I was recently looking into Google Web Toolkit and it seemed really interesting. I was curious what can I really do with it, can I simple register and login system or similar things?
Google Web Toolkit can be used in many ways:
- as a framework for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA) from scratch - the most common use, AFAICT. Examples include Google Wave, the Google AdWords advertiser interface or Lombardi's Blueprint,
- as a tool for building small (either code-wise or size-wise :)) Widgets to be included on a "regular" website. For example, you can build a nice, fully customized WYSIWYG editor in GWT and include it in your web page,
- as a base framework for a more complex/customized one - examples include Ext GWT/GXT and SmartGWT. This point is the reason why base GWT Widgets are simple and/or plain - GWT is meant to be tool for you to build your own more complex and customized Widgets. If you are not up to the "challenge" you can use the mentioned GWT-based frameworks. But note that these frameworks tend to be heavier/slower than pure GWT - the price for including everything, including kitchen sink ;)
- as a sort of in between solution - when you have some parts of your application (old, legacy stuff or something like that) in JavaScript, but you want to add new functionalities using GWT (and possibly, in the future, go with GWT all the way). JSNI and JavaScript overlay types allow mixing plain old JavaScript (POJS anyone?) with GWT Widgets and such,
- other uses include some extreme/'hackish' stuff (but in an awesome way), like:
- GWT Extreme
-
gwtquery - "a jQuery-like API written in GWT"
... and many others. GWT is a very robust framework, IMHO. Maybe the question should be "Google Web Toolkit, what can't I do with it?" ;)
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