What are the options to replace Java Swing GUI?

Question

We have a desktop client application developed in Swing. This application interacts with backend server using Servlet.

The new requirement is to make a web based client. I have read about JavaFX, Flex, ExtJS, etc.

I would like to know which solution is best fit to replace a swing application? Does anyone have any experience of doing the same?

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(EDIT based on comments)

The application is heavy weight in terms of widgets. Ofcourse we will redesign a bit when making a web based client.

Answer 1

You could consider using the Google Web Toolkit, GWT, to make a web based client. Making a user interface in GWT is somewhat similar to doing it in Java Swing, but the final result is a dynamic web client.

Answer 2

You know Swing can run in a web page! There are many other options including PHP, ASP, Ajax etc etc. How "heavy" is the Swing app i.e. are there lots of widgets? This is a very open ended question!

Answer 3

Since you already know Swing and you're supposed to make a web based client/interface, you should consider Apache Wicket which structurally has lots of similarities with Swing (one of its original devs was in a similar situation as you are now).

If you need to have heavyweight functionality which isn't easily done with Ajax and other such web technologies, I'd suggest a combination of Flash/Flex for the UI mainly because there's a lot of people out there who know how to use both of those technologies.

Quick edit: Also see this answer to another question, it may help you understand the real issue at hand a bit better.