Google Web Toolkit: Towards a better web
Posted by Bruce Johnson and Dan
Peterson, Google Web Toolkit team
We're very pleased to tell you that the
(GWT) is no longer in beta as of
today's release of GWT 1.4. For Java developers who have
used GWT to create high-end web applications over the last year,
this may not seem all that surprising. But if you haven't yet
heard the story behind GWT, this seems like the perfect
time…
If you've been in the technology industry for a while, you
probably remember when enterprises and software vendors had to
think pretty hard about whether to develop locally-installed
desktop applications or web-based browser applications. These days,
whether you're building
full-blown applications, it's a no-brainer: the browser is the
delivery platform of choice. However, users expect more from the
up-and-coming generation of web applications than the simple
click-and-wait of yesterweb. And if you're a web developer, you
know that this requires
the cluster of technologies including JavaScript and dynamic HTML
that can make browsers do backflips.
But the stark reality of AJAX applications is that, although they
can deliver sexy features and great usability, they are unusually
hard to engineer. Browser quirks and the anything-goes nature of
JavaScript will inevitably frustrate even the most dedicated
developers and add risk to your schedule with every line of code
written. If you do eventually manage to construct a complex AJAX
application that works, you're likely to find that maintaining
it over time can be a major challenge. And all that doesn't
even scratch the surface of testing, optimizing, securing and
internationalizing your application. (If you are currently working
on an ambitious AJAX project and haven't yet come to this
conclusion, please re-read this post in six months when you're
further along!)
We've learned a lot from our experiences building web
applications, and we're happy to share the tools we've
created. Google Web Toolkit is an open source project that helps
Java developers harness the richness of AJAX in a cross-platform,
web-friendly environment. The magic trick is that GWT
cross-compiles Java source code into standalone JavaScript that you
can include in any web page. Instead of spending time becoming
JavaScript gurus and fighting browser quirks, developers using GWT
spend time productively coding and debugging in the robust Java
programming language, using their existing Java tools and
expertise. Naturally, GWT is also a great way to easily take
advantage of the latest-and-greatest Google APIs and browser
enhancements, such as
In addition to making debugging far easier, GWT's unique
compilation-based approach to AJAX has the nice property that it
rewards developers for good software engineering practices. Java
source code that is clear and organized can be easily optimized by
the GWT compiler, which is a nice antidote to the frequent
hack-and-slash approach that's all too common in JavaScript
development. As your application grows, the GWT compiler begins to
pay off in even bigger ways. Unused code is automatically removed
so that scripts are smaller and pages load faster. Complex code can
be automatically coalesced and simplified. Most importantly,
because the Java language is statically typed, many common errors
can be caught during development rather than production. You can
observe the high-performance results yourself in GWT's
application.
Technical details aside, GWT makes it easy to develop fast,
friendly web apps that users love — which is, after all, the
point.
Download
GWT 1.4.
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