How to integrate GWT or Vaadin with Play Framework 2.0

Question

Is is possible to implement the client side of a Play Framework 2.x web application using GWT or Vaadin?

Play 1.x has a special module that provides GWT integration, but I can not find examples of the use of these technologies together in Play 2.x version. Can these technologies be integrated? Is there a module, or must some other approach be used?

Answer 1

GWT and Play2 can work together seamlessly, just as GWT can be used with python and go backends.

Using GWT with Play2 has two parts, serving static files and client-server communication.

• For the GWT produced static files (js, css, img..) you can just add them to the Play2 public directory, and they will be accessible based on the routes configuration.

• For client-server communication your best bet is using a pure json-rest approach, as request-factory, gwt-rpc have some dependency on J2EE servlets.

There are plenty examples of providing a json/REST api with Play2, and plenty examples of interacting with json/REST APIs with GWT.

Answer 2

Henri Kerola demoed this recently for play 2.x and will give a talk at javaone this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwuqAh0VSek