Didier Girard releases 61 slides introducing why GWT is better solution for developing modern web apps.

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Benefits to be highlighted are:

• GWT is simple: Developing a web application with GWT is as simple as developing a Windows application with VB and it supports MDI apps too
• GWT cuts costs: Building a GWT application is 5 times faster than building a J2EE application
• GWT is offline compatible: A GWT application doesn’t need a server (using Google Gears?)
• GWT applications are efficient: Local computation, bandwidth optimization
• PHP, Struts, JSF and Spring MVC has no future (?)
• GWT is about Ajax: No more «Blank page» effect, fresh data without reload, able to utilize great client UI widgets (i.e. Ext JS), better scalability etc.

He also tries to keep GWT away from common misjudgments like:

1. You must use Java on the server to host GWT apps
2. Compiled javascript is impossible to debug
3. GWT are heavy
4. GWT is HTML incompatible
5. GWT are (Java) applets
6. GWT is not free

Conclusion: GWT, c’est facile, efficace et beau! Please translate it into English for me. I don’t know Français  but thank you a lot, Didier.

(Please read another post of mine summarizing Didier’s thoughts on GWT basis vs. what of Microsoft Volta.)

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Bramus introduces a new version of jsProgressBarHandler with bugfix to making multiple barImages properly work with Safari and addition of an internal queue.

jsProgressBarHandler is a Javascript based Percentage Bar / Progress Bar, inspired upon JS-code by WebAppers and CSS-code by Bare Naked App. Next to a structural rewrite of the WebAppers code, this javascript progress bar can easily be extended and tweaked just by setting a few parameters.

jsProgressBarHandler has been tested… Read more »

Matt Snider reveals another useful set of JavaScript functions targeting Date manipulation. He follows the same approach to extend String functions.

First, he adds additional functionality to JS native Date object (constants and static methods) Read more »

You will not see “Hello World” example in David Geary’s book, Google Web Toolkit Solutions: More Cool & Useful Stuff, because it’s not a book for newbies. Instead, the authors tell very clearly in the opening of the book that their target is to put GWT developers into the fast lane with practical, non-contrived solutions — not to help people brand new to GWT get started.

Experienced programmer (not necessary being experienced in AJAX programming), who want… Read more »

The Ext team has to announced the release of version 2.0.1 of Ext JS. This is a maintenance release that fixes several issues with the 2.0 release.

Here are some notable issues that have been addressed:

• Fixed various overflow/scroll issues related to form fields and grid
• Workaround included for the Firefox 2.0/Mac overflow:auto invisible scrollbar bug
• Fixed several issues related to destroying form elements
• Multiple GridView and GroupingView fixes

… Read more »

Didier Girard, CTO of SFEIR a consulting company based in Paris which has been developing a number of GWT applications, gave a talk to InfoQ on goals, benefits of GWT and how it is different from Microsoft Volta.

Some important points he highlighted about GWT are:

• GWT is a technology which enables the development of Rich Internet Applications (RIA). GWT is dedicated to building traditional information systems while Flash, SilverLight… puts emphasis on multi-media applications.

… Read more »

Hosam Kamel has a nice summary of 40+ Tooltips Scripts With AJAX, JavaScript & CSS. You can find there a variety of solutions for integrating tooltip to your website — some are quite lightweight, others may require a specific Ajax framework like Prototype, JQuery, Mootools or YUI.

The last JavaScript tooltip tool I used was the one Ext framework provides. Yet, you never need a framework just for tooltip scripts.

Example: A tooltip in

… Read more »

Matt Snider has shown us JavaScript String helper functions that recalls the ones I used in my project recently — a bundle of functions collected from many sources. Frankly, some of them are not very efficient.

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String.prototype.ellipse = function(maxLength){
    if(this.length > maxLength){
        return this.substr(0,

… Read more »

Microsoft Volta was often referred to as a GWT copycat (carelessly).

Yes, Volta does generate JavaScript but it does so in a somewhat different way than GWT: while GWT reads Java code and compiles to JavaScript, Volta reads bytecode (.NET IL) and compiles to JavaScript. And Volta uses the existing .Net APIs instead of defining its own UI APIs like GWT does. Theoretically, you can write an app in C# or VB.Net using the form designer, add some… Read more »

John Resig, the creator and lead developer of the jQuery JavaScript library, looks back when JQuery was born:

I remember doing the first release at BarCamp NYC (combined with the mention of two other projects of mine that fizzled: Feed Pile and Idea Shrub). While I had released a bunch of open source code in the past, this was the first one that I put some serious effort into getting publicity. Luckily it made it onto del.icio.us/popular, digg

… Read more »