Documentation generated
from the Eclipse Help
for the product
GWT Designer
GWT Designer is a powerful and easy to
use bi-directional GUI creator that supports the Google Web
Toolkit (GWT). With GWT Designer, you can use
the visual designer and Java code will be generated for you. You
can easily add controls using drag-and-drop, add event handlers
to your controls, change various properties of controls using a
property editor and much more. You have complete freedom to
change and refactor its generated code and see your changes
immediately reflected in the visual designer. GWT Designer's
powerful parser can also reverse engineer code created by hand.
GWT Designer is built as a plug-in to Eclipse 3.2 (or higher) and any
Eclipse 3.2-based IDE (such as Rational Application Developer 7.0).
The plug-in builds an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) to navigate the
source code and uses GEF to display and manage the visual
presentation. Using WYSIWYG layout tools, you don't need to
write any lines of Java code - the designer will generate the
code for you.
Generated code doesn't require any
additional custom libraries to compile and run beyond GWT
itself: all of the generated code can be used without having
GWT Designer installed.
GWT Designer can read and write almost any format. It also
supports free form code editing (make changes anywhere, not just
in special areas) and most user refactorings (you can move,
rename and subdivide methods without a problem).
True Bi-directional Code Generation Directly generates Java code which can be changed in the
graphical editor or directly in source. All changes made
directly to the source code will be reflected in the graphical
designer
True WYSIWYG Design view shows real GWT/HTML controls (not fake mockups)
so all properties are reflected graphically
CSS Support GWT Designer can apply CSS to the design view, so you can see an
exact rendering of how your screen will look in the browser.
Edit CSS files using CSS Editor and edit CSS properties from
within graphical designer
Extremely Fast GWT Designer opens a design in a couple seconds - several
times faster than launching the GWT application itself (mostly
due to our *proprietary* technique of using ASM for fast
bytecode modification). All subsequent edit actions update the
Design view in just 300-400 milliseconds
GWT Application Launching GWT Application launch configuration including launch
shortcut for fast launching using popup menu or hot key in
editor
GWT
JUnit Test Launching JUnit GWT Application launch configuration including launch
shortcut for fast launching using popup menu or hot key in
editor
Intelligent Refactoring Renaming or moving a module class
or remote service updates the the module XML file and renames
any associated *Async
and *Impl classes
Internationalization (i18n) Extract
hard coded strings to resource bundles and automatically manage
multiple locales
Enhanced Compilation GWT Designer added compilation helper checks compilation
units during build (full or incremental) for GWT-specific
problems like references to types not emulated by GWT or not
inherited in the gwt.xml file
Easy
Build & Deployment
One-click deployment tool automatically creates a project WAR
file and uploads it to your server. An ANT script is generated
for an easy, repeatable build process