As much as I like GWT, I think it might not be the right tool for your situation.
Your two use cases are: * Remote data and compute * Local data and compute (unless you meant that desktop use would use remote compute, but I don't think so because that would require transmitting local data to the server) While being able to reuse the UI (for both consistency and development efficiency) is a good goal, it sounds like your real substance is the analysis algorithms. What language are those implemented in? Assuming you're using Java, you do have some options. A separate desktop application is one of them. You could also go with a webapp and use something like Jetty on the desktop, like Gaurav suggested. I think that would be awkward in desktop mode as you'd have two processes to worry about, the jetty server and the browser, which may be tricky to do well and may be confusing to users. Plus your access to the local filesystem is going to be awkward. You'd probably have to present an upload widget to invoke the system file dialog, but then just pass the file path to the locally running server for it to open directly (which hopefully it would be able to do...) You might instead want to look into using Swing, SWT, JavaFX, or Apache Pivot. I went to a NEJUG talk about Pivot earlier this year and was pretty impressed with it. Some things even reminded me of GWT. One catch, though... I'm not sure if it's just their demos, but they require Java 6, and they don't quite work in-browser on Mac OS X 10.5. Supposedly they do work in 10.6, but I haven't upgraded yet so I can't confirm. (See http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/pivot-user/201006.mbox/%[email protected]%3efor the response to my question on the Pivot mailing list.) -Brian On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Gaurav Vaish <[email protected]> wrote: > Why not use Jetty (Embeddable, Lightweight Java Servlet Container - > cross platform). > > > > -- > Happy Hacking, > Gaurav Vaish > http://www.mastergaurav.com > > > On Dec 3, 10:09 pm, Brett Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, sort of an off beat question: what's the best cross-platform > library > > for a local web server, that could effectively make a standard GWT app > into > > a desktop app? Ideal would be super light weight, and just allow users to > > run the app offline, with local data. Language could be Java, C++ or > Python. > > > > If curious about why such a library would be desired, some background at > the > > end of the email... > > Thanks for the help, > > Brett > > > > *** > > Background: > > > > I'm about to build an app for researchers to browse and analyze large > > scientific datasets. We want to permit two uses: > > -- Web version: users can browse/analyze common public datasets over the > web > > -- Local version: users can do the same browsing/analysis on their own > data > > set, *without* transferring the data to the server. > > > > The plan now is to build a desktop app for this. I'd love to make it a > > browser app instead, with GWT as the front end. If we went this route, > we'd > > have to provide some software download for the local version. Here are > the > > options I can think of: > > 1 -- Local version is a completely separate app. Hope to avoid this so > users > > get the same interface on web/local. > > 2 -- Use Gears (or Adobe Air). Avoided because that would require > > transferring server side analysis code to javascript (or Actionscript). > > (Right?) > > 3 -- Ship an executable that starts a local web server. User views app > athttp://localhost:12345/in the browser. > > (Any others I'm missing?) > > > > I am trying to assess the feasability of #3. The ideal workflow of our > app > > would be: > > -- Researcher checks out our site in the browser and tries it out. Likes > it, > > clicks the "Try this on your own data" button > > -- Downloads executable with mystery web server described above :) > > -- Double clicks executable and a minor GUI shows up with a "Get > started!" > > button > > -- User clicks, and the app is loaded in the browser > athttp://localhost:[whatever > > port]/. The app looks the same as it did online with the same > functionality, > > except the "Select data set" option lists local files... > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google Web Toolkit" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<google-web-toolkit%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en.
