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Ext JS has changed the licensing terms on Ext JS and Ext GWT (formerly known as MyGWT). The way in which Ext changed it’s licensing terms is quite shameful. Essentially, they pulled a fast one on the open source community. Ext licensed 1.x and 2.x versions of their stuff as LGPL and GPL, but over the past 2 weeks have rapidly, and quietly, changed their licensing to GPL. Personally, I dislike the GPL license a great deal – I don’t agree with "something for something"… sounds like Indian giving to me. The Apache 2.0 license make more sense to me for open source stuff (which is what I use on all the code/libraries released on this site). These underhanded moves by Ext and their questionable business practices has led me to drop it. I was going to write a suite of tutorials on the API, but after having seen how this company treats the open source community, I’m not going to contribute anything to further Ext’s cause. Additionally, I was going to use the API in a commercial project that I’m working on, but I’m no longer using it there as well. Also, the crap that Ext tried to pull on Sanjay Jivan (author of GWT Ext) is unforgivable! The nerve of this company to treat people who’ve done nothing but help them in such a horrible, dishonest, and disrespectful way! Read more about it here. This is another good post on Ext’s licensing shenanigans. |
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Lots of great new features in GWT 1.5.
SproutCore - Apple MobileMe JS library
SproutCore is Apple's open source JS library. Pundits claim that it will kill Flash and it can be used to write desktop apps for web browsers. Using a JS library that uses CSS styling that makes it resemble OSX's look and feel doesn't make it a desktop app :) .
Interesting videos on GWT from Google IO 2008. New DOM access API in GWT 1.5. Using Google APIs (search, maps) in GWT 1.5. And doing crazy stuff in GWT 1.5.
New Tutorial - Using GWT History to create an RSS client
This tutorial takes the background information on GWT History Management provided in the Managing History and Hyperlinks tutorial and uses it to create an RSS reader application that uses this history mechanism to load initialization parameters. The application that's built in this tutorial takes the RSS feed URL as a parameter passed to the web app's URL. You will also learn how to use ROME API, and explore different approaches to displaying application loading (splash) screens.
GWT Ext 2.0 was just released.
A conversation with Joshua Bloch on GWT
Great interview with Joshua Bloch about GWT.
New Tutorial - Using Browser History and Hyperlinks
When you are building GWT apps, that run in the context of a web browser, what should happen when the user of your app presses the Back or Forward button in their browser? GWT provides a way for your apps to hook into the browser's history mechanism, so that you can control what happens when a user hits Back or Forward in their browser. You can also programmatically manipulate the browser's history, and even create hyperlinks in your apps that can hook into the browser's history mechanism. You can even intercept these hyperlinks when a user clicks on them, instead of having the browser handle it, or both. This tutorial will show you how to leverage GWT's history mechanism and do some creative things with histories and hyperlinks that will be useful in your applications.
Coding Quickie - Get URL param string from GWT
New Tutorial - Deploying GWT Apps
There are two aspects to deploying a GWT application: client side deployment, and server side packaging and deployment. In this tutorial, I will cover the different sets of issues that are tied to each aspect of deployment and packaging. Issues around cross site scripting, integration into existing webpages/apps, deployment as widgets, and much more are discussed in detail.
New Tutorial - Using Servlet Sessions in GWT
Because GWT web applications run inside of a browser, they are limited to making requests over HTTP. HTTP is a “stateless” protocol and it doesn’t provide any facilities for tracking previous transactions. In this tutorial you will learn how to use GWT’s RPC mechanism, specifically the RemoteServiceServlet, to enable session support in your GWT application.
New Tutorial - Using and creating GWT modules
If you are trying to build a complex GWT application that needs to be split into multiple modules, or if you need to import 3rd party modules into your application, this tutorial will show you how to do both of these things. We will import the GWT Log module, and we will also create a new module that you can include as a dependency for other modules/projects.
New Tutorial - Create GWT projects using IDEA
In this tutorial, I will walk you through the tasks you need to perform in IDEA 7 to create GWT projects. We will do the following: create a new project, add resources to it (images, stylesheets), create a web facet for deployment to an app server/servlet engine, add a loading screen for your app.
Dion Almaer talks about GWT, Google Gears, Java and JavaScript
Dion Almaer talks about GWT, Google Gears, Java and JavaScript
GWT version 1.4.61 has been released.
New Tutorial - Transport Objects over RPC - GWT Object Serialization
This tutorial will teach you how to create and use Serializable objects that can be transported over GWT's RPC mechanism.
Coding Quickie - display a message while your GWT app loads
When a GWT application loads, nothing is actually displayed by your application until all the generated JavaScript has been downloaded by the browser. Find out how to display a loading screen while your GWT application is loading.
