Chapter 2. A New Kind of Client
This chapter covers
- Basic GWT project structure
- Design patterns and GWT
- Creating a client-side GWT application
- Using CSS with GWT
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.
Frank Herbert
In the first chapter, we looked at the foundation and vocabulary we’ll need to work with GWT. In this chapter, we’ll be looking at how to build on top of that foundation. GWT provides a rather unique method for creating web applications, and some of its conventions may seem a bit foreign at first. Because of this, we’ll take a look at a fairly basic project for our first example.
Our first in Practice foray into GWT will be a calculator project, where we’ll restrict our focus to the client side of the picture. Using a simple and familiar construct such as this will allow us to revisit, and reinforce, some of the fundamental GWT concepts we looked at in chapter 1, such as project layout, modules, host pages, entry points, and bootstrapping. Additionally, this project will allow us to introduce the use of several important architectural and design patterns in a GWT context, including MVC—an important pattern that you will see reused throughout the book. We’ll also begin working with UI Widget classes and styling components using CSS.