Gwt create a full website?

[Yii Yiyi]

Hi guys!

Well, I've been developing websites with php and jquery for awhile, but now I'm is a situation where my boss wants to incorporate gwt into a web project, but he's like super exited about it and I don't see why I've been trying to make him to change his mind, but he's like a little boy who doesn't understand reasons... Anyway...

So the point is, is gwt a framework where you can completely forget about the use of php, servlets, asp, etc and create a whole website only by using it?

Or is gwt more like JQuery to create cool stuff with the DOM, but keeping the functionality with php and other server side languages ?

By the way I've been developing mvc java projects with swing so I'm comfortable with what I've seen of gwt so far.

Thanks!!!

[Bear Bibeault]

GWT is intended to generate all the resources itself from Java code that you write.

Ask your boss if he want to use mauve GWT. (Reference to this)

[Ulf Dittmer]

I don't think GWT does much about CSS - you'd still have to create that.

Before jumping headlong into GWT, note that it has a non-trivial learning curve, especially if you're coming from the PHP world and aren't familiar with Java web apps.

It also has issues with page loading time, performance, browser support and SEO. Those may not matter in your case, but you need to make sure beforehand, as it'll be very hard to fix later. Trust me on this, I've been there.

[Maneesh Godbole]

Check out the real world examples on https://developers.google.com/web-toolkit/examples/
I am not aware of any browser support issues. In fact GWT handles all the cross browser problems on it's own. For SEO you can use AJAX Crawling

[Maithilish Bhat]

Please check online tutorial at GWT 2 Advanced Tutorial which is a good introduction to GWT and helps you to build a complete web application.

[Marco Schoolenberg]

GWT is a different cup of java. Not for php "Joomla" "Drupal" webbuilders. No offense.
Just want to warn you and your boss.

Building a GWT Site needs more skilled programmers who know Java.
You also need to think about how you want to host it. If you are limited to Apache2 or Apache webserver then you are limited in what parts of GWT you can use.

In GWT you can have a pure script site. This would not be interacting with servlets. However as I said that is limited. Using GWT extensively you will not be able to avoid writing servlets.
If that is a problem for you or your manager doesn't want to spend the money it costs to actually build it. I have recently met such a situation where staff thinks GWT is going to cut production time to 10% but that is simply not true.

GWT is an alternative to for example jsp or velocity. Yes GWT is a framework but not like Joomla or Drupal is a framework.

There are plugins for eclipse wtih wich you could do a lot of visual drag and drop but that is clientside. You still need to write server side code.
And don't forget about login and such..... You would have to take full controle of coding permissions into your code again unlike working with a thing like Joomla or Drupal

GWT is great stuff but you need some java knowledge.