Book of Vaadin - Vaadin 7 Draft Edition

I just sent the Book of Vaadin, Vaadin 7 Draft Edition, to print. I've been really busy with it for the last month, as there is so much to do. Some years ago, when we went from IT Mill Toolkit 4 to 5, it took over six months to rewrite it. Now the book is many times bigger and the changes in Vaadin 7 are really radical.

The edition is really a draft, and it says so right in the title and in many places inside the book. Many of the changes in Vaadin 7 require going through the book almost word by word, so I hope to get it done before the end of the year.

Also, the last batch of Vaadin 7 enhancements is yet to be released in the first beta, which should be out at the end of August.

The printed book will be available at JavaOne, and at some other locations. We try not to print this draft in huge numbers, just for the most important conferences in fall of 2012.

Big Changes in Vaadin 7

The first big thing in Vaadin 7 is the renewal of the basic application API. You no longer extend Application to write an application, but a Root (name is subject to change). Root is much what Window used to be, and the Window now means only a sub-window. There's also a separate Page object associated with a Root.

Another big topic is the client-side API, which has been essentially rewritten to use connectors that communicate between a client-side widget and the server-side component. The framework handles state object serialization transparently, and there is also an RPC mechanism. Hence, the client-side development chapter has been rewritten from scratch and it still needs a lot of work.

For most developers, also forms and data conversions are very important. There is no longer a Form component, but a FieldGroup that helps in binding fields and data together. I have written probably a hundred examples that use the old Form, so there's quite a lot work in converting them all to the new model.

And there are dozens of other significant changes.

Vaadin += GWT

Then perhaps the biggest thing in Vaadin 7 is that it now includes GWT. Just putting the GWT classes inside the Vaadin JAR sounds does not itself sound significant, the significance comes from the consequence that as we provide support for Vaadin, which now includes GWT, we also provide support for GWT. Vaadin now also effectively supports two development models: one for the server-side as before, but also for pure client-side applications.

Pure client-side Vaadin applications are of course more restricted, but they have their uses. Not all applications need data from a server, but just work on data input by the user. Also, pure client-side application can work off-line, unlike server-side Vaadin applications (unless you install the server on the client machine). For example, the Vornitologist demo for TouchKit has an off-line mode that displays a pure client-side version of the application when the network is not reachable. It uses HTML5 local storage to store the application itself, as well as the data, until the network is reached again and it can send the data back to the server. Then, the application can revert back to the full-featured server-side application. To try it out, run the demo on either an Android or iOS device.

References

Some links:

• Book of Vaadin for Vaadin 7 (HTML, PDF)
• Book Examples for Vaadin 7
• Vaadin 7 Mini Tutorials written by the DEV team
• Download page with many Vaadin 7 links

Notice again, that the Book and the book examples are really unfinished drafts at this point, and will be in better shape at the end of the year when Vaadin 7 is planned to be released.