Hi Jef, Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'll try to remove the fuzziness.
I have already built a lot of objects using server side java, so I'm not going to build any services using .NET. I've used the eclipse GWT plugin and that takes care of everything needed to get the GWT-client talking to the java objects on the server. Hence my misnomer "GWT server". It's java, it uses GWT-RPC (i presume) as a protocol to talk to the client. So now I have a complete server that talks to my client. Both created in Java, both arranged through eclipse. Now I want to add some way for an office macro (but actually it could be anything, eg. an rss feed you want to publish) to query the server. So I would need to use some java library to send incoming XHR requests to a java object+method and I'd need to configure the server to differentiate between requests coming from the GWT client and the XHR requests coming from anywhere else. I made a sketch of the different parts: http://www.arianprins.net/downloads/advsys.gif While i'm discussing my problems with you I think the solution lies in these two questions: - how to create an XHR service / servlet in java (specifically: in a way that can coexist with the way the GWT-eclipse plugin configures java / the application server); - how to configure the application server to receive the XHR requests and send them to a Java object. Thanks for the advice, Arian. On 8 jul, 17:41, Jeff Chimene <jchim...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 07/08/2010 07:34 AM, Arian Prins wrote: > > > Hi Jeff, > > Just to explain my plan a little further: > > > I'm building an application where the user normally interacts with the > > system using GWT in a browser (the most "normal" way of using GWT). > > But I'd also like to generate some documents (in MS-Word) using data > > and objects that are available in the GWT-server. There would probably > > be only a small number of methods that need to be available on the > > outside, so a very heavyweight library would be overkill. > > Please drop the concept of "GWT server", as it doesn't exist. GWT is a > client-side solution that can interact with a variety of server-side > solutions. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the term "GWT server"? > > > It all boils down to: > > I want to execute a function in a word-macro: > > String GetTheTextForThisWordDocument(documentId); :-) :-) > > That's fine. As I recall, you can access XHR technology from an Office > macro. > > > XHR sounds good, but how can I get that to work? > > You'll want to use .NET objects > > > The way I think about > > it I would probably need to perform the following steps: > > - Create an object / methods that perform the function(s) that I want > > to be available (the GetTheText... method mentioned above); > > Yes. > > > - Use some kind of library / construction that can make that object > > available to the outside world (just like GWT does in its own way). > > I think the answer to this is "no". But there is still some fuzziness in > terminology here that should be clarified before a definitive answer. > > > Is there some kind of standard XHR library? > > Yes, there are several GWT classes: JsonpRequestBuilder, > RpcRequestBuilder, RequestBuilder. Of these, I think the first and third > are what you'll want, since it sounds like you won't be using Java to > handle the request (although there may be Java/Office interoperability > classes available) > > Since the documents are on the server, you can construct a .NET service > that listens for HTTP requests, evaluates the request, loads the > document, executes the macro, retrieves the response, formats it, then > sends it to the client. > > Using this solution, I think you'll be limited to UTF-8 scalars (i.e. no > images, no structured document fragments). If you want more than that, > you'll probably want to have the server send the document fragment using > one of the MS MIME types. > > > - Somehow configure the application server (in web.xml?) to respond to > > a certain URL using that library > > (example:http://localhost:8001/WordDocumentXHR) > > Unless you're using server-side Java, there's no use for the web.xml > file. web.xml is for those using Java RPC services. The URL you provide > above is defined in your application as a string constant, and used by > one of the classes I mentioned above. > > > Those last two points I've never dealt with before (and I haven't > > found anything googling), so any advise would be appreciated. > > > Arian. > > > On 8 jul, 02:26, Jeff Chimene <jchim...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On 07/05/2010 02:28 PM, Arian Prins wrote: > > >>> Hello people, > >>> I have a hard time figuring out what would be the best approach for my > >>> problem. > > >>> I'd like to communicate some info from the server (side logic) to an > >>> MS-Office macro. I could always use ODBC to let the office macro query > >>> the database directly but that just feels like a kludge. I've got a > >>> lot of objects in my application in which a lot of processing is > >>> already implemented. > > >>> So, I figure, the best way would be to create a web service (SOAP?) > >>> inside the gwt server-side implementation that can be queried by > >>> outside applications. > > >>> I've done a lot of searching, but haven't really found any definitive > >>> way that would be best. Should I use an existing RPC/SOAP/JSON library > >>> and try to integrate it into GWT's structure (how to configure > >>> web.xml? etc. etc.)? Is there something already provided by google or > >>> in de code projects? > > >>> Any thoughts and tips would be greatly appreciated. > > >>> Arian Prins. > > >> Hi Arian, > > >> I've written some fairly complex Office macros. > > >> I'm not sure where GWT fits into your application. In your case, the > >> client side is MS Office macros, not a browser JavaScript instance. The > >> server side can be whatever you wish. You will probably want to use > >> XMLHTTPRequests (XHR) to communicate with the server; I think SOAP is a > >> bit heavy-handed to implement in an Office macro. > > >> I doubt RPC will work for you, as the serialization logic is also a bit > >> much for an Office macro. > > >> This leaves JSON, application-specific XML (as opposed to the > >> generalized SOAP DTD), CSV. > > >> If you are planning to use the Google App Engine, I'm not sure how to > >> get Office macros to use Java RPC. > > >> I'm leaning towards the XHR solution: it's lightweight, can be tested > >> independently of the macro environment, and straightforward to mock > >> inside the macro environment. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to google-web-tool...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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