Question for all the GWT gurus out there - which is the best GWT widgets library out there? And why?
List based on the answers:
И наконец- новое поколение основанное на JsInterop:
Depends on what you mean by "best". Best looking? Best API? Best for extending to your own custom needs?
E.g., I was just evaluating table classes to use in our application. We've been using GWT-Ext, but it has many performance problems for us, and is very hard to get the tables sized the way we need them. I came very close to going with GWT-Mosaic, but decided instead to build off the widgets in the GWT Incubator.
So, why did I make this choice? It seems that too many of the libraries out there come with their own, for lack of a better word, baggage. Either you have to dive whole-hog into some MVC framework (which may not be entirely compatible with the rest of your code base), or you have to adopt someone's new fangled layout system, or you have to live with the fact that you cannot really debug the code (because its just JSNI wrappers).
Don't get me wrong, the GWT Incubator isn't perfect...the widgets there are in some amount of flux. In my case, this was the best choice, though. It gives me good (but definitely not perfect):
So...the answer (for me) is a combination of:
(I should add: the "baggage" I'm referring to isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, if you just want a widget or two, it can raise the bar on what it takes to just get your work done and how good youe application looks.)
GWT alone is a pretty good library.
I didn't use all of the mentioned ones but can recommend Ext GWT.
I prefer vanilla GWT. Some of the other APIs look pretty and their showcases really show off the widgets, but I always find that the performance isn't the best....when I say performance I mean more like response time. I hate when an application feels sluggish.
Most of the libraries mentioned are not open source and even worse: are just wrappers on top of a JavaScript library. The power of GWT lies in the fact that the application works on different browsers (because of the code generation for the "big" browsers specifically). These JavaScript underlying libraries can cause lots of problems.
I agree with jgindin GWT Incubator and GWT Mosaic are the best so far.
SmartGWT is a good library and it has a lot of examples but the user interface is not that sleek. For user interface Ext GWT is good.
Google's default library is the most powerful library.
Ext GWT adds bells and whistles but apart from that it's similar to Google's.
I would say if you need only a few widgets then build your own. You might copy-paste some concepts from the libraries mentioned. But they all lack one or the other thing. I have played with most of them and abandoned every one.
We're currently liking the GWT Mosaic widgets. We've worked with ext-JS and we've rolled our own widgets in the past. ext-JS licensing and bulk were a problem for us. Rolling our own isn't what we want to do. Mosaic gives us a happy middle ground which we like to think will be an even happier middle ground as the project matures.
