[ANN] GWT-in-the-AIR "M1" released

[Thomas Broyer]

Hi all,

This Sept. 1st I'm releasing "Milestone 1" of my GWT-in-the-AIR
project.

http://code.google.com/p/gwt-in-the-air/

Release notes:
* There's little to no javadoc; because of Adobe AIR's doc licensing,
I don't know if there will ever be (I'm not a lawyer).
* There's little to no doc; there are some wiki pages and a sample
(SVN only) to show you how to use the library. I'll try to add a few
other wiki pages in the next couple of days or so.
* Every API documented in the Adobe AIR's "JSLR" is mapped to a JSO
overlay (file a bug if I missed some), and you'll find a few widgets
abstracting/packaging a few things for you.


Here's the project's description:

Makes the Adobe AIR API available for GWT (using JSNI) and provides
tools to ease "GWT in Adobe AIR" development:
* a GWT Linker to compile Java to !JavaScript and produce an AIR
application (or intermediate package) in a single step
* an RMI !BrowserManager to run JUnit unit tests within the ADL (AIR
Debug Launcher)
* a GWTShell subclass (AIRDebugLauncher) to launch the GWTShell
(eventually with the embedded Tomcat) and run the application in the
ADL

Given the lack of _AIR hosted mode_, you'd generally use GWT-in-the-
AIR when developping applications targetting both the web and the
desktop.

*You'll need GWT 1.5 RC2 or later to use GWT-in-the-AIR*

[Joe Cole]

Hi Thomas,

I've been looking forward to this for a while - I downloaded it and
gave the wiki a quick spin, how do you actually get started?
I couldn't see an example app or a simple "place in glasspath, include
this module in your gwt.xml, subclass X" type description anywhere.
Any hints on where to look?

Joe

[Thomas Broyer]

On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Joe Cole wrote:
>
> I've been looking forward to this for a while - I downloaded it and
> gave the wiki a quick spin, how do you actually get started?
> I couldn't see an example app or a simple "place in glasspath, include
> this module in your gwt.xml, subclass X" type description anywhere.
> Any hints on where to look?

The Showcase sample is a good start:
http://code.google.com/p/gwt-in-the-air/source/browse/#svn/trunk/samples
It's built with the assumption that it'll only be compiled for AIR, so
it inherits net.ltgt.gwt.air.AIRApplication; but you'd generally
inherit net.ltgt.gwt.air.core.AIR in your "main module". When you'll
come to distributing your app, you'll create another module inheriting
your "main module" and net.ltgt.gwt.air.AIRApplication, to compile and
package your application in a single step (you'd have to set a few
java system properties, the compiler errors should hopefully guide you
to the perfect setup).

An AIR application needs an "application descriptor" XML file. With
the GWT-in-the-AIR linkers, either you put a file named
<something>-app.xml in your module's <public/> folder; or you inherit
net.ltgt.gwt.air.core.client.AIRApplication and add the @Application
annotation to the derived class (generally your EntryPoint, as done in
the Showcase sample) and the application-descriptor will be generated
from the annotations at compile-time.

You'll find example use of the widgets in the Showcase sample;
everything else is a set of JSO overlays giving you access to the
Adobe AIR API in Java.

That being said, you have to know how to use GWT, and where to look
for the Adobe AIR API documentation.

I'll try to put all the above within a GettingStarted wiki page in the
next few days.

--
Thomas Broyer