Question : Comparing Ruby on Rails to Google Web Toolkit

Dear experts,

From what i read, RoR has great support to AJAX. My question is how Ruby on Rails compare to Google Web Toolkit?

In other words, what does Google Web Toolkit have, that RoR does not have?

What about Google Map Toolkit?

Can we use both RoR & Google Toolkit at the same application?

Thank you & best

Answer : Comparing Ruby on Rails to Google Web Toolkit

They are just two different things and I don't see a real use for them together.

Ruby on Rails is a platform for building web applications. RoR is mainly usefull if you want to build dynamic sites, based on relational databases. One of the things that are very well supported in RoR is AJAX. There is a number of AJAX functionality that you can add to your pages in a very Ruby-like way. The pages that are then created have JavaScript auto generated.

It that the functionality looks a bit like GWT. in GWT you develop an application in Java. At the end of the day, this Java code is then transformed into HTML and JavaScript, giving you an AJAX application.

So one could say that both frameworks offer you the possibility to develop an AJAX application using a languagae of choice (Ruby or Java). After development there is an automatic transformation from the language of choice to HTML/JavaScript.
But here the comparisson stops.

How to decide which one to use? RoR Ajax is only usefull if you are already using RoR for your project.
If you are building a database driven website, I strongly recommend you do... it is very nice and easy.
If you are using RoR and you need AJAX, there is a very good support (way better than with its alternatives Django, TurboGears, CakePHP, ...)

GWT is mainly usefull if you are a good Java developer and in my opinion when your site has a java grounding (though that is not really necessary) Of course you need to integrate the JavaScript pages with calls to the server. And as mnathani claims... GWT can be pretty complex.

GWT might have a bit more power than RoR, but I don't see them working together

cheers

Geert