Google Web Toolkit Blog
Today is quite a milestone for the Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE). Our team is very happy to announce that all of GPE (including GWT Designer) is open source under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) v1.0. GPE is a set of software development tools that enables Java developers to quickly design, build, optimize, and deploy cloud-based applications using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Speed Tracer, App Engine, and other Google Cloud services.
Because of the large ecosystem that has developed around GWT, App Engine, and Google’s Cloud services, and because our primary mission is to help users (as opposed to creating proprietary development tools), it makes a lot of sense for us to open source GPE and make it easier for the community to enhance and extend the tools.
According to Red Hat’s Max Andersen, “We have many developers using Google's Eclipse plugin to develop GWT-based applications targeting the JBoss Application Server. With the open sourcing of the plugin we are looking forward to working even more closely with the Google team and the rest of the community on making the developer experience even more productive and an integrated part of Eclipse platform. We are especially interested in seeing the Google Eclipse plugins being able to target multiple runtimes such as the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and Google App Engine in a uniform way, working more seamlessly with standards-based tools and frameworks.”
As of today, all of the code is available directly from the new GPE project and GWT Designer project on Google Code. Note that GWT Designer itself is based upon the WindowBuilder open source project at Eclipse.org (contributed by Google last year). We will be adopting the same guidelines for contributing code used by the GWT project.
In the months to come we expect to start bringing on more committers, but don't let that stop you from contributing. The project will only grow with the community's input. Submitting bugs via the issue tracker and engaging with other users on the forums will go a long way towards ensuring the overall quality of the product.
News and note from the Google Web Toolkit Team.
Updated: 2 hours 40 min ago
Angry Birds Chrome now uses the Web Audio API
Cross-posted with the Google Code Blog
Last week Angry Birds for Chrome was updated to use the Web Audio API for all its in-game audio for Chrome users, which means Chrome users get the full Angry Birds experience, without any plugins. The Web Audio API supports a wide variety of use cases, including the high fidelity and low latency requirements of games. Users of other supported browsers will still get sound via Flash or HTML5 audio.
How does this cross-browser audio magic work? As you may have seen or heard, Angry Birds was in no small part made possible by the cross-platform open source PlayN library. When building for the HTML platform, PlayN in turn relies heavily on Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to delivery a highly optimized web experience for users, and on gwt-voices to easily deliver a cross-browser audio experience.
The responsibility of choosing the appropriate audio API for the game's sound is (mostly) left up to gwt-voices, which chooses the audio API that will give the best experience. If you'd like to hear how other audio APIs perform, you can ask gwt-voices to try to use the Web Audio API, Flash, HTML5 Audio, or even native audio. Your mileage will vary by browser and platform and which plugins you have installed. Also, gwt-voices will select the best available fallback, if the desired audio API is not going to work at all in your environment.
Want to learn more? Check out the Web Audio API tutorial and don't let those pigs grunt too much.
Last week Angry Birds for Chrome was updated to use the Web Audio API for all its in-game audio for Chrome users, which means Chrome users get the full Angry Birds experience, without any plugins. The Web Audio API supports a wide variety of use cases, including the high fidelity and low latency requirements of games. Users of other supported browsers will still get sound via Flash or HTML5 audio.
How does this cross-browser audio magic work? As you may have seen or heard, Angry Birds was in no small part made possible by the cross-platform open source PlayN library. When building for the HTML platform, PlayN in turn relies heavily on Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to delivery a highly optimized web experience for users, and on gwt-voices to easily deliver a cross-browser audio experience.
The responsibility of choosing the appropriate audio API for the game's sound is (mostly) left up to gwt-voices, which chooses the audio API that will give the best experience. If you'd like to hear how other audio APIs perform, you can ask gwt-voices to try to use the Web Audio API, Flash, HTML5 Audio, or even native audio. Your mileage will vary by browser and platform and which plugins you have installed. Also, gwt-voices will select the best available fallback, if the desired audio API is not going to work at all in your environment.
Want to learn more? Check out the Web Audio API tutorial and don't let those pigs grunt too much.
GWT and Dart
The Google Web Toolkit team has been asked recently about our plans following the announcement of the Dart programming language a few weeks ago.
Dart and GWT both share the goal of enabling structured web programming. In fact, many of the same engineers who brought you GWT are working on Dart. We view Dart as an ambitious evolution of GWT’s mission to make web apps better for end users, and we’re optimistic about its potential. As Dart evolves and becomes ready for prime time, we anticipate working closely with the GWT developer community to explore Dart.
Meanwhile, rest assured that GWT will continue to be a productive and reliable way to build the most ambitious web apps — and even games like Angry Birds. Key projects within Google rely on GWT every day, and we plan to continue improving (and open-sourcing) GWT based on their real-world needs.
Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE) is Now Open Source
Today is quite a milestone for the Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE). Our team is very happy to announce that all of GPE (including GWT Designer) is open source under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) v1.0. GPE is a set of software development tools that enables Java developers to quickly design, build, optimize, and deploy cloud-based applications using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Speed Tracer, App Engine, and other Google Cloud services.
Because of the large ecosystem that has developed around GWT, App Engine, and Google’s Cloud services, and because our primary mission is to help users (as opposed to creating proprietary development tools), it makes a lot of sense for us to open source GPE and make it easier for the community to enhance and extend the tools.
According to Red Hat’s Max Andersen, “We have many developers using Google's Eclipse plugin to develop GWT-based applications targeting the JBoss Application Server. With the open sourcing of the plugin we are looking forward to working even more closely with the Google team and the rest of the community on making the developer experience even more productive and an integrated part of Eclipse platform. We are especially interested in seeing the Google Eclipse plugins being able to target multiple runtimes such as the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and Google App Engine in a uniform way, working more seamlessly with standards-based tools and frameworks.”
As of today, all of the code is available directly from the new GPE project and GWT Designer project on Google Code. Note that GWT Designer itself is based upon the WindowBuilder open source project at Eclipse.org (contributed by Google last year). We will be adopting the same guidelines for contributing code used by the GWT project.
In the months to come we expect to start bringing on more committers, but don't let that stop you from contributing. The project will only grow with the community's input. Submitting bugs via the issue tracker and engaging with other users on the forums will go a long way towards ensuring the overall quality of the product.