Standard HTML forms are very easy to fill-out and submit with entries either sent as URL encoded name/value pairs using HTTP GET
or sent "behind the scenes" as part of HTTP payload using HTTP POST
. Entering data into forms and submitting them with RPC in GXT is however more involved; this is primarily because the fields within a FormPanel
can have values that are not simple such as strings or numbers but object representations (ModelData
, BeanModel)
that themselves cannot ordinarily be sent as name/value pairs but as a part of a stream of serialization tokens within the very capable RPC transport system.
Once I understood this, I shifted my expectations from basic HTML forms to the robust binding capabilities built into GXT forms. Binding allows you to capture complex data structures represented as object models on the server (with the right interfaces) that can be transported, used and, validated on the client side and vice-versa.