It's very hard to use GWT's RPC mechanism without using GWT. GWT's RPC
mechanism is nice because it provides a server side implementation, but on
the client side, you're still creating an AsyncCallback and programming in
an asynchronous manner. This is an area where Javascript really shines
because of first class functions you can pass around (not available in Java)
and closures (not available in Java unless you count anonymous inner
classes).
Rather than look at a single feature, look at the bigger picture. With GWT,
you get a ton of useful widgets and a way to programmatically (or via XML
via UiBinder) define your UI, you get an out-of-the-box event bus and
history manager. This is actually a pretty neat way to develop a web app
because you can compose widgets of widgets. I'd probably pick jQuery for
more "web page" like interaction or applications with a less desktop like
experience, because the interface for working with the DOM is one of the
best I've ever used (to select and hide all parents of list elements with a
class "item", you'd do this: $("li.item").parents().hide());. jQuery's XHR
interface is simple and straightforward, and combined with a library like
Google GSON (http://code.google.com/p/google-gson/), you can build XHR rich
applications fairly easily.
I personally prefer GWT for anything that has to deal with detecting where a
mouse click is or key handler events, or something where I have to
programmatically assemble the UI which can be represented as a hierarchical
bag of widgets. The jQuery way would be to output some HTML and jam it into
an element using the .html() function, which is really only a notch above
using the DOM's innerHTML= attribute.
On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 4:47 AM, tempy <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks for the advice John. I've been reading about GQuery and it
> does seem good, though I have some concerns about whether it might be
> abandoned. I think my plan is to learn JQuery, as I feel like that
> should also teach me a lot about how the browser operates, which is a
> gap in my knowledge. I think I should learn something "close to the
> metal" (metal being browser in this case) before moving on to
> frameworks that abstract the browser away to a greater extent. I
> guess if I use JQuery, switching to GQuery at any time should not be
> problematic, and I get the best of both worlds. And I would sure love
> to hang on to GWT's RPC mechanism.
>
> Mike
>
> On Sep 10, 12:56 am, John Patterson <[email protected]> wrote:
> > BTW, you can use GWT in a manor very similar to JQuery. Take a look a
> > GQuery by Ray Cromwell. He has an incredible benchmark page which
> > dynamically shows how GQuery out performs JQuery in almost every measure.
> >
> > On 10 September 2010 05:53, John Patterson <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > You might want to look into Sitebricks which is a Google developed web
> app
> > > framework built on top of Guice. It is a simple request response
> processor
> > > with no fancy "component" abstractions like Wicket or Tapestry. This
> model
> > > fits in very well with GWT (or other client frameworks) which request
> data
> > > via RPC or small snippets of rendered html to assemble on the client.
> >
> > > It is still very much in active development so you have to be prepared
> to
> > > dig into the code and figure out the plumbing yourself. The author,
> Dhanji,
> > > has built a fantastic API here - simple, powerful and clever.
> >
> > >http://code.google.com/p/google-sitebricks/
> >
> > > John
> >
> > > On 10 September 2010 05:35, tempy <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > >> Thanks for the explanation Chris!
> >
> > >> Guess I'm learning jquery, golly, I'll be a real web programmer yet.
> > >> =)
> >
> > >> On Sep 9, 7:58 pm, "Chris (Google Employee)" <[email protected]>
> > >> wrote:
> > >> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > >> > I think the reason we don't explicitly publish a list of "frontend
> > >> > frameworks that play well with App Engine" is because there really
> is
> > >> > no technical barrier between front end frameworks that work in the
> > >> > browser such as JQuery, etc and the backend (App Engine). Many App
> > >> > Engine users make full use of a myriad of front end technologies/
> > >> > frameworks for UI creation ranging from HTML5/JS/CSS to flash etc.
> >
> > >> > JQuery is especially popular for a variety of Web app usages, so if
> > >> > that works for you, I'd definitely continue trying it out.
> >
> > >> > Hope this helps,
> > >> > -Chris
> >
> > >> > On Sep 9, 10:43 am, tempy <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > >> > > Hello all,
> >
> > >> > > A little background... I'm mostly new to web frontend development,
> I
> > >> > > come from a mostly backend and desktop background. I have a GAEj
> app
> > >> > > that provides the backend for a rather sophisticated
> desktop/mobile
> > >> > > app. This backend will also drive a website in addition to the
> > >> > > desktop/mobile app.
> >
> > >> > > The website will show a small subset of the data in the system. I
> > >> > > started with GWT, but it doesn't seem to be quite right. The
> website
> > >> > > is for presentation of a small subset of the system's data only,
> and
> > >> > > users do not interact with the data in any way other than
> searching
> > >> > > for it. As the data is mostly unstructured text and some images,
> I
> > >> > > feel most comfortable formatting it with plain old html/css. In
> fact,
> > >> > > the layout of the site will be minimal and look a lot like a blog.
> As
> > >> > > such, the website should certainly not feel like a single-page
> "web
> > >> > > application" a la gmail. With GWT, I have little use for widgets
> and
> > >> > > find myself constantly fighting with it to get a non-application
> look-
> > >> > > and-feel.
> >
> > >> > > The only functionality that I thus really need from GWT is the RPC
> > >> > > component, the page should be AJAX, I don't want to do round trips
> to
> > >> > > the server for every navigation event.
> >
> > >> > > So, I'm not quite sure which framework to use with the GAEj
> backend.
> > >> > > At first GWT seemed like a natural fit, but now seems like
> overkill.
> > >> > > I'm doing some research on jquery, but I haven't seen a list of
> > >> > > "frontend frameworks that play well on GAEj" anywhere.
> >
> > >> > > Thanks for any advice,
> > >> > > Mike
> >
> > >> --
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>
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--
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