Is it possible in a GWT/SmartGWT application to spawn a second browser window?

[mark_watson]

We are using the 2.5 Pro version:

I don't believe that it is possible to have two web browser windows (or tabs) open to one GWT/SmartGWT application session, right?

For our app, users will want to be able to drill down in data and compare things side by side. It is difficult in advance to predict what they want to compare.

Right now I am using an accordion/folding display, and users can move sections around to get things that they are comparing "close together" on the screen. That said, it would be awesome to be able to support new windows.

Thanks,
Mark

[Isomorphic]

You can use more than one browser window but you essentially have two distinct GWT applications with separate host .html files, which can communicate via JavaScript calls that involve window.opener. GWT doesn't wrap this, you have to drop down to JSNI to do it.

[Isomorphic]

To elaborate further - we would recommend using SmartGWT Window widgets rather than a browser window in order to allow a similar free-form layout. There's only one scenario in which we'd really consider it worthwhile to tackle all the tough problems that arise from multiple browser windows: a large user base with multiple monitors of different sizes where the SmartGWT application is their primary work environment (happened at a large insurer where we built several applications).