can vaadin create normal websites, or only Rich Internet Applicatoins?

General
1

e.g. Can you easily develop somethign like the vaadin.com website using only vaadin? Its got a login box, knows about login state, has some static navigation bars to mostly html pages and a bunch of static links at the bottom. Was this built using another framework, or hand coded like an swt app to try and make it look like a web page (e.g. there is no html or css, so the java developer has to do all the layout and design work),

Ive looked at the demos and scanned the book of Vaadin, and wonder if can only be used to create things which look like STW apps, not websites with dynamic functionality (such as the vaadin site) and html pages which a designer and content provider can edit

In the past Ive used jsp and sevlets + html, and later Wicket with good succuess.

Out of the box, Wicket supports login state, search engine friendly URLS, breadcrumbs, redirect back to where you were after login and total abstraction from the HTML and CSS so a designer can make the pages look how he wants. Does Vaadin have any of this?

Do people use vaadin only for applications which are delivered by web, or do people use them for normal websites which hapen to have some dynamic functionality on some pages? If so, do people use other frameworks do do the html side of things, and only use vaadin for the bits of the pages with hard core functionality?

Are portlets used for this? If so does anyone have a handy login portlet which shows username and password boxes if no session, and the name and logout button if there is a session for example?

Thanks for your thoughts.

2

Well, Vaadin could be used, for sure, to create website-styled apps. For instance:

But you should keep in mind that you need to take extra care to make your website accessible for web crawlers (if you need this)

3

Custom layouts with XHTML looks interesting. The example in the book of
eli
 Vaadin shows a page with the username and password objects hard coded at the top, which would not work if they are already logged in for that page.

I guess there are are number of strategies:

  1. Have two templates for each page, one where you are logged in and one where you are not, and swap them based on the session.

  2. have templates with generic gui containers which can be modified/filled at run time, so just a “login” area in the top right, which shows user/pass or your name depending on status.

  3. Webpages driven by some other framework (even plain servlets), and embed vaadin objects for the forms/reports?

  4. 100% vadin, and if the marketing dept want content changed, or a new banner, the developers have to do it and deploy a new war.

  5. devlop a full blown content mangement system for all web conttent and banners etc.

Which do people use for those sites which are just as much web content as application?