Jspx vs gwt

[edca]

Hello community,

I am a newbee and recently started working on a project for which our team is looking forward to configure a Java Server using Spring Roo.

My knowledge is basic in java, so most of the other technologies implemented by spring roo are new to me (JSPX,GWT,Maven,etc) so excuse me if I make a mistake when i talk about these technologies

We are evaluating the integration of JSPX in comparison to GWT for the customization of the controllers and code generated by Spring Roo. Has anyone a word of advice for me? I would also like to know if JSPX uses request/response for the page reloads.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance

[opticrealm]

This might be an over simplification.

JSPX is an XML file that becomes a Java servlet. For the most part, JSPX pages are heavily reliant on the request/response cycle.

GWT compiles Java code to javascript and makes it easy to create rich client-side apps, with easy, asynchronous communication with a servlet. GWT apps are often less reliant on the request/response cycle.

So, on one hand you're comparing apples to oranges here. (tools to create client-side code vs tools to create server-side code) However, the servlet that is created by a JSPX file returns the HTML that creates the client-side page.

I think it is also possible to have a JSPX file reference a GWT-created JavaScript file, so you can mix and match.

Roo has also introduced me to many Java technologies that I was previously unaware existed. There's always new stuff to learn =P

[edca]

Thanks optic for your reply,

After some research it is clear that JSPX and GWT are tools used for different parts of the application and both create code, one for the client-side (GWT) and the other for the server-side (JSPX). However JSPX also returns a page to the client as a result of a request.

Our evaluation is trying to make clear how difficult it is to implement GWT in comparison to JSPX for our web application and how well GWT is supported by ROO. We are looking for features on both technologies to decide which one is better and easier to use.

I would like to get feedback from the community about the experience they have made when setting up a server with ROO and using GWT. If it is still not that well supported we will opt for using the more conventional JSPX.

I hope someone can share his/her thoughts on this
Thanks in advance and happy programming everyone.

[opticrealm]

Up until recently roo + GWT had trouble with entities that would reference other entities. I believe this has been fixed in the most current release (M3), but I'm not 100% certain. Some of the samples have entity references, so maybe try running all the samples under GWT.

[Ben Alex]

One important consideration is the maturity of the GWT features in Roo vs the MVC features. The GWT features are based on GWT 2.1, which is a work in progress because GWT 2.1 has not yet reached GA. The add-on in Roo for GWT is being developed concurrently as part of Roo 1.1, which has also not reached GA as of this date. Google and VMware are working together to achieve this, but it is still a work-in-progress. The MVC features on the other hand are based on the very mature Spring MVC. The add-on has been around for 18 months in Roo, is well documented, and many new features have been added. As such you'll have a more mature user experience using the MVC features as of this moment in time. On the other hand GWT offers some serious and compelling benefits - so much so that I have used GWT personally on several projects and would use it again. If our indicative roadmap dates as per http://tinyurl.com/rooroadmap seem consistent with your project needs, you might prefer to use the GWT support if you can deal with the work-in-progress state that is clearly the case until we ship 1.1.0.RELEASE (GA). If you'd just like something that works today and is mature and well documented, I'd go with the Spring MVC features on this occasion.

I want to emphasize that both are great technologies and have specific strengths. The real issue is how you feel about using addon-gwt over the next couple of months while we finish it (and GWT 2.1) off.

HTH
Ben

[lalkidar]

I picked up GWT/ROO from Google I/O and have looked and compared with GWT with MVC .. and so far I think that GWT generated code is way too much (and on some level may be complex as well ) may be because of the MVP and the Async model..

I am till this date trying to find a blog post/screen Cast which can tell how to do the customization that were done in the Google I/O demo.

A member Sujit pal did a customization Blog for MVC ... I hope someone can do the same for GWT ...

http://sujitpal.blogspot.com/2010/07...th-of-ktm.html

[edca]

Thanks everyone for your help