Googles page on GWT

So, it's been a while. I'm off to New York for two weeks in a couple of days, so I thought I'd make a post before leaving. This one is sort of a guide to Googles page on GWT. Not that it's really needed, it's easy to navigate, but just to make it easier for anyone thinking of beginning with GWT. The main page is linked in the right-hand side of the blog (press the toolbox), and below are some direct links to subpages that I personally found to be of use.

Is GWT for you?
You'll probably want to find out some more about GWT and if it is suitable for your needs. If you hit the Learn more link on the main page you'll get to an overview of features of GWT. It doesn't really say much, it's very generic and you'll not get the details out of it that you need to determine if it's suitable for you.

Most likely you have an idea of what kind of web app you're making. I found it useful to check out the examples page, and specifically the GWT Showcase, since it makes you start thinking of how to build the app. With the showcase of the widgets you'll get an understanding of how to structure your app, and you'll be able to check out some code as well.

Depending on what person you are, you'll decided to install it and try it out already or you'll want to get some more hands on examples. For me, I had to find out if it was at all possible to use PHP as a backend and I also wanted some hands on examples of that. The first time I visited the GWT page I had to resort to a Google search for that. We've covered the Learn more section on the left-hand side of the GWT page. If you think you're ready to install and try it out, you should check the Google Plugin for Eclipse and how to set up Eclipse (which is under Get started). I'll cover that in a later posting as well. It might seem redundant of me, but there are some specifics that I'd like to go over.

Anyway, for more information you can either check out the documentations under the Documentation section, or you can check out some tutorials under the Get started section. The difference here is that the tutorials are more hands on. I prefer the tutorials but there might not be one for your specific need. If there is one, you'll have to think less and can get down with the coding quicker. You should however browse through the documentation as well, since it explains how GWT works and what pieces are needed.

I'll just mention one last thing, which is essential when writing GWT apps, and that's the communication with a server. If you follow the link you'll see that there are a couple of alternatives mentioned. The first uses Java servlets ("Java on the backend"), and like I said in my earlier post this is not for me. Instead the choice falls on Retrieving JSON Data via HTTP:

If your application talks to a server that cannot host Java servlets, or one that already uses another data format like JSON or XML, you can make HTTP requests to retrieve the data.

You don't have to use JSON, of course, but there are methods in both PHP and Java to handle JSON which makes it a good choice. So I (or we) will make HTTP requests to a PHP page which outputs text in JSON format. First check out the page describing the process of getting JSON data via a servlet, and then check out the one using PHP instead.

Next up is a blog posting on the installation of Eclipse and GWT. By the way, did I mention that I'm a Linux user? Specifically Ubuntu. I don't know if I'll cover installing under Windows... It's probably covered in more detail elsewhere anyway.