GWT and AppFuse
Someone recently sent me the following e-mail asking about GWT integration in AppFuse.
I see from your blog that you're spending some time with GWT at the moment. What's your plan, are you going to integrate GWT as another UI Option for AppFuse?
The reason I'm asking is that I actually checked out all of the AppFuse code from the svn repository yesterday, with the intention of starting off adding some GWT stuff in there. My intention was to start by getting a basic Maven archetype together for GWT as an AppFuse UI.
However, if you're planning on doing this yourself in the near future, then there's no point in me starting doing it, I'd have to learn how to write archetype's for a start (not that it looks too difficult) but you'd obviously do it much quicker.
Being a good open-source developer, I moved the discussion to the developer mailing list and replied there:
It's likely I'll create a version of AppFuse Light with GWT, but I doubt I'll do it in the near future. I hope to release AppFuse 2.1 first (which will include "light" archetypes). I wouldn't get your hopes up in waiting for me to do the work. However, I'd be happy to assist you in doing it. AppFuse Light is now modular and uses the AppFuse backend.
http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/appfuse_light_converted_to_maven
Here's how I believe GWT should be integrated:
- Create an appfuse-ws archetype that serves up RESTful services (http://issues.appfuse.org/browse/APF-897).
- Create an appfuse-gwt archetype that consumes those services. This archetype would contain a proxy servlet that allows #1 to be on a separate host/port.
In addition to #1, I hope to convert the Struts 2 and Spring MVC archetypes to use those frameworks' REST support.
For #2, we could use SmartGWT or GXT. SmartGWT might be better since Sanjiv is a committer on this project.
I know I've been slacking on AppFuse development, but it is ski season and running to work seems to drain my late-night coding ambitions. With that being said, I'm committed to getting AppFuse 2.1 released by JavaOne (hopefully sooner). I figure it's a good week's worth of work and I'll probably have to do it late at night to find the time. That's OK though, I usually really start to enjoy it once I get into it.