Aplus.net Blog

A quick look at the source of any page on our site will quickly reveal I’m a huge fan of  jQuery. Part of this is because I truly appreciate the simplicity and ease of use that it brings to the table, but an even larger part of it is that it’s just so much faster to code and debug.

Like it or not, there are two truths about web development:

1. You will never have enough time to do things the way you want to.

2. Everything will change.

My philosophy is that any technology which allows me to achieve the same end-result faster and with less headaches is something I should explore. All it took was one wasted day of trying to fix a simple cross-browser implementation issue with regular javascript to convince me to make the switch. Seriously, if you’re not using a javascript framework of some sort, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. You can thank me later

While jQuery is perfect for typical javascript usage scenarios (form validation, page effects, etc.) I hit another roadblock when thinking about some of the bigger applications we needed. For a while now, I’ve had some vague requirements and mockups sitting in my inbox without a whole lot of time to get to them. Keeping in mind the two truths about web development, I realized that as the only developer who would like to get these apps rolled out in a somewhat reasonable timeframe, I had limited options. I needed a way to leverage my existing knowledge without having to invent the wheel.

See, while jQuery and javascript are great, if you multiply all possible platforms (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera) by all the various languages they can be localized into and divide this by the number of people on your team that can work on this app (in my case, 1) you get an idea of how impossibly complex this can get.

Enter Google Web Toolkit. The basic rundown here is that GWT lets you code apps in Java and they are compiled into Javascript. It handles ALL browser quirks and localization issues. If the little lightbulb above your head isn’t lit up yet, if you’re a Java developer you’re already familiar with the strength of the Java API…imagine being able to roll that into Javascript! Is it on now? Good.

Now, a caveat here before you run off and get crazy with it…GWT only supports a subset of what’s available in the JRE. But still, if you’ve ever fainted at the thought of trying to emulate a TreeSet containing doubly-linked lists in plain-old javascript then this will be good news for you. Oh, and don’t forget, Google has their own custom methods on top of it all. There’s even an Eclipse plug-in to build web applications visually. If you are thinking “MAN, this is HUGE!!” I am right there with you.

It’s a good day to be an open source developer!