Beginning Google Web Toolkit From Novice to Professional

Over the last couple of years, we’ve noticed that our customers have gotten more demanding when it comes to the usability of their web applications. Inspired by the “web 2.0” trend and applications such as Gmail and the like, we’ve tried many approaches to building these rich Internet applications (RIAs). But all of these had one big flaw: they required us to learn a different language, including adhering to a whole new set of conventions and best practices. Only with the introduction of Google Web Toolkit (GWT) have we begun to feel confident about building this kind of application in a maintainable fashion. This book introduces GWT within the context just described, and will guide you through the first steps of using it to build real-world applications. The goal is to get you as a Java developer up to speed quickly by providing just enough background and a lot of hands-on code samples. During the course of the book, we’ll guide you through the different aspects of GWT that we feel are important, and leave out the ones we feel are out-of-scope for beginners. Most of the code samples will gradually build to make up a real-world sample application that allows you to manage your tasks using a web application. After reading this book, you’ll be equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to start building real-world applications using GWT.

The open source, lightweight Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a framework that allows Java developers to build rich Internet applications (RIAs), more recently called Ajax applications, in Java. Typically, writing these applications requires a lot of JavaScript development. However, Java and JavaScript are very distinctively different languages (although the name suggests otherwise), therefore requiring a different development process. In Beginning Google Web Toolkit: From Novice to Professional, you’ll learn to build rich, user–friendly web applications using a popular Java–based Ajax web framework, the Google Web Toolkit. The authors will guide you through the complete development of a GWT front-end application with a no–nonsense, down–to–earth approach. You’ll start with the first steps of working with GWT and learn to understand the concepts and consequences of building this kind of application. During the course of the book, all the key aspects of GWT are tackled pragmatically, as you’re using them to build a real–world sample application. Unlike many other books, the inner workings of GWT and other unnecessary details are shelved, so you can focus on the stuff that really matters when developing GWT applications.

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Bram Smeets is a Java architect with over eight years of experience in developing enterprise Java applications. Currently, Bram is technical director at JTeam (www.JTeam.nl), a Java software development company based in the Netherlands, and senior consultant at SpringSource (pringSource.com). He is a regular speaker at technology-focused conferences like The Ajax Experience and SpringOne. Using Google Web Toolkit, Bram has delivered several successful rich Internet applications for JTeam. He also delivered Ajax and Google Web Toolkit trainings at several companies.