New Tutorial - Building a GWT RPC Service
One of the most important pieces of the GWT framework is the GWT Remote Procedure Call (RPC) mechanism. This RPC mechanism makes it easy for a GWT application client to make a call to server-side code. GWT RPC makes it simple to get data between the client and the server. The server-side code that gets called from the client is referred to as a service. This tutorial will teach you how to build a GWT RPC Service.
New Tutorial - Anatomy of a GWT Project
The first step in writing any GWT application is setting up a GWT Project. This tutorial will introduce you to the ins and outs of GWT projects.
New Tutorial - Introduction to GWT
The first in developerlife.com's series of GWT tutorials has been posted. This first tutorial is a technical overview of GWT.
Update - GWT Tutorials coming soon
Web 2.0 is upon us and building an AJAX web application is a vital and marketable skill. Most AJAX web application development is done using HTML and JavaScript. But what are Java developers that aren't proficient in JavaScript supposed to do. Fear not, the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is here to the rescue. You don't have to step too far outside your comfort zone and learn JavaScript, or delve too deeply into the potential hell that is Browser development. GWT provides a Java API that lets you build component based GUIs while avoiding JavaScript, and abstracting the HTTP protocol and HTML DOM model.
I love RIM – its people, its products, and where its headed. There's a lot to be fixed, but it's getting better; key people at RIM acknowledge all these gaps and are addressing them. This is why I love RIM! And I stay committed to creating BlackBerry apps and supporting every new feature of the BlackBerry platform. Read on to find out more...
Sun has just been purchased by Oracle, as you must have read already. After the IBM buyout offer fell through, Oracle snapped Sun up. I’m selfish. I have a software company that uses lots and lots of Java technologies, and I’m wondering what this means to me in the long term :) . I’m sure there are lots of changes that Sun employees are going to have to go through, but I’m not worried about that, just being honest.
JavaFX 1.0 released - where is JWebPane?
JavaFX 1.0 was released last week, and it's great that it's out for Windows, but there are lots of things missing from it (like support for OSX or Linux). The biggest missing item for me is the Webkit browser component called JWebPane. I have been looking forward to using this component for months now, and it's still not out.
In summary. Android has a hostile SDK that requires special expertise to handle and leverage (sure to keep lots of developers away). There are no handsets out there yet, so lots of ISVs won’t touch this platform. Very few ISVs or developers to compete against.
Apple WWDC - MobileMe and iPhone background tasks
Some renaming, slick marketing, and the .Mac is reborn as MobileMe. Pushing it's way to sync-ing some PIM data near you! ;)
iPhone SDK and it's problems. Java on iPhone? ActiveSync vs. RIM's NOC-based-approach of pushing email.
Are Home Theater PCs worth the money?
I have been intrigued by the idea of a Home Theater PC (HTPC)for a while but never had a real reason to get one until recently. I have always wanted an easy way to consolidate all my media into one place or device and play it all back easily on my TV. If I could also use that device to record and acquire new media that would be great. That is the promise of the HTPC. But the biggest knock on them is that they are expensive. If you are looking to get an HTPC that fits in a standard media cabinet the prices go even higher. But given the recent staggering drops in computer hardware prices, are HTPCs really all that expensive?
Browser bookmarks and their limitations
My thoughts on how difficult it is to manage browser bookmarks, and sync them across multiple machines and muliple types of browsers. And maybe what can be done to make this better?
OneNote is awesome - sharing documents with yourself and others
OneNote is great for sharing documents across a local network. It keeps them in sync for you, and it allows you to share them "live" with people on the local network (and even WANs).
These are some of my initial thoughts on Google's Android, after having spent a few days working with the SDK.
Does Java really need expanded Closure support. A humorous take on the issue.
Java is an awesome language. I'd forgotten how wonderful it is, until I started coding in other languages and environments. Java does not face the innovators dilemma, it's stronger than it's ever been before!
April 28th, 2008 at 1:39 am
It’s amazing that a group who put together such the very nice JavaScript Ext library would destroy all their hardwork and community good will with such a sleezy clandestine move from LGPL to GPL to force developers to use Ext’s commercial license.
In my opinion, if Jack Slocum doesn’t revert Ext’s license back to LGPL (with no self-serving illegal interpretations) within the next month, then Ext will become extinct and OpenExt will take it’s place. Furthermore, the near universal disdain and disrespect of Jack Slocum for his relicensing dishonesty will dog him for the rest of his (hopefully) short career.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Would they have stayed with a LGPL or even switched to Apache License, there wouldnt haven been much borders to their growth.
The said they cannot do this due to people stealing their code/CSS,Images-Assets, but that is just so untrue. They possess the brand and nobody would have gone with a bad copy if they had the chance to get the original.
All they proved with this stunt is that from a business and community perspective, they dont deserve our trust.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Btw you can still use Ext JS with the LGPL license if you have a copy of the files from the days when it was still LGPL.
You can’t remove the LGPL/GPL license from something you have already released – You can only re-release it under a different license.