With all of the excitement around Google Developer Day, we didn't have a chance to tell you about a subtle point regarding the launch of the Google Mashup Editor: the editor's front-end was built using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). Given that, we invited Rich Burdon, Tech Lead of the Google Mashup Editor team, to write a post detailing why they chose to develop using GWT. Here's Rich:
At Google Developer Day, we launched the Google Mashup Editor -- a quick way to build simple applications. The Mashup Editor lets you create mashups without having to do much coding; instead, you use standard HTML and extended tags, which correspond to UI controls that can display and manipulate RSS, Atom and GData feeds.
The product consists of three parts:
Before starting the project, our team already had a lot of experience building complex AJAX applications by hand -- and had experienced many of the problems associated with this approach. Here are some of the reasons why we chose to use GWT rather than rolling our own native JavaScript framework this time around:
Of course, the other huge benefit of open systems (and especially open source projects) is learning from the collective wisdom of everyone who uses the technology. And so we're looking forward to incorporating the ongoing developments of GWT within the Mashup Editor.
Interested in playing around with the Google Mashup Editor? Head over to its homepage to sign up for the limited beta, and then check out our mashup gallery and developer forum for sample mashups built by the community.
OSCON 2007 is starting now! As you may have already read, Google is quite involved with OSCON this year. On the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) team, we're especially excited as this is the first OSCON since GWT went open source.
Joel Webber, Bob Vawter, Rajeev Dayal, and I are heading to Portland to be on hand for Wednesday evening's Google Web Toolkit Hack Session. We hope it'll be a lively discussion about what people are already doing with GWT, what important questions are lingering, and suggestions for future improvements. Attendance is limited at this event, so please arrive promptly.
And beyond the numerous other talks Googlers are giving, Joel Webber will speak on Thursday about Writing Big Apps with GWT.
Also on Thursday, at the AJAX Experience in San Francisco, Dan Morrill will be presenting Fast, Easy, Beautiful: Pick Three -- Building AJAX Apps with GWT.
Outside of conference participation, we wanted to let you know that we're in the home stretch for the second release candidate for GWT 1.4. If you've not already had a chance to see GWT 1.4's first RC, we'd recommend you read up on what's new, and try it out. For GWT 1.4 RC2, you can watch the progress on GWT's issue tracker as open issues dwindle.
