Part 1. Basics

In part 1 we introduce you to the Google Web Toolkit, providing an overview of the toolkit’s contents. We then explore the typical two-step process you’d use to create a GWT application: using the tools to create a base application and then expanding it to create a real-world-complexity application. Along the way we’ll look at development mode, where you’ll spend a lot of time during production cycles, as well as how to compile for web mode, harnessing Google’s built-in Closure compiler if you wish.

We suggest reading this part in chronological order, and if you’re new to GWT, spend some time playing with the code download to get a better under-standing—there’s nothing that helps you gain knowledge more than making changes and resolving errors. We also include some suggestions at the end of chapters 2 and 3 on what you might want to do to the code, but you can easily invent your own enhancements.