > webpos in gwt vs. very hard and buggy to write one entirely in javascript. > - Can retain HTML as the frame of application and gwt widgets can > contain html. GWT and ftl templates can play together. So low barrier of > entry, simple nature of web 1.0 is retained. > > Harmeet > > On 11/30/08 8:27 PM, BJ Freeman wrote: >> Getting ready to change how my SWT(not google) interfaces gets data from >> Ofbiz. >> >> Goals: >> 1) allow the screens from ofbiz to drive the UI presentation. >> this allows the UI presentation to change as more data is added. >> 2) return data as a web page so there is no need to reprogram ofbiz. >> 3) allows the use of https for secure data transfer. >> >> Scope: >> Can have a UI that is more rich. Keep ofbiz the same as it is now. >> > > >
