Guest blog post by Sami Ekblad, Vaadin.com.
Accompanying the GWT 2.3 release, Vaadin is happy to announce version 6.6 of the Vaadin Framework. Vaadin is a server-side UI component framework that uses GWT on the client-side for rich user experience. With origins in Finland (a "vaadin" is a reindeer), there is now a very active Vaadin community world-wide. The framework has become especially popular during the last two years, with nearly twenty thousand downloads monthly.
Vaadin UI components are similar to GWT widgets, but their state is stored at the server. Every component has a client-side peer widget responsible for the presentation, and the synchronization between the server and the browser is automatically handled by the framework.
This makes development with Vaadin fast. It is mainly used to develop business web applications where pure client-side web application development is not a feasible option, but the web browser as a platform provides unparalleled benefits. One can think of Vaadin as a simplified Swing for web applications.
Touch support and Eclipse plug-in
Vaadin 6.6 follows the latest trends in web application development and adds touch device support. With GWT's new touch features, we were able to touch-enable all Vaadin components. Touch scrolling, selections, and drag and drop work out-of-the-box. Also thanks to GWT, we were able to add official support for Internet Explorer 9, which has been requested a few times already.
In addition to the new framework version there is a new version of the Vaadin plug-in for Eclipse available. The main addition is the visual editor for Vaadin that has now been included by default. With that you can visually design the user interface and then just continue editing the generated Java code to add some logic.
Summary
Over the years, we have seen the development team behind GWT doing an excellent job adding new functionality while keeping the framework as a solid platform for our development.
Today we are also actively contributing new widgets to the GWT community. You can find some of them hosted at Google Code and also available in the Vaadin Add-on Directory. Take a look at the GWT Graphics, SparkLines and SimpleGesture for some interesting examples.
Vaadin 6.6 is a big thing for us and to celebrate it, we decided to release it at Google I/O 2011. Find out more and download at vaadin.com.
At Google IO this year, Brad Abrams and Xavier Ducrohet gave a great presentation on how to use GPE 2.4 to build an App Engine connected Android application. Here's a snippet from Brad's blog, as well as a link to the full post.
Xavier Ducrohet and I had a great time today demoing “BigDaddy” which is the codename for the Google Plugin for Eclipse 2.4 Beta that we released today.
I started off with the following products installed:
Eclipse Helios, Android Developments Tools and, of course the Google Plugin for Eclipse 2.4 beta.
Our goal is to create a task tracking application for Larry Page. As he takes over as CEO, Larry has a lot of tasks that he needs to track and this app will help him (and the rest of us) track tasks...
The full blog post can be found here: Google IO Session Overview: Android + App Engine: A Developer’s Dream Combination.
Be sure to check out the Google IO session page for the video.
Imagine this: you’ve spent the past few months hammering away at the latest mobile game sensation, Mystified Birds, and you are one level away from complete mastery. And then it happens. In a fit of excitement you throw your hands up, and along with them your Nexus S, which settles nicely at the bottom of the pool you happen to be relaxing next to. The phone is rendered useless. Luckily, your insurance policy covers the replacing the device and the Android Market handles replacing your apps. Unluckily though, all of your Mystified Birds data went the way of your device, leaving you to start from scratch.
Wouldn’t it be great if your new device not only contained all of your apps, but all of your valuable data as well? We think so. With Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE) v2.4 it’s much easier to build native Android apps that can take data with them wherever they go. And there’s no better place to host your backend service and store your data than Google’s cloud service, App Engine.
With the latest release of GPE, we’re bringing together these two great Google platforms, Android and App Engine, with a set of easy-to-use developer tools. Diving a bit deeper, here are some of the features offered in GPE 2.4:
Project Creation With GPE 2.4, you now have the ability to create App Engine-connected Android projects. This new Eclipse project wizard generates fully functioning Android and GWT clients that are capable of talking to the same App Engine backend using the same RPC code and business logic.
Cloud to Device Messaging Support Polling for backend changes on a mobile device is inefficient and will result in poor app performance and battery drain. As a solution for Android developers, the Android team built Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM), a service for sending lightweight pings to notify apps when they have pending data. We heard back from developers that integrating with C2DM results in a lot of boilerplate (and sometimes fragile) code that they would rather not maintain. With the 2.4 release of GPE, when you create a new App Engine connected Android project, you’ll get this code for free. All you have to do is hook up the app-specific code to customize the handling of the C2DM notification.
RPC Generation and Tooling Writing and maintaining RPC code (code that allows your app to communicate with backend servers) is monotonous and error prone. Let's face it, you're a mobile developer and the last thing you want to be spending time on is writing (or debugging) this type of code. In GPE 2.4 we're introducing tooling that removes this task for you, and will generate all of the underlying RPC boilerplate code within a few clicks. You specify the model objects that will be used between client and server, and GPE generates the RPC service, DTOs, and client-side calling code. To make this even better, the generated code works across Android and GWT apps, so any future changes that you make will only need to be made once.
Want to get started? Download GPE 2.4 Beta here. Note that you’ll need to install the Android Developer Tools (ADT) plugin as a prerequisite, which can be found here.
If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it and the GPE Group is the right place to submit it. The App Engine and Android Developer Groups are also great sources of information.
Chris Ramsdale, Product Manager, GWT and GPE cramsdale@google.com
A few weeks ago we announced a Beta release of 2.3 that makes it easier to utilize Google’s Cloud within Eclipse. Since then we’ve been hard at work closing out issues and adding polish, and today we’re happy to announce that the final releases of GWT and the Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE) are now available.
To get started, download GWT/GPE 2.3 here.
The key features in this release include:
For more info about each feature, click on the associated link above or check out the original blog post. We’ve also put together the following Intro to the Google Plugin for Eclipse screencast that walks you through all of the new features in GPE 2.3.
If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it and the GWT Group is the right place to submit it.
Post by Chris Ramsdale, cramsdale@google.com
