RestDataSource versus GwtRpcDataSource?

[cowboy.coder.killer]

I'm constrained to using only the SmartGWT LGPL offering.

My understanding of the community-provided GwtRpcDataSource is that it does not provide any of the basic queue / batch / transaction / combined-operation features discussed in reference to RestDataSource in the quotes below. Do I understand that correctly?

...

1. the different CRUD operations ... can no longer be combined into a single queue and sent together...you can't do basic things like perform a mixture of create and update operations together in a transaction, save a new Order along with it's OrderItems, or save data and also fetch dependent data needed to transition to a new screen...

...

[more]

...transactions that mix operation types (like editing a grid and both updating and adding rows) or entity types (like inserting an order and it's related items)....

[more]

...dozens of features that needs queuing to work: mass update (listGrid.autoSaveEdits:false), multi-row drag&drop, BatchUploader, large tree load-on-demand, master-detail saves, serverCustom validators, CubeGrid, many others...

[more]

Or is it that we get all of the above features if we go the GwtRpcDataSource route, by the underlying framework somehow providing all [or some] of the above features using non-batched / one-at-a-time / round-trip calls to fetch, add, update, remove?

Please clarify? Thank you in advance.

[Isomorphic]

Correct, it doesn't offer any of those features. You would be in the position of trying to implement similar features yourself (extremely painful).

The FAQ also lists several other reasons that GWT RPC should not be used, and it's no longer recommended by Google even for plain GWT.

[cowboy.coder.killer]

...GWT RPC should not be used, and it's no longer recommended by Google even for plain GWT.

Thanks for your reply.

Please can you share a link that supports that Google no longer recommends GWT RPC even for plain GWT? I googled, but couldn't find anything. Thanks in advance.

[Isomorphic]

There's no single link really; the docs will generally position RequestFactory vs GWT-RPC as alternatives, but then actual discussions in which GWT developers themselves or GWT contributors are involved will tend to favor RequestFactory for any non-trivial use case.

We consider both to be very very very bad choices for use with SmartGWT for the reasons explained in the FAQ, and also for other reasons more difficult to articulate quickly (such as people getting buried under the complexity of RequestFactory).

We would actually also choose to use REST even for a project where the UI components are much weaker than SmartGWT's, but that's a more nuanced argument that has to do with whether you favor compile-time vs run-time testing, what kinds of tests you need to be able to do, what staff you have, etc.