Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
GWT-Ext (http://code.google.com/p/gwt-ext/) looked very promising. I downloaded it to try it out. However it needs ExtJS and thats where all the licensing troubles came to light. In the end, it looks like you can get a version of the dependent javascript library somehow. But with all the issues surrounding it, I wasn't sure what the future of it was. I finally gave up with these libraries and am sticking to core GWT widgets for now. Unless I absolutely have to have a component from one of these libraries, I won't be looking for one. They all have their quirks or programming models that you need to understand to use them effectively. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
Hi I have being following this thread with great attention. Current status for my project is that we have used gwt-ext alot last couple of months and we think it looks really good (extjs is a very nice look and feel) However due to thing also mentined in this thread, I am also looking for different ways to go. I would like to have a javascript wrapper free solution In my searching i also found gwt-mosaic, which I think is a nice alternative, but It would require our users to get used to yet another look and feel. So I have the last couple of days, played around with the standard GWT widgets, tweaked them a little as we normally do :-), and applied the CSS and images of EXT-GWT. I actually think that it looks very well. At least my users and developers was not able to see the difference, between ext-gwt solution and my pure gwt solution. I have so far converted buttons, panel with collapse and toolbar input fields, and tabs. My experience with css is VERY limited, but with my progress sofar, I believe it is possible to acheive the whole application, because sofar we use a very small number of different components. Do any of you guys see any value in this? For me it means that we are now more free to extend components in a more OO like, way and we now have possibility to take in other 3part libraries based on pure gwt. and also, the development turnaround in hosted mode is by far quicker. /Flemming On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 3:30 PM, Miles T. dupont.nico...@gmail.com wrote: On 23 déc, 15:08, nogridbag nogrid...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Use of generics. If you're like me you rather work with POJO's everywhere and have type safety. +1. Fortunately, you can use POJOs, as said above. AFAIK, generics issues will be fixed in 2.0 release. Many of the examples don't even use generics. 2) The GXT components are not easily extendable. In Swing terms, imagine if you extend JLabel and override paintComponent. Instead of rendering a label you render a red square. Nothing breaks and you have your nice shiny square. If you take a GXT button and override onRender with a completely new impl, chances are you will break several things. Other methods in the class depend on certain elements to exist in the DOM or certain styles to exist in the Elements. If you plan on using GXT's components as is or customizing the CSS slightly you should be fine. On Dec 22, 10:40 pm, Fred Janon fja...@gmail.com wrote: I just wonder what people would like to see in a GWT library: what widgets, what features? I guess a nice look and feel for a start, but what else? 4) There's some really iffy design decisions. What do you consider iffy design choices? Fred On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 11:45, nogridbag nogrid...@gmail.com wrote: I've been using GXT (Ext-GWT) for quite some time now. While it certainly looks nice and provides a good amount of functionality lacking in GWT, there are several drawbacks. 1) It is very buggy. Bugs get fixed fairly fast, which is good, but I find myself submitting an abnormally large amount of bugs. While the developer (singular) is very responsive, passionate about his work, and friendly, the code isn't exactly up to the standards that was hoping for. 2) It is not just a set of widgets, it's a complete framework on top of GWT. Your team will have to invest time to learn it. Intermingling GWT widgets and GXT widgets is possible, but confusing IMHO. Which leads me to my next issue. 3) Documentation is still very lacking, although they're working on it... 4) There's some really iffy design decisions. a) The use of generics is not only inconsistent, but in many cases it's not even possible to use generics due to API bugs. The example I was going to post was actually just fixed in the release today. b) While the widgets look nice and performance is OK, you are forced to back the GXT components (like Grid, Tree, List) with GXT specific data model objects. If you have a simple Employee POJO, and you want to add it to a GXT Grid, you have to either wrap it in a Model or ModelData class, or you have to implement a marker interface and do a bit of trickery to get it in the Grid. The only reason for all of this is to support binding (since GWT doesn't support reflection). I would much rather have preferred a Swing like TableModel and an optional binding layer on top of it. c) The widgets look nice out of the box and customizing them slightly with CSS is pretty easy. However, if the changes require you to alter the HTML of a GXT component, you're in for a world of pain. The HTML markup is tied heavily into the functionality of the widgets and is referenced throughout the class either by tag name, tag id, or by css class. IMHO, the UI should be completely separate from the functionality of the
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
