advice on strategy needed

[keviny]

Hi

I am moving a Flash based desktop app to desktop app+mobile. Only day
no. 2 on GWT so mega newbie.

The current desktop app is a portal of 9 predefined flash "widgets".
There is no mobile equiv currently. Each widget displays a chart, some
graphs and basic form controls. The widgets are static - the data
changes frequently. This comes from HTTPS so essentially the client
app is thin and brainless.

My thinking is that the rewrite will be 9 html5 widgets on the desktop
app which will become 9 webviews in the android. Basically looking at
reuse of code and same interface for desktop and mobile.

I have started learning and developing android with a great deal of
success. However, now looking for an approach on redesigning the
html5 components (widgets) and surfing for some clues.

I wondered if someone could give me some do's and don'ts and how best
to start a project like this in Eclipse. e.g. would you start off by
developing a new GWT Web Application Project in Eclipse and go from
there?

On the other hand, the widgets are so simple that its almost worth
coding them in html5 by hand and loading them from the SD card on the
mobile. Any thoughts on this?

Many thanks in advance for clues to get started with this.

Kevin

[Zhihua (Dennis) Jiang]

Kevin,

If the widgets and simple and static, coding them in GWT may not give you a lot of benefits. If the backend language is Java and you are looking for utilizing the same language for both backend and frontend, you should seriously consider GWT. Otherwise, straight javascript plus html5/css3 may suit you better. GWT is good for complex one-page web applications. If you have thin and brainless widgets, GWT may seem overkill. Also, GWT has its own drawbacks. First, it does not yet support all the html5/css3 features. Second, and this might be more important to you, Google is currently focusing on developing Dart, the GWT replacement. With the focus shift, the missing html5/css3 features may not get to GWT any time soon.