SEVENCLICK
Mobile Technology Evangelists

This week has been quite a challenge for me. On Monday I was assigned to develop a prototype Web Application, actually an iPhone version of this blog, using GWT (Google Web Toolkit) as development framework.

Although I have “deep” Java knowledge, I haven’t worked at all with this platform and barely worked (almost nothing) with AJAX. In this post and following (not many) I’d like to give my opinion and experiences while working with this new tool.

First, as GWT is used coding in Java (how lucky! I am absolutely not in the mood for learning JavaScript!) I looked for some IDE integration. While reading some of the docs,I found two plug-ins for the most used Java IDEs:

• Eclispe plug-in: Not free, but has a WYSIWYG editor. Haven’t used it.
• Netbeans plug-in: Free.
  • Service creation wizard.
  • Built-in debugger
  •  Although SevenClick holds many Eclipse fans, the fact that the plug-in runs over NetBeans is, in my opinion, an advantage. IDE Integration  and consistency is a key factor mandatory.

After performing a three minutes installation, you are ready to start your development. Anyway is wise to check out the docs and learn a little before start writing down code. Also you can check out some Widget libraries (this is OOP, don’t invent the wheel again!).

Currently I’m finishing the prototype, specially refining visual styles (you can see a screenshot at the begining). Developing the server back-end (Post – Part II) is much like programming J2EE servlets, but developing the client front-end (Post – Part III) is really fast and easy!

I hope that in the incoming GWT + iPhone posts I could put a link to the application deployed in production!

Incoming posts: AJAX and Server Services - GUI Development & Widgets