Book Image

Ext GWT 2.0: Beginner's Guide

By : Daniel Vaughan
Book Image

Ext GWT 2.0: Beginner's Guide

By: Daniel Vaughan

Overview of this book

<p>Ext GWT, also known as GXT, takes Google Web Toolkit one step further by providing a wide range of powerful user interface components. It allows a developer to create powerful web applications that are almost like desktop applications. However to leverage all the features of this powerful Java library for creating desktop-style web applications, you need to learn how and when to use the right user interface component.<br /><br />Ext GWT 2.0: Beginner's Guide is a practical book that teaches you how to use the EXT GWT library to its full potential. It provides a thorough and no-nonsense explanation of the Ext GWT library, what it offers and how to use it through practical examples. This book provides clear, step-by-step instructions for getting the most out of Ext GWT and offers practical examples and techniques that can be used for building your own applications in EXT GWT<br /><br />This book gets you up and running instantly to build powerful Rich Internet Applications (RIA) with Ext GWT. It then takes you through all the interface-building widgets and components of Ext GWT using practical examples to demonstrate when, where, and how to use each of them. Layouts, forms, panels, grids, trees, toolbars, menus, and many other components are covered in the many examples packed in this book. You will also learn to present your data in a better way with templates and use some of the most sought-after features of Ext GWT in your web applications such as drag-and-drop and charts. Throughout the book a real application is built step by step using Ext GWT and deployed to Google App Engine.</p> <p>Imagine how great you'll feel when you're able to create great-looking desktop-style user interfaces for your web applications with Ext GWT!</p>
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Ext GWT 2.0 Beginner's Guide
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

Time for action – adding a Viewport


  1. In the RSSReader.java source file, add the following to the onModuleLoad method to create a new Viewport and add it to the application's RootPanel so that it looks like this:

    public void onModuleLoad() {
      Viewport viewport = new Viewport();
      RootPanel.get().add(viewport);
    }
  2. If we started the application in the browser, it would still look blank. So to prove that the Viewport is there, open the RSSReader.css file in the war directory and add a css definition for the .x-viewport class:

    .x-viewport
    {
      background-color: #070;
    }
  3. The .x-viewport class is the default style for GXT Viewport components, and by adding this definition, we are making its background dark green. Now when we start the application, the browser window will initially be empty and white until the JavaScript code executes and the Viewport is rendered. When this happens, the browser window will turn dark green:

What just happened?

We created a Viewport, added it to GWT's root panel, and highlighted...