Back in October of this year we released GWT 2.1, with a framework and set of tools that made it easy to build business web apps. Since then we've had some great feedback from the GWT community, and today we're happy to announce that we've incorporated that feedback into our latest release, GWT 2.1.1. The specifics of this release are detailed below, but if you're interested in getting started you can do so here.
For Eclipse users, simply click on the “Google updates available” icon in the lower left hand corner of your screen, or select the “Help->Check for Updates” menu item.
Alongside this release, we’ve also updated the Google Plugin for Eclipse and GWT Designer. Both can be installed via the links below.
The main release updates for each product include:
GWT SDK
GWT’s RequestFactory component, introduced in GWT 2.1, received a lot of attention, both from the GWT team at Google and from the GWT open source community at large. Based on this feedback, we’ve added the following:
If you have questions or want to provide some feedback, we’d love to hear it, and the best place to do so is in the Google Web Toolkit Group.
For those of you that are diligently testing the bounds of the web, you may have noticed some issues when debugging GWT apps within Internet Explorer 9. Even though IE 9 is still in a pre-release phase, we did want to provide some context around the root of the problem, and offer up a workaround to get you working in Development Mode again.
Note that this is only an issue when running your GWT app in Development Mode under IE 9. Production Mode is unaffected.
For some background, there appears to have been a change in behavior in IE 9 related to the way Javascript names are resolved from the perspective of native plugins. When executing in document mode 9, the IE tab that hosts the dev mode plugin crashes.
We are working with Microsoft to understand the issue and come up with a definitive solution. Again, note that this issue affects only GWT Development Mode.
The current workaround is to avoid document mode 9. See the link below for more information.
To force an earlier document mode, add a meta tag to your html files indicating a different document mode. For instance, in the case of the sample GWT app html page, add <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" /> to the <head> section as shown below:
Until this issue is resolved, you will need to do this for each HTML host page in order to use GWT dev mode with IE9.
One of the features that makes GWT unique is the ability to run your application in the browser of your choice, and debug your Java source in the IDE. While the “browser of your choice” portion of the feature has been quite true for Windows users, our Developer Plugin support has had some gaps. Today we’re happy to close some of these gaps, by announcing the release of a Chrome Developer Plugin for Mac and Linux users.
To download and install the new plugin, simply start debugging your GWT application and point Chrome at the URL provided by the Google Plugin for Eclipse. From there you’ll be prompted to install the “GWT Developer Plugin for Chrome”.
You can also browse directly to the following URL for installation: http://gwt.google.com/missing-plugin/.
In addition to the new OS support, there is an important security fix included in this update. You will see the GWT icon appear in your browser bar when the plugin sees the ?gwt.codesvr fragment in a URL, and it will turn black and white if you need to authorize that host. If you see a full-color icon, that indicates your permissions are in order. You can click the icon to quick-jump to the permissions configuration.
Note to Windows users: we have created a new permissions UI that is baked into the extension rather than using native Windows dialogs. You will need to re-add any hosts you had configured for this new version.
For more information regarding security and the GWT Developer Plugin, checkout the plugin design wiki page, here.
If you have questions or want to provide some feedback, we’d love to hear it, and the best place to do so is at the Google Web Toolkit Group.
