Advanced Features

of

SmartGWT framework

Ladislav Mačkala

IT director, Podsjetnik d.o.o

About me

• 15+ years of experience in Java development and relational database design and implementation

• Holding B.Sc. And M.Sc. in Computing, Ph.D. in progress

• Have lead Java development teams in several software companies in Croatia

• Currently leading small IT team in medical tourism company

What is this presentation about?

• About a really good piece of software

• About even cooler features of that good piece of softwarepiece of software

SmartGWT at glance (1)

• RIA development framework: • end-to-end application architecture

• a zero-install Ajax/HTML5 client engine• a zero-install Ajax/HTML5 client engine

• rich user interface components & services

• client-server data binding systems

• “One language to rule them all”:• written in Java

• cross-compiled to JavaScript on the client side

• integrated with desired Java technologies on the server side

SmartGWT architecture

SmartGWT advanced features

• Real-time messaging module – based on HTTP streaming (aka “Comet”), integration with JMSintegration with JMS

• Analytics module – BI, analytics and reporting client module

What is Comet?

• Comet – “a web application model in which a long-held HTTP request allows a web server to push data to a browser, a web server to push data to a browser, without the browser explicitly requesting it”

• AKA: Ajax Push, Reverse Ajax, Two-way web, HTTP Streaming, HTTP server push

RTM Module - features

• SmartGWT Real-time Messaging Module (RTM) supports Comet

• Features:• asynchronous delivery of real-time messages to the client• asynchronous delivery of real-time messages to the client

• High data delivery rates

• Works through firewalls, HTTP proxies and other intervening network devices

• Supports codeless integration with JMS (Java Message Service)

• Supports custom connector architecture for other message sources

RTM Module –programming model

• Extremely simple programming model:

• Message producers – can be on the client or on the server sideor on the server side

• Message subscribers – on the client side

• A channel – a common denominator for both message producers and consumers

• A message – a java.lang.Object, consumer has to know what producer produced

RTM Module – do some plumbing

• Include required jars in the project

• Register a servlet in WEB-INF/web.xml:

<servlet><servlet>

<servlet-name>MessagingServlet</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>com.isomorphic.messaging.MessagingServlet</servlet-class>

</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>

<servlet-name>MessagingServlet</servlet-name>

<url-pattern>/myapp/sc/messaging/*</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

RTM Module – generate a message (1)

• On the client side, inside any GUI component, just call Message.send()

public void sendChatMessage() {

String userName = (String) chatForm.getValue("user");

Object messageText = chatForm.getValue("msg");

String message = "<b>" + userName + ":</b> " + (String) String message = "<b>" + userName + ":</b> " + (String)

messageText + "<br><br>";

Messaging.send("chatChannel", message, new RPCCallback () {

@Override

public void execute(RPCResponse response, Object rawData,

RPCRequest request) {

if (response.getStatus() != RPCResponse.STATUS_SUCCESS) {

SC.say("Failed send message to server.");

}

}

});

}

RTM Module – generate a message (2)

• Or on the server side, inside DMI class, some Spring bean or something similar:

private void sendToClients(…) throws Exception {

final ISCMessageDispatcher dispatcher = ISCMessageDispatcher.instance();

final Map data = new HashMap();

data.put(“key1”, someValue1);

data.put(“key2”, someValue2);

dispatcher.send(new ISCMessage(“myChannell”, (Object) data));

}

RTM Module – consume a message

• On the client side, inside any GUI component, register a handler that will listen to the channel and process messages as they come:

Messaging.subscribe("chatChannel", new MessagingCallback() {

@Override

public void execute(Object data) {

chatLog.setContents(chatLog.getContents() + (String)data);

}

});

RTM Module – operation modes

• 2 operation modes:• Simple mode

• in-memory messaging delivery system

• no message persistence • no message persistence

• operates only in the context of a single JVM

• Enterprise mode • uses Java Message Service (JMS) as the

messaging backend

• can operate in a clustered environment

RTM Module –integration

• Easily integrable with JMS servers

• Examples of third-party integration in the SmartGWT wiki:the SmartGWT wiki:

• Integration with JBoss AS JMS Server

• Integration with Tomcat and ActiveMQ

RTM Module – use cases

• From examples and the wiki:• Simple chat between clients

• Stock quotes in real time

• Propagation of data set updates to all clients

• From the real world:• Notifying clients about various business events in

the system

• Monitoring client activities

• Real-time collaboration between clients

Analytics module - overview

• CubeGrid

• wraps OLAP cube functionality into a single interactive grid componentinteractive grid component

• data analysis engine

• access to multidimensional data and calculations

• view, analyze and extract data

• front-ends for business intelligence, analytics and reporting applications

Analytics module - operations

• Operations on the CubeGrid

• performing analysis of very large data sets

• user is able to re-organize or re-orient the • user is able to re-organize or re-orient the way information is viewed on the fly

• slicing, dicing

• drilling up and drilling down

• rolling-up, pivoting

Analytics module -terminology

• OLAP terminology <=> CubeGrid terminology:

• Data cube <=> Cube • Data cube <=> Cube • Means: multidimensional dataset

• Dimension <=> Facet• Means: dimension, attribute, or feature

• Member <=> Facet value• Means: dimension member, attribute value, or

feature value

The CubeGrid - features

• Features of the CubeGrid:• add and remove facets on the fly

• expand or collapse within facets and across facets• expand or collapse within facets and across facets

• drag-and-drop re-arrangement and pivoting of facets

• interactive operations (select, resize, reorder, minimize, maximize or auto-fit of columns)

• HTML5 Charts with mobile support

• Loading-On-Demand - only visible data is loaded

The CubeGrid – add row

front-ends for business intelligence, analytics and reporting applications

The CubeGrid – row added

Analytics module – data sources

• CubeGrid can be connected to various data sources:

• MDX• MDX

• XMLA

• OLAP4J

• Regular SmartGWT SQLDataSource – i.e. anything that SmartGWT supports as data source

Analytics module -integration

• CubeGrid can be easily integrated with OLAP server through mentioned protocolsprotocols

• Examples of third-party OLAP servers integration in the SmartGWT wiki:

• Pentaho Mondrian Server

• JasperReport Server

• Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services

Analytics module – use cases

• Integration of Analytics module into the application for transactional database

• Fetching data for Analytics module from • Fetching data for Analytics module from transactional database, no OLAP server

• Analysis of real-life data:

• Marketing department data

• Sales / customer support department data

• Production department data

• Financial data

SmartGWT licensing

• Client-side – LGPL

• Server-side – commercial license• 3 levels (Power, Pro, Enterprise)• 3 levels (Power, Pro, Enterprise)

• Per developer, Enterprise per CPU or flat rate also

• No runtime licenses, just for developers

• 60-days trial

• Advanced modules – commercial license

• Payed support, training etc. available

SmartGWT links

• Homepage: http://www.smartclient.com

• Comparing with the competition: http://www.smartclient.com/product/competition.jsp

• SmartGWT Showcase: http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwt/showcase/#mainhttp://www.smartclient.com/smartgwt/showcase/#main

• SmartGWT Enterprise Showcase:http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwtee/showcase/

• Forum: http://forums.smartclient.com

• Blog: http://blog.isomorphic.com

• Wiki: https://isomorphic.atlassian.net/wiki/display/Main/Isomorphic+P

ublic+Wiki

Q & A

http://groups.google.com/group/smartgwt-hr