gwt - effects of design

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

GWT takes a different approach to AJAX than other frameworks. I'm curious what the authors and others think of the effects of these.

1) Since the JavaScript is generated from Java, it reminds me a bit of servlets. Does this mean the presentation (HTML) in Java rather than just the JavaScript?
2) There is a different JavaScript file generated for each browser. Does this mean you have to redeploy when the next version of each browser comes out?

[Glenn Murray]

Originally posted by Jeanne Boyarsky:

1) Since the JavaScript is generated from Java, it reminds me a bit of servlets. Does this mean the presentation (HTML) in Java rather than just the JavaScript?

There is no Java in the presentation layer (as there would be with applets, not servlets).

2) There is a different JavaScript file generated for each browser. Does this mean you have to redeploy when the next version of each browser comes out?

There is one Javascript file for all browsers. You may want to redeploy if the GWT is updated or a browser's Javascript engine changes (as you would do anyway).

Cheers,
Glenn

[Adam Tacy]

Originally posted by Jeanne Boyarsky:

1) Since the JavaScript is generated from Java, it reminds me a bit of servlets. Does this mean the presentation (HTML) in Java rather than just the JavaScript?

Actually the Java is only used during the development phase, once you hit the compile button the result is pure JavaScript that manipulated the DOM and makes use of CSS for styling.

Originally posted by Jeanne Boyarsky:

2) There is a different JavaScript file generated for each browser. Does this mean you have to redeploy when the next version of each browser comes out?

It mostly depends on what the next version of the browser does to its underlying handling of the DOM.

If it is the same as the previous version then No, if it changes, then first someone will have to implement the necessary GWT DOM classes and then Yes, you would have to recompile and redeploy.

This makes it slightly different to other approaches where you might just link to a new JavaScript library, but compiling and redeploying is not a substantial amount of effort compared to the test phase you would go through (with both a GWT and a non GWT approach) to ensure your application still works in a new browser.

//Adam