New to SmartClient

Smart GWT Technical Q&A
1

Hello there,

I am new to smartclient and I have some question regarding it.

First a little background to what I have and what I want to acheive. I have developed an ERP application for a company using Java Swing/Hibernate technology. Now I want to create BI reports for the application using web technology and I have been searching for the best solution and i came across SmartClient.

  1. To develop a web application do i need both i.e. smartclient and smartGWT. I am a little confused here.
  2. Does smartclient support RTL languages.
  3. Does it support calendars other then Gregorian. I mean does it support Persian calendar.
  4. For a starter what do you recon I start with.
  5. In GWT to connect to the DB,it has RPC and RequestFactory.How does smartclient use.

I will appreciate your help.

cheers
Zolf

2

  1. You need one or the other. If you like to program in Java, use SmartGWT. If you like to program in JavaScript, use SmartClient. Personally I recommend going with SmartGWT so that you can code your application in Java. Take a look at the kind of things you can do with SmartGWT in their showcase:
    http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwt/showcase/#main

  2. Not sure how SmartGWT supports RTL languages but here is some GWT info on it:
    http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/latest/DevGuideClientBundle.html#RTL_support

  3. Not sure how the Persian Calendar is supported out of the box, but if it does not, you can look for some Persian calendar library out there. A quick Google search for “gwt islamic calendar” yields this:
    http://code.google.com/p/gwt-time/source/browse/gwt-time/trunk/src/org/gwttime/time/chrono/IslamicChronology.java?r=5
    Also, depending on the complexity of your app, you could always hand-code something yourself…

  4. You can start with the SmartGWT QuickStart guide, which is located here along with other resources:
    http://forums.smartclient.com/showthread.php?t=8159

If you want to start with bare GWT, you can start with this:
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/gettingstarted.html

  1. When you use SmartGWT, you are using a library on top of GWT, so you can use RPC just as you do in a GWT app. SmartGWT Pro has some additional client-server glue logic/components worth taking a look at. Check-out the Enterprise Showcase:
    http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwtee/showcase/#main]/url]

Good luck!

3

Hi shortpasta

thanks a lot for your feedbacks.appreciate it.
you mentioned smartgwt sits on top of gwt,so i can also use RequestFactory in my smartgwt app.
in my present java swing application,i have implemented the persian calendar.i want to know can i use that in smartgwt

4

If you implemented your Persian Calendar in Swing, you will not be able to use it in SmartGWT directly. The reason is that GWT (and any other gwt-library like SmartGWT), is Java code that the GWT compiler compiles into JavaScript, which the browser then runs.

When the GWT compiler compiles Java into JavaScript, it has some rules about how it does that. For Example, it can compile if-statements, while loops, math operations, classes, so that you can effectively program the flow of your program. It also compiles math operations such as:

final double sum = 1.5 + 10.6;

To get an idea of what Java code GWT can compile into JavaScript:
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/1.6/DevGuideCodingBasics.html

When it comes to UI components, GWT itself comes with a bunch of classes that can render all the usual HTML stuff. Here is their showcase:
http://gwt.google.com/samples/Showcase/Showcase.html#!CwCheckBox

Just like GWT has a bunch of classes that can render all the usual HTML stuff, SmartGWT has a bunch of classes too, but they offer a much richer experience than GWT. Remember their showcase is here:
http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwt/showcase/#main

When it comes to libraries written in Swing, you can’t just import them into your GWT project, compile them, and use them, because nobody (as far as I know) has written the logic that compiles the Swing Java classes into JavaScript.

So good news: you already coded your calendar in Swing, so you are already used to the concept, library, model, handlers, and so on… so, re-implementing it in GWT should be “easy”.
What you need to do is to rewrite your calendar but instead of using the swing classes, use the GWT or SmartGWT classes instead (see showcase). When you do that, the GWT compiler will be able to convert it to JavaScript, and it will run in the browser.
I recommend you start with a simple GWT project and do a little prototyping to get used to it.
The showcase is the best place to see some SmartGWT code, and what it can do:
http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwt/showcase/#main

5

shortpasta,
thanks a lot for your feedbacks. appreicate it.