👉 Overview
👀 What ?
Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a development toolkit for building and optimizing complex browser-based applications. It is an open-source set of tools that allows developers to create and maintain complex JavaScript front-end applications in Java. GWT is used by many products at Google, including Google AdWords and Google Wallet.
🧐 Why ?
GWT is important as it enables productive development and powerful performance for Java software development teams. It allows developers to create complex web-based applications without being experts in front-end technologies like JavaScript optimization and responsive design. It also provides Java-to-JavaScript compiler and a special web browser that helps to debug the JavaScript code. By using GWT, developers can focus on building the application and the toolkit takes care of the complexity of creating efficient, cross-browser JavaScript code.
⛏️ How ?
To use GWT, you need to have a basic understanding of Java programming language. GWT provides a set of annotations and Java APIs which developers can use to write client-side applications. It also provides a special web browser, called GWT Development Mode, where developers can debug their GWT applications just like any other Java application. GWT also has a Java-to-JavaScript compiler, which translates the Java programming code into JavaScript. It also provides the ability to use Google APIs, and to build HTML5 and CSS3 web applications.
⏳ When ?
Google Web Toolkit (GWT) has been in use since it was made open source by Google in 2006. It's been continually updated and improved since then, with the latest major release (2.9.0) coming in May 2020.
⚙️ Technical Explanations
Under the hood, GWT includes a compiler that converts Java into JavaScript. This allows developers to write their code in Java, which is then compiled into highly optimized JavaScript that can run across all browsers, including mobile browsers. The GWT SDK also includes a set of core Java APIs and Widgets. These allow developers to write AJAX applications in Java and then compile the source to highly optimized JavaScript that runs across a multitude of devices. GWT also provides tools for interacting with JavaScript code directly, allowing developers to use existing JavaScript libraries and frameworks.