Book of Vaadin - vaadin.com

Preface
Prev		Next

Preface

This book provides an overview of Vaadin and covers the most important topics which you might encounter when developing applications with it. A more detailed documentation of individual classes, interfaces, and methods is given in the Java API Reference.

You can browse an online version of this book at the Vaadin website http://vaadin.com/. A PDF version is also included in the Vaadin installation package and if you install the Vaadin Plugin for Eclipse, you can browse it in the Eclipse Help. You may find the HTML or the Eclipse Help plugin version more easily searchable than this printed book or the PDF version, but the content is the same. Just like the rest of Vaadin, this book is open source.

Writing this manual is ongoing work and this edition represents a snapshot around the release of Vaadin 6.2, containing a number of additions and corrections since the first edition, which was for Vaadin 6.1. Especially, the Chapter 10, Developing Custom Components, has been revised to comply with the new way of defining widget sets and the mapping from server-side components to their corresponding client-side widgets. Many sections are under work and will be expanded in future.

Who is This Book For?

This book is intended for software developers who use, or are considering to use, Vaadin to develop web applications.

The book assumes that you have some experience with programming in Java, but if not, it is as easy to begin learning Java with Vaadin as with any other UI framework if not easier. No knowledge of AJAX is needed as it is well hidden from the developer.

You may have used some desktop-oriented user interface frameworks for Java, such as AWT, Swing, or SWT. Or a library such as Qt for C++. Such knowledge is useful for understanding the scope of Vaadin, the event-driven programming model, and other common concepts of UI frameworks, but not necessary.

If you don't have a web graphics designer at hand, knowing the basics of HTML and CSS can help, so that you can develop presentation themes for your application. A brief introduction to CSS is provided. Knowledge of Google Web Toolkit (GWT) may be useful if you develop or integrate new client-side components.

Organization of This Book

The Book of Vaadin gives an introduction to what Vaadin is and how you use it to develop web applications.

Chapter 1, Introduction: The chapter gives introduction to the application architecture supported by Vaadin, the core design ideas behind the framework, and some historical background.
Chapter 2, Getting Started with Vaadin: This chapter gives practical instructions for installing Vaadin and the reference toolchain, including the Vaadin Plugin for Eclipse, how to run and debug the demos, and how to create your own application project in the Eclipse IDE.
Chapter 3, Architecture: This chapter gives an introduction to the architecture of Vaadin and its major technologies, including AJAX, Google Web Toolkit, JSON, and event-driven programming.
Chapter 4, Writing a Web Application: This chapter gives all the practical knowledge required for creating applications with Vaadin, such as window management, application lifecycle, deployment in a servlet container, and handling events, errors, and resources.
Chapter 5, User Interface Components: This chapter essentially gives the reference documentation for all the core user interface components in Vaadin and their most significant features. The text gives examples for using each of the components.
Chapter 6, Managing Layout: This chapter describes the layout components, which are used for managing the layout of the user interface, just like in any desktop application frameworks.
Chapter 7, Visual User Interface Design with Eclipse (experimental): This chapter gives instructions for using the visual editor for Eclipse, which is included in the Vaadin Plugin for the Eclipse IDE.
Chapter 8, Themes: This chapter gives an introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and explains how you can use them to build custom visual themes for your application.
Chapter 9, Binding Components to Data: This chapter gives an overview of the built-in data model of Vaadin, consisting of properties, items, and containers.
Chapter 10, Developing Custom Components: This chapter describes the process of creating new client-side widgets with Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and integrating them with server-side counterparts. The chapter also gives practical instructions for creating widget projects in Eclipse, and using the GWT Hosted Mode Browser.
Chapter 11, Advanced Web Application Topics: This chapter provides many special topics that are commonly needed in applications, such as opening new browser windows, embedding applications in regular web pages, low-level management of resources, shortcut keys, debugging, etc.
Appendix A, User Interface Definition Language (UIDL): This chapter gives an outline of the low-level UIDL messaging language, normally hidden from the developer. The chapter includes the description of the serialization API needed for synchronizing the component state between the client-side and server-side components.
Appendix B, Songs of Vaadin: Mythological background of the name Vaadin.

Supplementary Material

The Vaadin installation package and websites offer plenty of material that can help you understand what Vaadin is, what you can do with it, and how you can do it.

Demo Applications

The installation package of Vaadin includes a number of demo applications that you can run and use with your web browser. The content browser allows you to view the source code of the individual demo applications. You should find especially the Sampler demo a good friend of yours.

You can find the demo applications online at http://vaadin.com/.

Address Book Tutorial

The Address Book is a sample application accompanied with a tutorial that gives detailed step-by-step instructions for creating a real-life web application with Vaadin. You can find the tutorial from the product website.

Developer's Website

Vaadin Developer's Site at http://dev.vaadin.com/ provides various online resources, such as the ticket system, a development wiki, source repositories, activity timeline, development milestones, and so on.

The wiki provides instructions for developers, especially for those who wish to check-out and compile Vaadin itself from the source repository. The technical articles deal with integration of Vaadin applications with various systems, such as JSP, Maven, Spring, Hibernate, and portals. The wiki also provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Online Documentation

You can read this book online at http://vaadin.com/book. Lots of additional material, including technical HOWTOs, answers to Frequently Asked Questions and other documentation is also available on Vaadin web-site.

Support

Stuck with a problem? No need to lose your hair over it, the Vaadin developer community and the IT Mill company offer support for all of your needs.

Community Support Forum: You can find the user and developer community forum for Vaadin at http://vaadin.com/forum. Please use the forum to discuss any problems you might encounter, wishes for features, and so on. The answer for your problems may already lie in the forum archives, so searching the discussions is always the best way to begin.
Report Bugs: If you have found a possible bug in Vaadin, the demo applications, or the documentation, please report it by filing a ticket at the Vaadin developer's site at http://dev.vaadin.com/. You may want to check the existing tickets before filing a new one. You can make a ticket to make a request for a new feature as well, or to suggest modifications to an existing feature.
Commercial Support: IT Mill offers full commercial support and training services for the Vaadin products. Read more about the commercial products at http://vaadin.com/pro for details.