GWT-Stuff Feedback Requested
Sandy McArthur
appreciate it if you'd answer any of the questions below that apply to
you.
1. I am considering GWT-Stuff because:
2. I choose not to use GWT-Stuff because:
3. The hardest thing for me about using GWT-Stuff was:
4. GWT-Stuff would be better if:
5. Any other comments:
Jon Wells
> I'd like to get some feedback on what people think about GWT-Stuff. I'd
> appreciate it if you'd answer any of the questions below that apply to
> you.
>
> 1. I am considering GWT-Stuff because:
I'm writing an enterprise web application using GWT. I'm implementing
MVC on the client and am using observable lists as part of my overall
presentation model. I had a very good experience using Glazed Lists
in the Swing world, so I'm psyched to be able to leverage this stuff
with GWT.
I have already written an observable list framework with sorting,
tables, filtering, etc. but I would rather use something more
community-oriented as I expect the quality to be better in the long
run (no disrespect to myself -- heh).
I could have lived with my own framework, but new features are coming
along that would require me to upgrade my own framework (namely
paginating lists), so it makes sense for me to switch over soon.
>
> 2. I choose not to use GWT-Stuff because:
>
> 3. The hardest thing for me about using GWT-Stuff was:
>
The integration with the table was a bit low-level for me at first.
In my own framework, I have built some higher-level constructs that
have made getting a basic sortable table with single widget cells up
and running very easy. I wrote something like Glazed Lists'
TableFormat interface. Basically, it would be nice to see some out-of-
the box Table renderer impls that make getting up and running a little
simpler.
> 4. GWT-Stuff would be better if:
>
would be better if you built a higher-level framework for displaying
lists of objects on top of the lists/table stuff that you already
have. For example, throughout most enterprise applications, we
display lists of objects and perform actions on those objects. I
would like a widget to achieve this where I supply the list of
objects, some metadata about the objects and some actions that can
performed on those objects (along with action enablement rules), and
have the widget take care of everything else. Something like the
nodeviews that you get when integrating with an RCP platform like
Netbeans Platform or Eclipse.
I know this might be a lotta work, but it would be cool direction to
explore.
Also, I have some concerns about performance. This is nothing
specific to GWT-Stuff, but GWT in general. My table and event list f/
w start to crawl around 100 rows, wondering what you have in mind for
solving these problems.
> 5. Any other comments:
Keep up the good work! I hope to rip out my f/w and replace it with
yours soon. Til then I'm just tinkering with proof of concepts, etc.
As an aside, I wonder what your thoughts are on an RCP platform in
general for GWT. By that I mean something higher level than the
toolkit itself, analagous to the Netbeans Platform (too complicated -
blech!) or Eclipse Platform where we write "workbench plugins" or
something like that and leverage a bunch of services provided by the
workbench. It might include features like:
1. Docking framework
2. Actino framework
3. wizard framework
4. help framework.
5. user preferences
6. object selection
7. task/progress mgmt
I know this might not be the place for such a suggestion, but you seem
like a good person to bounce these ideas off of.
Jon
Sandy McArthur
> On Jan 26, 2:38 pm, "Sandy McArthur" <sandy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I could have lived with my own framework, but new features are coming
> along that would require me to upgrade my own framework (namely
> paginating lists), so it makes sense for me to switch over soon.
I'm working on the PaginatedEventList now. A few corner cases have
come up I didn't expect that are slowing me down but I hope to have it
done somewhat soon.
> > 3. The hardest thing for me about using GWT-Stuff was:
> The integration with the table was a bit low-level for me at first.
> In my own framework, I have built some higher-level constructs that
> have made getting a basic sortable table with single widget cells up
> and running very easy. I wrote something like Glazed Lists'
> TableFormat interface. Basically, it would be nice to see some out-of-
> the box Table renderer impls that make getting up and running a little
> simpler.
I do have plans for a higher level table widget but I wanted to have
pagination logic done first. My goal for that table is something
similar to the Google Code Issues table, eg: http://code.google.com/p/
google-web-toolkit/issues/list
> > 4. GWT-Stuff would be better if:
> would be better if you built a higher-level framework for displaying
> lists of objects on top of the lists/table stuff that you already
> have.
Currently I don't plan to provide anything I'd consider a framework.
Right now I want GWT-Stuff to be a library of useful code that fits
into your project instead of a framework that you make your project
fit into. I'd need to get a few more non-trivial GWT projects under my
belt before I'd have the experience to know what a good GWT framework
would look like.
> Also, I have some concerns about performance. This is nothing
> specific to GWT-Stuff, but GWT in general. My table and event list f/
> w start to crawl around 100 rows, wondering what you have in mind for
> solving these problems.
The speed of event handling on large tables is a concern for me too
and I haven't solved this to my satisfaction yet either. I don't
believe there is a magic bullet to this issue; you'll just have to be
clever about how you manage your data. Pagination will probably be the
closest thing to a general purpose solution though.
> > 5. Any other comments:
> As an aside, I wonder what your thoughts are on an RCP platform in
> general for GWT.
See my comment above about frameworks vs. libraries.