Hi Juan, Ext GWT (aka gxt, previously MyGWT) is a full GWT solution (no wrapping JS library). It provides : - containers and layouts - MVC layer - complete look and feels - rich set of widgets (including grids, drag and drop...) - form data binding - lazy rendering Drawbacks : - bugs : as the library is young, there are some bugs, but they are quickly fixed when you post a ticket (and there are almost always workarounds when you can't wait). - slower but not slow : In hosted mode, start time will be slower than a vanilla GWT app, but I don't get any performance issue once the app is launched - GPL license or pay (it can be a drawback for people who neither can release under GPL nor can pay) I use it since April 2008 in an internal app (223 classes for the GWT side) and it saves me a lot of time. I don't have to write a line of HTML/CSS code. Regards On Dec 21, 10:39 pm, ckendrick charles.kendr...@gmail.com wrote: If SmartGWT seems slow, just disable Firebug or similar development utilities, and be sure you haven't done anything like completely disabling browser caching. For normal end users who don't have these tools or settings, it's quick. On Dec 19, 7:13 am, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
I'm using gwt-mosaicand it's very good. SmartGWT is in fact a javascript wrapper for the SmartClient js library. For native GWT, go for gwt-mosaic. On Dec 22, 9:16 am, Miles T. dupont.nico...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Juan, Ext GWT (aka gxt, previously MyGWT) is a full GWT solution (no wrapping JS library). It provides : - containers and layouts - MVC layer - complete look and feels - rich set of widgets (including grids, drag and drop...) - form data binding - lazy rendering Drawbacks : - bugs : as the library is young, there are some bugs, but they are quickly fixed when you post a ticket (and there are almost always workarounds when you can't wait). - slower but not slow : In hosted mode, start time will be slower than a vanilla GWT app, but I don't get any performance issue once the app is launched - GPL license or pay (it can be a drawback for people who neither can release under GPL nor can pay) I use it since April 2008 in an internal app (223 classes for the GWT side) and it saves me a lot of time. I don't have to write a line of HTML/CSS code. Regards On Dec 21, 10:39 pm, ckendrick charles.kendr...@gmail.com wrote: If SmartGWT seems slow, just disable Firebug or similar development utilities, and be sure you haven't done anything like completely disabling browser caching. For normal end users who don't have these tools or settings, it's quick. On Dec 19, 7:13 am, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
If you want a great library use ext gwt which is not the same as gwt- ext. Ext Gwt does contain some javascript but it is used for mostly performace issues. Other than that ext gwt is written in pure java. The gui widgets it has have basic and advance widgets. It is a great choice to do something that require some advance widgets. Also the library does have bugs however it is getting fixed with each version release while new features get added. On Dec 19, 7:13 am, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I have been using GWT for almost 6 months now. In the past six months, I have tried migrating code from pure GWT to GWT-EXT and then to Smart-GWT. They all have drawback: GWT - no good looking widget GWT-Ext - very buggy and GPL licensing Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive Is there any library that has the same capability of Smart-GWT and good performance? Thanks, JB --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
I've been using GXT (Ext-GWT) for quite some time now. While it certainly looks nice and provides a good amount of functionality lacking in GWT, there are several drawbacks. 1) It is very buggy. Bugs get fixed fairly fast, which is good, but I find myself submitting an abnormally large amount of bugs. While the developer (singular) is very responsive, passionate about his work, and friendly, the code isn't exactly up to the standards that was hoping for. 2) It is not just a set of widgets, it's a complete framework on top of GWT. Your team will have to invest time to learn it. Intermingling GWT widgets and GXT widgets is possible, but confusing IMHO. Which leads me to my next issue. 3) Documentation is still very lacking, although they're working on it... 4) There's some really iffy design decisions. a) The use of generics is not only inconsistent, but in many cases it's not even possible to use generics due to API bugs. The example I was going to post was actually just fixed in the release today. b) While the widgets look nice and performance is OK, you are forced to back the GXT components (like Grid, Tree, List) with GXT specific data model objects. If you have a simple Employee POJO, and you want to add it to a GXT Grid, you have to either wrap it in a Model or ModelData class, or you have to implement a marker interface and do a bit of trickery to get it in the Grid. The only reason for all of this is to support binding (since GWT doesn't support reflection). I would much rather have preferred a Swing like TableModel and an optional binding layer on top of it. c) The widgets look nice out of the box and customizing them slightly with CSS is pretty easy. However, if the changes require you to alter the HTML of a GXT component, you're in for a world of pain. The HTML markup is tied heavily into the functionality of the widgets and is referenced throughout the class either by tag name, tag id, or by css class. IMHO, the UI should be completely separate from the functionality of the widgets. 5) Size. The CSS itself is ~80k. On the plus side, it's nice to have a pure GWT library in which I can step into Java code (which you will have to do quite often!). The widgets look and function very nicely. It would take a lot of time and money to write many of the widgets GXT provides. If you plan on using it as is, it works fine. On Dec 19, 10:13 am, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I have been using GWT for almost 6 months now. In the past six months, I have tried migrating code from pure GWT to GWT-EXT and then to Smart-GWT. They all have drawback: GWT - no good looking widget GWT-Ext - very buggy and GPL licensing Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive Is there any library that has the same capability of Smart-GWT and good performance? Thanks, JB --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
