New Theme Capabilities and Support for Google Web Toolkit Streamline Java-Based Application Development for Improved Productivity
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jun 17, 2014—Sencha, a leader in powering HTML5 development for desktop and mobile applications, today announced the general availability of Sencha GXT 3.1. The industry’s only enterprise-class UI framework for building rich, web-based apps with Java, GXT 3.1 offers a new Theme Builder tool and support for Google Web Toolkit (GWT) 2.6. These features enable developers to create apps using highly optimized HTML5 and JavaScript that are compatible across legacy and modern browsers, significantly improving app design, development and deployment.
First released in public beta on February 26, GXT 3.1 builds on community feedback to provide Theme Builder, a new tool for theming GXT applications. Theme Builder removes the need to manually theme each app. Developers can choose from more than 350 configuration properties to create and save their configuration files to generate a theme at the framework level that can be reused for all apps. Developers who prefer to use a template can use the new Neptune Theme, which is generated entirely within Theme Builder without custom HTML, CSS, images or Java. Theme Builder requires Java 7, but the code generated using Theme Builder also supports Java 6.
As the number of browsers and versions continues to grow, application developers must ensure that their apps are not only compatible across operating systems, but also across browser versions. Theme Builder streamlines browser compatibility by generating appearances that can be used across both modern and legacy browsers. If a browser does not support certain features, Theme Builder generates images of those features in place of modern CSS and HTML.
“Today’s application developers must balance a wide range of visual and compatibility factors when designing apps,” said Jeff Hartley, Sencha vice president of Products and Services. “With GXT 3.1, they no longer have to sacrifice one for the other—they can create visually compelling apps that work across modern and legacy platforms. They can focus their resources on creating the most engaging app user experience possible without worrying about backward and forward compatibility.”
GXT 3.1 provides new support for the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) 2.6 which empowers developers to write their applications in Java, then compile their code into cross-browser HTML5 and JavaScript. GXT 3.1 is fully interoperable with GWT 2.6 and enhances its capabilities by providing high-performance features including widgets, feature-rich templates and advanced charting.
“Sencha GXT literally made it possible to build our app, ClearFactr,” said Dean Zarras, President and CEO of Logic9s. “We were able to take our years of large-scale app dev experience and transition to a high-performance, highly scalable, Web-centric platform in a very short time. With Sencha GXT 3.1, we’ll use the new Theme Builder to develop a custom theme that matches our branding. We’re also eager to use the Grid Widget enhancements, such as multi-line cells, which combined with the existing first-rate rendering and navigation speed provide our users with a great experience.”
Sencha GXT 3.1 is available under both open source and commercial license options. Support for GWT 2.4 and 2.5 will no longer be provided with GXT’s version 3.1. For more information, please visit www.sencha.com/products/gxt/license.
