[Olivercomputing]

Are there plans to offer a version of Visual Builder that would be able to deal with SmartGWT projects? I've been using/trying to use GWT Designer from Instantiations (recently acquired by Google) and their latest version chokes on my previously functioning SmartGWT based project. They insist that the problem is with mixing stock GWT with SmartGWT widgets, and imply that SmartGWT itself is brittle (my interpretation of the remarks). I'm not so sure that the problem isn't ongoing flakiness in that tool. Unfortunately they seem to have a unique niche.

I continue to really prefer SmartGWT/SmartClient over Sencha's toolkit, which is also supported by GWT Designer. It would really be nice to have an alternative to GWT Designer that worked far better with SmartGWT.

[Isomorphic]

You can use Visual Builder with SmartGWT already - see this FAQ item.

If you really meant "will Visual Builder ever have bidirectional Java code generation", we don't currently plan this, because:

1. One of the key use cases for Visual Builder is to allow runtime customizable UI. This doesn't work as well, if at all, if Java code is being generated (note this requirement is not met by anything that runs solely in Eclipse either).

2. Visual Builder and it's Component XML format are intended to allow you to separate layout and declarative aspects of an application from procedural code, so that a wider variety of people can understand and modify the application (not just Java programmers).

[Olivercomputing]

I see, thanks for the pointer and the elaboration.

[Olivercomputing]

A few follow-on questions.

1) Do you have any sample projects which show the use of the Visual Builder XML output with a GWT/SmartGWT project?

2) Is it somewhat superfluous to use SmartGWT rather than straight-up GWT if the XML approach is used, since there would no longer be a straight mapping of Javascript widgets to client Java objects?

3) Do you know of any working websites using this approach, that you can point me to?

I find the idea compelling, but I also don't want to spend the time (and $ to get the appropriate tools) unless I'm certain that this is a practical, proven approach.

[Isomorphic]

1) No - we do plan to add some, but the FAQ item is pretty much a tutorial for exactly how to do it.

2) Don't understand this question.. use of Visual Builder does not appear to change this.

3) This isn't something that a web site does, it's very much a web application feature, specifically, enterprise applications and application suites like ERP, CRM, and custom business applications. These applications are generally not publicly accessible.

[Olivercomputing]

Ok. Regarding web site vs. web application, I suppose it depends on your definition. One uses GWT/SmartGWT exactly to get more powerful functionality. Google themselves developed GWT in order to deploy such things as GMail and Google Maps inside of web browsers, but written in Java with GWT, and those are certainly two widely used public-facing sites. It may be the case that the majority of your customers use your tools within intranets, but I suggest not underestimating the potential of them for public-facing systems (which happens to be my own application, though some of it will entail paid access.)

[Isomorphic]

Not publically accessible != on an intranet. We have a number of SaaS customers with widely used applications, some of which we can name publicly (eg Intuit), some we can't. In all cases, even though the application is accessed over the internet, you still have to pay to use the software. A video is about all you'll get without talking to a sales rep.

Note, by the way, that neither GMail nor Google Maps are based on GWT, nor Google Apps (Calendar, Docs et al), nor is Google Analytics, nor Google Adwords. All of these use features that would be a major development effort if you started with stock GWT (although easy enough with SmartGWT).

[Olivercomputing]

Thanks for the elaboration. Re: GMail etc. not being written in GWT, very interesting - apparently that's become a widespread sort of myth that I hadn't checked closely enough. I appreciate the corrected info. on that.

[fredrickroyal]

Failed to added smartgwt-power edition into my maven eclipse project

i have Failed to added smartgwt-power edition into my maven eclipse project
can u give me some help please..
i have been using the free version of smartgwt-2.4
i have also followed the guidelines from
https://www.smartclient.com/smartgwt...wtEESetup.html
but im getting this error: GWT Module com.smartgwtee.SmartGwtEE not found in project sources or resources.

[sae]

Smart Gwt EE

We are thinking to purchase a License for Smatr Gwt EE,
Is the source code of EE version available if we have a license?

[Ramanan]

Hello Isomorphic , I have downloaded the file "smartgwt-6.0p.zip" SmartGWT Enterprise Edition link from you post dated on 24th Mar 2009, 12:41 (first post of this page), and added in my project as library. Now my question is how to use this for exporting the listgrid data as .csv?? please let me know the steps. Thanks.

[Isomorphic]

Start with the QuickStart Guide, and be sure to look at the installation instructions. Once you have everything correctly installed and you have connected to your data, export is just a matter of calling exportData() on the grid.

[Blama]

Hi Ramanan,

Hello Isomorphic , I have downloaded the file "smartgwt-6.0p.zip"

additionally, if that's really your file name, go for
"Full-featured evaluation: 60 day free trial includes Smart GWT Java Server framework, Visual Builder, and all other non-preview features." (the "Free trial") instead.
You'll need the sever component for easy one-click CSV downloads, which is not included in the LGPL you have. This one is client-only.

Best regards
Blama