Suggestion Needed - Drag & Drop UI Elements

[Joe San]

Guys,

I would like to know if there are any Java based framework for dragging and dropping UI elements to a specific area and creating an HTML out of that. I'm looking for something similar to what we have in the IDE wherein we drag the HTML elements and place them in a content area, align them, specify properties and finally save the entire page as HTML. Any tailor made solution available? Please suggest guys!

[Joe San]

Something like a document drawing framework is what I'm looking for!

[Joe San]

Is it simply that we only have to consider a Javascript UI framework like jQuery or Ext JS or is there any other ready made libraries for this purpose? My requirement is something like where in I have to provide an area where I can drag and drop some UI elements to it, define its properties like color, style and so on and later submit that and when submitting that, save it as an HTML.

[Campbell Ritchie]

I presume you have already read the Java™ Tutorial section?

[Joe San]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:I presume you have already read the Java™ Tutorial section?

I do not want to consider Swing. Looking for some other alternative.

[Joe San]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:I presume you have already read the Java™ Tutorial section?

Anyways, I did have a look at that. It looks fine from my perspective but need to think on how good would that integrate into a browser??

The typical scenario is the user will be presented with a screen (a web app) and he clicks on the link on that screen which says "create new form" and then I need to present him with another screen (a pop up or in the same browser window) and in that screen I need to give him the standard HTML elements in a palette which he can drag and drop to a canvas, align them in the canvas, click them to set the properties like its color, and so on and then finally when he is done with the dragging and dropping and aligning, he clicks on save and when he clicks on save I capture the entire form and save that as HTML.

[Joe San]

Any ideas guys?

[salvin francis]

GWT !!!


Thats the technology that you are looking for

[Joe San]

salvin francis wrote:GWT !!!


Thats the technology that you are looking for

Does it offer what I look for?

[Joe San]

Do you mean that the the GWT framework is just enough or do we have to use any additional plugin's to get the feature that I'm looking at?

[salvin francis]

The framework is sufficient.

[salvin francis]

There are libraries that also help in implementing DnD in GWT too, but its not much complicated to build your own....
My own site is using pure gwt and has a drag and drop support.


I suggest for a better response on this topic, you could create a thread in GWT forum....

[Joe San]

Thanks for the reply.

[salvin francis]

happy to help

[Joe San]

Well, I'm back here asking for help. I'm literally looking for something like this

http://www.pagebreeze.com/

WYSIWIG HTML Editor based on Java.

[salvin francis]

Hi,

First of all, I would discourage continuing the same topic in two different forums.
@
https://coderanch.com/t/484197/Google-Web-Toolkit/Application-Frameworks/Drag-Drop-feature-using-GWT

Next, Do remember that no matter what technology you are using,
It will be difficult to support all features laid down by a traditional desktop application.


You have several alternatives to design your application including jquery, Ext JS, applets, GWT, etc.

I would suggest you look at the pros and cons of each of the technologies before making up your mind to go for one of them.

Honestly, I am a bit biased towards GWT and here are some links to applications similar to yours:

http://gwt-widget.sourceforge.net/demo/drawing/index.html
http://allen-sauer.com/com.allen_sauer.gwt.dnd.demo.DragDropDemo/DragDropDemo.html
http://advanced-gwt.sourceforge.net/demo/
http://sticky.appspot.com/
http://glowday.com/editor >> comes very close to your requirement, but the application is down currently...

So, make up your mind on the technology and then let us know, we can guide you along.

To be frank, I too, at one point of time thought of a WYSIWYG editor for HTML page online, but in a different context..

My kind of target client would be a person who has no idea about HTML but wants to make a website, so I wanted to make a 'Layout' based HTML editor.
Hope this helps you ....

[Maneesh Godbole]

Jothi,
Let us continue the discussion here https://coderanch.com/t/484197/Google-Web-Toolkit/Application-Frameworks/Drag-Drop-feature-using-GWT