GWT + HTML5 lightweight mobile library to support animations

Question

I am researching for writing a mobile app with GWT and I need a lightweight mobile library.

The app will contain animations and mobile look and feel. Is there a way to create more "game" like animations (like blurring, motion effects) with GWT on top of HTML 5?

I have found the following libraries but I am not sure which is the best one.

http://code.google.com/p/mgwt/

http://code.google.com/p/gwtmobile/

http://code.google.com/p/gwt-phonegap/

http://mobilegwt.appspot.com/showcase/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gwtmobile.phonegap&hl=en

https://github.com/dennisjzh/GwtMobile

http://www.gwt4touch.appspot.com/

Could you provide me any recommendations, advantages and disadvantages of the libraries lister, or any you may have used?

Answer 1

I am the creator of mgwt (which is there 3 times in your list) http://www.m-gwt.com would be the right url.

mgwt is written in the same fashion as GWT, since I am a GWT contributor I sure hope that I know what I am talking about.

mgwt took 3 years in time to build and today is very good way to write cross platform apps in Java. It uses many different aspects of GWT (MVP, ClientBundles, Editor Framework, UiBinder and many more) However your question implies that you want to write some sort of game, depending on your game HTML5 might not be the right choice at the moment.

gwt4touch is a thin wrapper on top of sencha touch. This means that the compiler can not optimize the sencha part in any way. You might ask the question why use GWT then in the first place.

gwt mobile is pure GWT but does not use many core GWT concepts. Therefore the compiler can not help to optimize CSS in anyway since this is external.

Of course my option as the creator of mgwt is biased, but I can only encourage you to take a look at mgwt and see a "real" GWT library for mobile at work.

Compare the performance of the different showcases on different devices (iOS, Android) and see the performance for yourself.

You might also be interested in a general introduction to the whole topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V0CdhMFiao&feature=plcp