Alessandro, 5 months sounds very tight for what you describe. So sounds like you need to take some short cuts.
If you like the Tohu spec (but not the implementation choice) could you not use their data model for describing forms? That is probably the most time consuming and painful to undo mistakes bit. Not sure I full understand the two open aspects you describe. Being an old geek bore I'll have a go. a) config for a form (probably bad interpretation). If "lifting" Tohu's data model doesn't work (wrong or licence issues) then I quite like your idea of starting with HTML. You can then use HTML5 syntax to add what you need. <form> <input type="text" name="foo" class="assertNotEmpty" /> <input type="text" name="bar" data-hiddenIf="form.foo='blah'" /> </form> b) transport this config to preview window If it is just a String so easy to move about? Strangely the XML API in GWT doesn't seem that great. Just DOM I think. So if you do want your storage/transport format to be HTML5 then you would have to parse to the DOM then probably traverse this tree to build the GWT Widgets and wire up the event handlers. So you would hit an element called "input" and type="text" and instantiate the correct Widget to add to your container. Hmmm. Not sure I'm helping much. So many ways to do this I don't know you spec (e.g. do you have to support lists of check boxes or select, how you persist the form output?) I'd still stick to suggesting you lift something that already exists (HTML5, JavaScript expressions) and that you probably need some short cuts given the time you have. Cheers Sam On Aug 10, 2:00 pm, "A.Augustini" <alessandro.august...@googlemail.com> wrote: > Hi guys: > > @Alberto: Thank you very much for the JBoss Tohu link. I had the time > to watch the vids & some parts of the doc, and it offers exactly that > smart-wizard functionality I'm looking for. Unfortunately, Tohu seems > *not* to support GWT as frontend tech -- at least currently ;-( > So, I either have to switch over to JSF/SpringMVC with jQuery > integration ... or follow another GWT based approach. > > @Sam: I also thank you very much for your help. Please, see ( you and > others ;-) ) my comments inline: > > > > There should be *no* external tools in place; instead, a usual "online > > This seems like the scary time consuming bit. Any idea of time budget? > > How many man months to get something out? > > About 5 man months. > > I think the task could be done in this time. The "only" 2 open aspects > that I can't figure out very well are: > (a) what contents must an admin-provided *description* for a smart/ > proactive wizard possess for being "instantiable", and > (b) how to get from this description to the runnable wizard > incarnation (the one in the preview window) ... > > ... dynamic behavior description being (1) rule-engine based *or* (2) > plain Java-to-JS based, i.e. instantiated via predefined 'events' > together with 'event bus' + ' event handlers' containing predefined > 'actions' (=exec logic modifying the props of the other form > components). > > I think that complexity can be limited considerably with *fixed*/ > predefined event sets and event handler (action) sets -- both offered > to the admin via the "def tools palette". This limitation would reduce > the problem "only" to "evaluation of declaratively made condition > statements" after having *configured* preexisting event handler and > action objects (configuration: binding parameters to widgets or widget > props). (???) > > Any idea how the mentioned descr-to-code transformation can best be > done??? > Beginning with a simple HTML form -- e.g. doing some simple field > visibility switches -- and then enhancing this HTML form with > something like: > > WHEN ( (item1.checked=='true' AND item2.text=="Huh") OR > (item1.checked=='false' AND item2.text=="Aha") ) > THEN ( > item3.visible=='true'; > item3.text="Hello World, it works!"; > item4.selection='1'; > ) > > ??? > > > The form designer seems like the complicated bit. Is this for end > > users too? You doing > > something like a SaaS form designer? So the form designers are end > > user/customers too? > > Yes, my 'admins' are a group of previleged *endusers* (previlege = > specification editor access granted). > > > [...] I think the worry is the admin CRUD. A rough idea of how many man > > months you have to do this would help. Is a big job, so even more reason > > to look at tohu. > > Yes, the *wizard-logic* based CRUD -- or better said the > "declarativeDescription-to-runningCode transformation" -- is the > critical issue, as mentioned above in more detail. > As also stated above, the project will be approx. 5 man months ... > unfortunately Tohu does not (yet) support GWT. > > Best regards, > Alessandro -- 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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