The new shiny GwtRpcCommLayer

[dilbert]

This library is great news for me. I have a few questions though:

1. Does the server side work on GAE?
2. Does the client side work on Android?
3. Are the developers able to access the RPC client somehow to
be able to handle Cookies or other http headers?

I would like to hear from the developer(s). Have they
or will they implement any or all of this features?

Thanks

[jeff mchugh]

1. Does the server side work on GAE?

- I have it on my list of environments to test. I suspect it would
because the only dependency is "Object Serialization".
As with any server environment and object serialization, class
versions do need to be accounted for.

2. Does the client side work on Android?

- I have not tried it out with any Android SDK. The client uses the
Apache HTTP Commons framework for the communication channel.
If those jars/libraries work on Android then I think it should be
possible.

3. Are the developers able to access the RPC client somehow to
be able to handle Cookies or other http headers?

- I developed the client-side communication classes with
"extension" in mind.
I have already included code to handle cookies (so that the
servlet can sit behind session authentication).
The HTTP Headers can also be directly inspected (response) and
modified (request) accordingly.

See GwtRpcClientSideProxy.java

[dilbert]

Thank You Jeff for the quick response. When I find the time I will
test Your framework in the environment I described. It would be
wonderful if it worked. When I'm done I'll report my findings.

[Dan Billings]

Have you gotten an opportunity to test it on Android? Very interested
in this.

[Nick Hebner]

First, thanks so much for this excellent library!

I have been working on a project using GAE and when I heard about this
project I had to give it a try. Unfortunately, I found that it does
not work out of the box on GAE since you cannot open sockets directly
which HttpClient does under the hood. Instead, you must use the GAE
URL Fetch API. I have been successful in getting this working by
creating an GAE specific HttpClient connection and connection manager
that uses the URL Fetch API under the hood instead of sockets. Using
this approach, I am able to make and receive calls to/from other GWT
RPC Comm Layer servers from the GAE environment! I have also created a
custom GAE Task Queue wrapper that you can use to call methods on the
server with real POJO parameters at a later time, so no more url
encoding/decoding!

I have to run some errands right now, but I will send my code later
today or this weekend.

Thanks,

Nick Hebner

[Fred Sauer]

Hi Nick,

To be clear, I think you are saying gwtrpccommlayer works on Google App Engine when used as a GWT "server", but you have some changes so that it can also be used as a "client", talking to another GWT server somewhere, via URL Fetch.

Fred

--

Fred Sauer

Developer Advocate

Google Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, CA 94043
fre...@google.com

[Nick Hebner]

That is correct. I should been more clear. It should work as a server
out of the box, but running a client within GAE will require some
changes.

Nick