GWT
From Stax
With Google Web Toolkit (GWT), you write your AJAX front-end in the Java programming language which GWT then cross-compiles into optimized JavaScript that automatically works across all major browsers.
Stax includes a GWT application template so you can get started with your first GWT application in just a few seconds. Just choose the GWT application template from the Stax Application Wizard, or use the following command from the Stax SDK: stax create -t gwt <appname> After you've created your application and examined the source to see the basic concepts, check out some of these GWT resources to learn more.
Contents |
GWT Links
GWT Project Overview
Note: Before you will be able to build your GWT project, you must first download the latest version of the Google Web Toolkit and then set the GWT_HOME environment variable.
Project layout
After creating your GWT application using the GWT application template, you will see a directory structure similar to the following:
| src | Java source files |
| src/.../client | GWT client source files (compiled into JS+HTML by GWT compile commands) |
| src/.../public | GWT web resources used by GWT compiler |
| src/.../server | server-side source files |
| test | Java source files for tests |
| war | The WAR file directory structure |
| war/WEB-INF/web.xml | J2EE web deployment descriptor |
| war/WEB-INF/stax-web.xml | Stax web deployment descriptor |
| build | Generated project files (including the project war file) |
Project lifecycle commands
Compile
Compilation of GWT apps is implemented via the compile targets in the build.xml ANT script. These targets will compile the GWT client source files into HTML+JS using the GWT compiler, and will compile the server-side java components using the standard Java compiler.
The GWT application template supports builds using the standard stax compile command:
stax compile
alternatively, builds can also be performed directly via ANT
ant build
Run the server
To run the application in the Stax local server, you can use the standard stax run command:
stax run
Alternatively, you can also directly invoke the ANT run target
ant run
Running the GWT browser (aka hosted mode)
The hosted-mode GWT browser is a crucial part of the GWT development workflow as it allows developers to quickly test changes made to the Java client source files without requiring a full GWT compile cycle (which takes 10 secs minimally). Instead, the GWT hosted browser environment will let you click the refresh button in the browser, which will automatically reload client in the browser using the latest Java client source (ignoring the compiled binaries). To launch the GWT hosted-mode browser, you can use the stax gwt:hosted command
stax gwt:hosted
Alternatively, you can use GWT ant hosted command to invoke the hosted target
ant hosted
Note that you will need to run the local server (see 'Run the server' above) before you will be able to serve the client source files.
Deploy
To deploy your GWT application, use the standard stax deploy command
stax deploy
