GWT in Action - Two Sample Chapters

Dietrich Kappe, Thursday, May 17, 2007 @ 4:46 am

Robert Hanson has been an early adopter of GWT and was one of the first to release third party widget libraries and demonstrate how to integrate Javascript libraries like Scriptaculous. His blog has been a source of aid and comfort to many an aspiring GWT developer. Now he has published a book, with Adam Tacy (not quite out yet, but soon) in the "in Action" series, entitled -- you guessed it -- "GWT in Action."

While you can't get it yet, you can get two sample chapters (pdf):

Looking through the chapters, I don't see anything on developing your own widgets from scratch, nor does chapter 4 above include anything in that area. When I get my hands on a copy, I will post a review.

 
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Comments: 1 so far

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1. 

   Hi Dietrich,

   Just surfing the web and came across your post on GWT In Action - hope you manage to get your copy soon as it was released last night (18th May) as the final eBook and is being printed for hardcopy as we speak!

   Regarding widgets, yes the book does cover these extensively, both provided widgets and how to build your own.

   The final version of Ch4 first talks about the various widgets you see in GWT; showing examples of use and pointing out issues rather than a detailed reference - which you can get direct from the GWT site. We even manage to sneak in the new ImageBundle approach from the upcoming GWT 1.4; then it goes on to talk about building your own widgets, and shows the development of the following:

   * FileUpload from old GWT Widget Library - to show how to build a widget from DOM principles.
   * The PNGImage widget from the GWT Widget Library - to show how to build a widget using higher concepts than the DOM
   * A two component MenuItem widget (i.e. a graphic after the menu text) - to show how to build a widget by extending an existing widget
   * A toggle Menu Item (i.e. a menu that has a 2nd item that has different image per state) - to show that you can extend the widget just built as it is just a normal widget.

   Finally, we dedicate a whole chapter (Ch7) to demonstrate how to build composite widgets - we demonstrate:

   * How to build the EditableLabel widget from the Widget Library (this is actually the steps we took when building that widget in the first place - so straight from the author’s mouth - and takes most of the chapter’s 30 pages)
   * How to build some sliders (horizontal, vertical and grid) culminating in a colour picker composite widget made up of these other composite slider widgets.

   I hope we have really covered all aspects of widgets in the book and how to create them, but the only true test is when people, like yourself, get your teeth into the book and let us know how we did!

   All the best,

   //Adam

   Comment by Adam T, Saturday, May 19, 2007 @ 11:28 am

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