*> I noticed that you can change front-end code without rebooting the system and rebuilding. However, this doesn't seem true about the back-end code. Am I missing something?*
If you use your own serever (as you should, as Jens pointed out), you can hot reload your backend code like you can with any other project. Eg: IntelliJ supports "Compile and Reload Modified Files", and I think Eclipse can be set to just reload automatically on save. My server starts up in a few seconds, so I rarely bother with this, I just restart it, but handy if you need it. *> Can I use HTML/CSS? If so, are there examples?* As Jens pointed out, the GWT UIBinder is fantastic. Apart from a few TextBoxes and things like that, most of my project is pure HTML + CSS. *> Is there a graphical GUI system that allows someone to graphically design an interface and have it generate all of that Java code for the front-end?* It's not really needed, as no Java code is created for your layouts when using the UIBinder, just HTML + CSS (FlexBox is awesome). The main pain point I found is integrating HTML widget events into GWT, but Elemental2 solved a lot of that. On Monday, 16 February 2026 at 3:38:26 am UTC+11 Jens wrote: > I noticed that you can change front-end code without rebooting the system > and rebuilding. However, this doesn't seem true about the back-end code. > Am I missing something? > > > Going forward GWT will only provide a simple server to serve static files > out of the box. If you want DevMode to launch an application server for > your server side code you have to use "-server > com.google.gwt.dev.shell.JettyLauncher" to get the implementation GWT had > always provided (but it will be removed in a future release) or provide > your own implementation of GWTs "ServletContainerLauncher". If you use a > proper build tool with separated modules for GWT code and for server code > you usually already have some mechanism to launch your app server. Also the > coupling GWT did before always produced classpath issues. > > So going forward it is up to the developer to serve the backend code. > > > > Also, since I originally used GWT, I have learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, > etc. Now I feel like it is easier to specify layout in HTML/CSS than using > all of that GWT Java code. GWT front-end code seems incredibly verbose. > That leads me to two questions: > > 1. Can I use HTML/CSS? If so, are there examples? > > > GWT SDK provides UiBinder which allows you to write XML documents with a > matching Java class and GWT will generate an additional Java class from the > XML document to glue both together, see: > https://www.gwtproject.org/doc/latest/DevGuideUiBinder.html > > It is still a bit verbose compared to JS frameworks which support two way > databinding and plain HTML but it is good enough if you like to read HTML > instead of code. > > > > 2. Is there a graphical GUI system that allows someone to graphically > design an interface and have it generate all of that Java code for the > front-end? > > > There was an Eclipse plugin called GWT Designer, but I think it does not > work anymore. I am not aware of anything else. Your best bet is probably > using UiBinder XML and some AI help. > > > > Lastly, and just FYI, in response to what Google did with GWT at that > time, I ended up writing my own open-source, full-stack web development > framework. In addition to being able to change front-end code while > developing, it also supports changing back-end code without having to > reboot the server or recompile anything. It also has built-in support for > microservices, REST (actually JSON-RPC), authentication, custom HTML > controls, SQL API, reporting, CSV import/export, crypto, LLM interfaces, > and a lot more. It has been used in production systems for a few years > now. It's at kissweb.org > > > Sounds interesting. > > For GWT related libraries you can take a look at > https://github.com/gwtboot/gwt-boot-awesome-lili > > > -- J. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GWT Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/google-web-toolkit/50240723-cd19-4a6c-aa7b-97357530f38fn%40googlegroups.com.
