GXT with RestyGWT

Question

I've searched as much as I could but did not find any answers/examples for my question.

I'm completely new to Web UI development but have a decade and a half of experience in Java and other languages. I seem to be completely lost in the sea of available options for the client side, but for the server side I have a Rest server (Play) running already. I can't and don't want to use a complete package for both client and server b/c I want to pass JSON back and forth between the server and the client. This way I can use multiple different clients: web, Excel, Swing, etc. I want to keep it flexible like this.

So far I pretty much decided to use GXT for the client side, and found RestyGWT to be sitting in the middle. This is what causes my problems. So far, I have not been able to find a single example of a GXT + RestyGWT combination. Just a single example (a Grid for example) would be extremely helpful, since I have no experience with J2EE, beans, or any of that.

Any help or examples with GXT + RestyGWT would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

What have you tried? RestyGWT is serialization and transport, so ideally you set up a loader that describes what you need based on your widgets (grid? paging toolbar? filters?), and then pass it a DataProxy implementation that knows how to take config objects, and asynchronously send back loaded data objects. Each grid example that loads from the server uses a loader, but a different proxy (and optionally reader) based on whether it us using RPC, RequestFactory or XML/JSON over HTTP. There is also a JSONP example, and while it isn't using the Grid, it is still loading items to a ListStore, so could easily be attached to a grid.

DataProxy is a simple interface - it is given a config object and a callback to invoke when the load is finished or to notify if an error occurred. In your implementation of this interface, call your service with the necessary details of the config, and then invoke the callback when results are ready.

Answer 2

If you want an example of how RestyGWT works you can have a look to
one of my blog article. It is a pure GWT example but should work with GXT as well. GXT is mostly about graphical components for GWT.

In 2 words you need to

1) Define your restServices interfaces

public interface HelloClient extends RestService {    
  @GET
  public void getHellos( MethodCallback<List<Hello>> callback);
}

2) Create your client

HelloClient client = GWT.create(HelloClient.class);

3) Use it

client.getHellos(new MethodCallback<List<Hello>>() {

    public void onSuccess(Method method, List<Hello> response) {
    //...
    }

    public void onFailure(Method method, Throwable exception) {
     //...
    }
  });