smart gwt widget integration with Vaadin

General
1

Hi there everyone,

I just stumbled upon the Vaadin framework while I was researching java web UI frameworks with high Rapid Application development (RAD)
capabilities. Vaadin looks like a great framework as far as RAD is concerned.

I am currently interested in developing web GIS applications eg like google maps using the Geomajas open source web gis framework
This framework has its client and server side gis components. The server side handles all GIS related processing while the client is just mainly used for rendering.
The GIS widgets eg map legends, attribute selection are mainly implemented using the smartgwt client library. This GIS widgets know how to interact with the geomajas server.

The web gis applications I intend developing will have

  • admin functions such as role mgt, user account creation etc

  • access customer’s biz related data eg sales information.

  • will combine customer’s biz data with maps to display meaningful information.

I intend leveraging the vaadin framework in conjunction with other technologies like JPA.

Here lies my question,

  • How feasible will it be to embed or combine the smartgwt gis widgets with the other Vaadin UI components ? some of my views will not have maps but basic data types
    this views can easily use vaadin UI components, some other views will use the smartgwt based GIS widget to display maps.

  • is this possible ? I read that vaadin can work well with other javascript libraries of which smartgwt is simply a java binding of the
    smart client javascript library.

  • If it is possible, how can it be done ? How do I get started ? Are there useful resources on these type of integration ?

It will be highly appreciated if I can get good answers, pointers, codes samples.

Cheers,

Roman.

2

Hi Roman

I have done SmartGWT and Vaadin, but never actually together.
I have however developed plain GWT apps and dropped them into Vaadin.

SmartGWT is GWT, so it can be integrated quite easily as long as it does not rely on special html.
Check the book of vaadin GET

I have developed GWT openlayers and Vaadin openlayers addon/openlayers-wrapper)

All I can say is when combining JRebel with Vaadin I can develop apps in a fraction in the time compared to SmartGWT.

regards
Richard.

3

Thanks Richard

I know Vaadin has high rapid application development capabilities. That is the reason i am interested in the framework. Can u give suggestions on how to go about wrapping a smartgwt widget in vaadin ? code samples could really help.

I know smartgwt widgets do not extend the pure GWT classes since they leverage the smart client javascript library. That is why i am asking if integration is possible.

Thanks,

4

Looks like it is not only possible, but also done.
Take a look at
VaadinSmartGWT
 project.

Haven’t tried it yet, though.

5

Thanks for the link Filip. Will certainly take a good look at it.

6

Hi Roman

Sorry for the later reply

look for the ‘book of vaadin’ and GWT
The integration is quite simple if you don’t want heavy calls between your GWT (Java script app) and the Vaadin Java app.
(Can’t paste the link in here because it won’t allow me to post)

regards
Richard