Yes all of the above. The LF is lacking. But what I would like to see in GWT are more 'complete' and 'extendable' widgets. For instance GWT chose to implement/support single click events in the Tree widget but did not provide any support for double click or right click support. I understand these may be secondary needs but it makes it hard to use any widget API if I can't extend it and do what I want. Another example of a need is dynamic setting of images/URL in basic widgets such as buttons, labels, menu/tree items, etc. GWT only supports a static image and I have to jump through hoops to change it. It would be nice if the Widget API supported setting the image dynamically. In my brief use of GWT I have found the API quite lacking in functionality for dynamic applications and is not easily extended. On the other hand I have found the its JS performance and RPC behavior to be very impressive. -Dave On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 8:40 PM, Fred Janon fja...@gmail.com wrote: I just wonder what people would like to see in a GWT library: what widgets, what features? I guess a nice look and feel for a start, but what else? 4) There's some really iffy design decisions. What do you consider iffy design choices? Fred On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 11:45, nogridbag nogrid...@gmail.com wrote: I've been using GXT (Ext-GWT) for quite some time now. While it certainly looks nice and provides a good amount of functionality lacking in GWT, there are several drawbacks. 1) It is very buggy. Bugs get fixed fairly fast, which is good, but I find myself submitting an abnormally large amount of bugs. While the developer (singular) is very responsive, passionate about his work, and friendly, the code isn't exactly up to the standards that was hoping for. 2) It is not just a set of widgets, it's a complete framework on top of GWT. Your team will have to invest time to learn it. Intermingling GWT widgets and GXT widgets is possible, but confusing IMHO. Which leads me to my next issue. 3) Documentation is still very lacking, although they're working on it... 4) There's some really iffy design decisions. a) The use of generics is not only inconsistent, but in many cases it's not even possible to use generics due to API bugs. The example I was going to post was actually just fixed in the release today. b) While the widgets look nice and performance is OK, you are forced to back the GXT components (like Grid, Tree, List) with GXT specific data model objects. If you have a simple Employee POJO, and you want to add it to a GXT Grid, you have to either wrap it in a Model or ModelData class, or you have to implement a marker interface and do a bit of trickery to get it in the Grid. The only reason for all of this is to support binding (since GWT doesn't support reflection). I would much rather have preferred a Swing like TableModel and an optional binding layer on top of it. c) The widgets look nice out of the box and customizing them slightly with CSS is pretty easy. However, if the changes require you to alter the HTML of a GXT component, you're in for a world of pain. The HTML markup is tied heavily into the functionality of the widgets and is referenced throughout the class either by tag name, tag id, or by css class. IMHO, the UI should be completely separate from the functionality of the widgets. 5) Size. The CSS itself is ~80k. On the plus side, it's nice to have a pure GWT library in which I can step into Java code (which you will have to do quite often!). The widgets look and function very nicely. It would take a lot of time and money to write many of the widgets GXT provides. If you plan on using it as is, it works fine. On Dec 19, 10:13 am, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I have been using GWT for almost 6 months now. In the past six months, I have tried migrating code from pure GWT to GWT-EXT and then to Smart-GWT. They all have drawback: GWT - no good looking widget GWT-Ext - very buggy and GPL licensing Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive Is there any library that has the same capability of Smart-GWT and good performance? Thanks, JB --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
If SmartGWT seems slow, just disable Firebug or similar development utilities, and be sure you haven't done anything like completely disabling browser caching. For normal end users who don't have these tools or settings, it's quick. On Dec 19, 7:13 am, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
More widget support will be added in GWT 1.6 which is anticipated in Q1 2009. Read more here: http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/2008/12/whats-ahead-for-google-web-toolkit_10.html --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
Here! Here! I'm in a similar boat as you...looking for a good pure GWT library. I don't think you will find anything as complete as SmartGWT in the pure GWT space. However you might take a look at http://code.google.com/p/gwt-mosaic/. It seems to have several nice UI elements and is pure GWT. However I could not give it a try because it was compiled with JRE 1.6. I understand this was an error and the next build will use 1.5. If you give it a try let me know what you think. -Dave On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 8:13 AM, Juan Backson juanback...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I have been using GWT for almost 6 months now. In the past six months, I have tried migrating code from pure GWT to GWT-EXT and then to Smart-GWT. They all have drawback: GWT - no good looking widget GWT-Ext - very buggy and GPL licensing Smart-GWT - slow and memory intensive Is there any library that has the same capability of Smart-GWT and good performance? Thanks, JB --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: Need for a great GWT GUI library
I understand your pain. I use both GWT and GWT-EXT. I have found most of my issues with GWT-EXT CSS stylesheet not displaying correctly in IE. Maybe someone can post a gwt CSS file that contains better looking widgets out of the box. As far as the slowness goes then you might be better off telling users to buy a faster computer :) --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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-Toolkit@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
