Question

I am veteran server side java developer. I have little experience in client web technologies like html, css, javascript( I hate them as a developer but love as end user!). Lately I need to work on client side( home project).

I stumbled around to find the way to create web application without deep dive into these web technologies. I figured out Vaadin is good choice for my project.

Vaadin created around GWT. Do I need to learn GWT before diving into Vaadin?

While digging about Vaadin, I could collect that people with Swing background can pick it up very quickly. I did a swing application in grad project but now most of the concept vaporized. So can anyone guide me which of the concepts I need to sharpen before start working on production application?

Thanks,
Amit

Answer 1

You don’t need to know any GWT unless you’re writing custom components (and even then I think it depends.) For basic use, Vaadin does an excellent job of insulating you from the underlying technologies. It’s a much less leaky abstraction than, say, Hibernate.

You need to read up on event driven programming and the use of listeners. A quick zip through the Swing tutorial might help. But the big danger with event driven programming is creating a tangle of listeners, and I haven’t yet found any good resources that teach how to avoid this. There seems to be no substitude for experience on that one.

Edit: if you find the “Book of Vaadin” a bit too terse, take a look at “Learning Vaadin” by N Frankel. It should be more complete and more, well, learning-oriented. Though I have to admit, I’ve bought it myself but haven’t yet started reading it.