Confused about SmartClient vs SmartGWT

[dalexiuc]

Isomorphic offers and promotes two products on its website, SmartClient and SmartGWT.

However, try as a might, I can't find any succinct explanation about which one I should use! the closest I have found is this blurb on the forum: "SmartGWT - the Google Web Toolkit edition of SmartClient".

Can someone please explain (or point me to an explanation) under which circumstances I might choose to use one or the other? Which one does Isomorphic recommend for a new project? What are the pros and cons of using one vs the other?

[Isomorphic]

The relationship is explained in the FAQ:

What's the relationship between SmartClient and Smart GWT?

SmartClient is a JavaScript & Ajax-based RIA framework that is used in both SmartClient and Smart GWT. SmartClient can either be used directly by writing your application in JavaScript, or used via GWT (Google Web Toolkit) by writing code in Java. The two product lines offer essentially identical functionality. Isomorphic offers commercial licensing, commercial extensions and commercial support for both product lines.

As far as which to use, that mostly has to do with your skill set. Obviously, SmartGWT allows coding in Java and SmartClient allows coding in JavaScript. There are much better tools for Java. JavaScript is more succinct and declarative.

With GWT you do not have Java Core Reflection APIs (this is a core GWT limitation, not a SmartGWT limitation). This makes certain highly data-driven applications harder to do (eg you cannot easily go from a String that has a Java Classname to an instance of that class, normally done with Class.forName()). With JavaScript "reflection" is essentially inherent to the language.

These are the big points.

[dalexiuc]

I see!

Thanks for the answer. So you are just using GWT for it's Java-to-Javascript conversion functionality to provide a Java interface for the smartclient api. Is that essentially it?

You are not using the GWT RPC stuff? I was a bit confused because the functionality seems similar, and I wasn't sure how much GWT was being used.

[Isomorphic]

SmartGWT almost all of GWT. We just don't use their DOM libraries.

The SmartClient / SmartGWT server has a much, much better solution for server communications than GWT-RPC, which has existed since 2001. See the FAQ for further details.

[alayidum]

SmartGWT version

Hello,

I am very new to SmartGWT. Are there two flavors of SmartGWT?

I see one project on code.google.com maintained by Sanjiv Jivan (http://www.jroller.com/sjivan/). I am wondering if this is same as the one from your website or different?

[davidj6]

Same project.