Google Web Toolkit: GWT Java AJAX Programming

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Review

Chapter 1: Getting Started. Basic conceptual overview, pointers to how to get started via websites, brief explorations of some of the samples bundled with the GWT download. Pity that Eclipse receives full focus, without mentioning alternatives, such as at least a mention of IntelliJ and NetBeans IDE.

Chapter 2: Creating a New GWT Application. A good, is slightly chaotically described first application. Here the small errors are a serious hindrance, especially on page 27, where the missing dot before 'quoteLabel' in the CSS can be a big stumbling block to the newbie. A lot is covered in this chapter, maybe it could have been split across two chapters instead.

Chapter 3: Creating Services. This chapter covers a crucial topic for GWT and does so very well. Without this chapter, the next chapter doesn't make sense. The explanations interspersed throughout the chapter are very good.

Chapter 4: Interactive Forms. A series of samples, each showing off a cool AJAX feature in the context of GWT: live search, password strength checker, autofill forms, sortable tables, dynamic lists, and Flickr-style editable tables. By the end of this chapter (50 pages long!), if you take your time and read the code carefully as you use it, you'll already have got your money's worth from this book.

Chapter 5: Responsive Complex Interfaces. Here we go into more complex scenarios: pageable tables, editable tree nodes, log spy, sticky notes, and jigsaw puzzle.

Chapter 6: Browser Effects with JSNI and JavaScript Libraries. Our detailed tour of GWT-AJAX sweet spots continue, with Moo.FX, Rico rounded corners, color selector, and Script.aculo.us effects. The misalignment of code, as throughout this book, is clearly apparent on page 149, in this chapter for example, which makes the book seem a bit sloppy in places.,

Chapter 7: Custom Widgets. A calendar widget and a weather widget are tackled in this chapter. Again advanced scenarios, but well explained.

Chapter 8: Unit Test. Great to have this chapter, and the next, in this book. Because, at this point, one has covered so many scenarios that one begins wondering about testing and I8N.

Chapter 9: I8N and XML. It's not completely clear why the parsing of XML is found within the same chapter as internationalization. Nevertheless, especially the XML parsing is interesting and is something I want to explore further. The code is all there and practical as always.

Chapter 10: Deployment. Tomcat and Ant deployment are covered, though it would have been nice if some other servers had been mentioned too.

Appendix A: Running the Samples. The samples are not easy to work with, they're all interrelated, relying on a common set of files, and one needs to pull them apart to work with them. Despite that, these are a crucial support mechanism for the book and do the job well.