GWT : Google Web Toolkit : AJAX framework based on JAVA

I think it is high time for me start writing about GWT, since I have been working in it for the past 3 months.

What is GWT?
Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX application.

What GWT does?
Are you allergic towards javascript and still you want to create AJAX apps? Then this is the right path you should take. GWT is a framework which allows you to write applications in normal Java language and it will take care of the rest.

AJAX without JavaScript: How is that possible?
No AJAX app can exist without JS, what GWT does is it will convert Java which we code into Javascript. GWT lets you avoid many of these headaches while offering your users
the same dynamic, standards-compliant experience. You write your front
end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

Google Web Toolkit Features:

Open Source
Readymade,Dynamic, reusable UI components
RPC
Browser history managementdebugging
Browser compatible
JUnit integration
Internationalization
Interoperability
Fine-grained control

IDE for GWT:
There are so many IDEs available for GWT. To list a few
Googlispe
VistaFei
DesignerPro

GWT architecture:
GWT has four major components: a Java-to-JavaScript compiler, a “hosted” web browser, and two Java class libraries.

–>GWT Java-to-JavaScript Compiler
The GWT Java-to-JavaScript compiler translates the Java programming language to the JavaScript programming language. The GWT compiler runs the GWT applications in web mode.

–>GWT Hosted Web Browser
The GWT Hosted Web Browser allows us to run and execute your GWT applications in hosted mode, the code runs as Java in the Java Virtual Machine without compiling to JavaScript. The GWT browser embeds a special browser control (an Internet Explorer control on Windows or a Gecko/Mozilla control on Linux) with hooks into the JVM.

–>JRE emulation library
GWT contains JavaScript implementations of the most widely used classes in the Java standard class library, including most of the java.lang package classes and a subset of the java.util package classes. The rest of the Java standard library isn’t supported natively within GWT.

–>GWT Web UI class library
The GWT web UI class library is a set of custom interfaces and classes that let your create web browser “widgets,” like buttons, text boxes, images, and text. This is the core user interface library used to create GWT applications

All these features will make your life so easy that you will love to play with GWT. I have given a very basic overview about GWT, as we move on, we will go deep about IDEs and everything.