GWT is a fantastic tool but after building a fairly simple application I realised that my code had a sort of spaghetti quality about it. Which may be fine if I was cooking some delicious Italian recipe, but is far from ok if I am trying to construct a logical, maintainable and scalable application.
After attending Google IO 2010, and having previously used the MVC paradigm in Python and Ruby on Rails, and after reading several Google articles on the framework I decided that this "sort" of architecture was the way to go. Google recommends the MVP framework and so this is the approach I initially took. After reading the articles and going through the Contacts examples it was easy to see, although I didn't fully understand, that this approach was very logical. However, I don't really like using however as a linking word as it indicates a lack of vocabulary, but anyway, and however, I ultimately decided not to go with Google MVP because their examples didn't cover enough of the scenarios I needed to see before I could fully move on in converting sohocrm.appspot.com to this framework.
That's when I came across GWT-Platform which is headed by several very knowledgeable people and which incorporates MVP, Dependency Injection, Command Pattern and an RPC dispatcher into one framework. So many bases covered in one framework, could this be the way to go? After reading their documentation and completing the examples it seemed this could be the choice. They have some simple examples and one very complicated (PuzzleBazar). Which after you delve into answer most of your questions, along with the responsive discussion forum over at GWTP Google Groups.
After reviewing their new contributors issue list over at Google Code. I decided it was time to get involved and the Clean up Wiki issue seemed the way to go. As I will still be learning this framework for many months to come, I shall be bothering Philippe Beaudoin at the discussion forum, in trying to come up with and answer many F.A.Q. questions new users to the framework may have. At the moment I feel like I am, not quite at the rabbit hole, but sometime next week I hope to step through it.
In summary. GWTP has a lot of interesting features in one package, and while it might take some upfront work in learning the framework, the OCD inside all of us will be satisfied by its logical approach.
Hi Gene,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you joining that project, and your contribution to the wiki will no doubt be very useful. I hope at some point you will consider contributing code too -- this is a great way to learn and we always have room for good developers. I've updated the "helpWelcome" issues, so take a look when you have time.