GWT in Action: Easy Ajax with the Google Web Toolkit [Paperback]

Robert Hanson (Author), Adam Tacy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007

The Google Web Toolkit is a new technology that automatically translates Java into JavaScript, making Ajax applications easier to code and deploy. GWT in Action is a comprehensive tutorial for Java developers interested in building the next generation of rich, web-based applications. This book was written by Robert Hanson, creator of the popular GWT Widget Library and Adam Tacy a major contributor to the GWT Widget Library.

There is a new emphasis on building rich, web-based applications. These applications can be difficult to build because they rely on JavaScript, which lacks the sophisticated object-oriented structures and static typing of Java, they are tricky to debug, and they require you to manage numerous browser inconsistencies.

In May of 2006 Google released the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). GWT enables developers to create Ajax applications in Java. With GWT, you can build your applications using a real object-oriented language and take advantage of Java tools like Eclipse that are already available. Instead of trying to bring tool support to Ajax, Google brought Ajax to a place where the tools already existed.

GWT in Action shows you how to take advantage of these exciting new tools. Readers will follow an example running throughout the book and quickly master the basics of GWT: widgets, panels, and event handling. The book covers the full development cycle, from setting up your development environment, to building the application, then deploying it to the web server. The entire core GWT library is discussed, with details and examples on how it can be extended.

GWT helps you make the most of Ajax in your web applications and GWT in Action helps you get more out of GWT. Readers can download Early Access Chapters of GWT in Action now and participate in the Author Forum by visiting at the Manning site.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933988231
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988238
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #795,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars hard to follow and understand, July 5, 2007

By 

Jeanne Boyarsky (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GWT in Action: Easy Ajax with the Google Web Toolkit (Paperback)

Usually, I really like the "in action" series, but "GWT in Action" disappointed me. The book focus on examples "in action" almost to the exclusion of having the reader understand the concepts. It wasn't until the end of the book that I really understood what was going on.

I did like the step by step instructions on how to get started. The examples were good if you needed to do what the example did. It was tough to extrapolate to other scenarios though. Some of the code examples were rather long and involved. The end of the book was also good. It went into detail on HTML form controls, JSON, testing, deployment and most importantly - how GWT works. These would have been nice earlier in the book. Especially the HTML form section. The majority of AJAX at this time is related to forms. Since the cover says "easy AJAX with GWT", I expected more on form based AJAX examples.

I felt that the book was trying to reach too broad an audience. For beginners without an understanding of JavaScript/HTML/DOM, I think it is overwhelming. The book provides "what's new in GWT 1..4", but the book is overkill for someone already using GWT. Most of the time the book treats what happens under the hood of GWT as magic and other times it becomes important. This switching of focus is a bit confusing.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book so far on GWT, December 8, 2007

By 

Alex Tolley (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GWT in Action: Easy Ajax with the Google Web Toolkit (Paperback)

This is the 2nd book I bought to do GWT. "GWT in Action" is by far the best book to learn GWT (at least when I bought it in summer 2007). Since I had already been using GWT, I used this book to successfully resolve a number of issues I was having, especially with event handling.

An area that could use improvement in future editions is explaining how to integrate with existing javascript code libraries, something that really has to be assumed is a requirement with GWT. A good javascript reference, like O'Reilly's "Javascript: The Definitive Guide" should also be acquired.

I use Instantiations GWTDesigner Eclipse plugin to do my code work.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book has very little substance, July 14, 2007

By 

D. Kumar (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GWT in Action: Easy Ajax with the Google Web Toolkit (Paperback)

This book is very basic. I was exploring the GWT RPC functionality. I found RPC example hardly useful to do anything with it. If you are looking for a book to develop RPC applications, I do not recommend this book.

Get the Dashboard example source code first and try out before buying the book. I was not impressed with the Dashboard example. Book spends most of the time building the example application.