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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T05:29:53+00:00

I’m am building a web app with app engine (java) and GWT, although I

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I’m am building a web app with app engine (java) and GWT, although I think my problem is moreso a general javascript question.

In my application, I want to include a side-menu which is generated from data in my database. This obviously needs to be done dynamically from a servlet.

Currently, I am sending a blank menu container, then making an ajax call to get the information i need to populate the menu. I would rather just send the menu information along in the original request, so I do not need to waste time making a second request. I used this initial approach because it seemed simpler: I just wrote a gwt rpc service that grabbed the data i needed.

My question is, can I instruct a javascript library like gwt to look for its information in the current web page? Do I have to hide this information in my original HTML response, maybe in a hidden div or something?

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  1. Editorial Team

    If the data that you’d like to embed is restricted to menu items, why not directly generate lightweight HTML out of simple <ol> and <li> elements? You can still keep HTML out of your Java code by using a template engine. The menu markup could just be styled with CSS or if you need something fancier than mere <ol> and <li> elements, you can massage the DOM with JavaScript once the page loads (read: progressive enhancement).

    If you’re looking for a more generic solution, beyond the menu case, then you could embed a JSON block in your page, to be consumed when the page loads for the dynamic generation of your menu.

    Or, you could look into using a microformat that is suitable for menu data.

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