HTML5

Sencha Takes GXT 3.1 for Creating HTML5 Apps Out of Beta

Monday, May 12, 2014

As we reported a couple of months ago with its beta introduction, GXT 3.1 is an enterprise-class UI framework for building web-based apps with Java. And now Sencha has announced that it has taken GXT 3.1 out of beta.

GXT 3.1 offers a new Theme Builder tool and support for Google Web Toolkit (GWT) 2.6 which allows developers to create apps using HTML5 and JavaScript that are compatible across legacy and modern browsers.

The Theme Builder tool for theming GXT applications 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 Javascript. Theme Builder requires Java 7, but the code generated using Theme Builder also supports Java 6.

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.

GXT 3.1 also provides new support for the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) 2.6 which allows developers to write apps 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 including widgets, templates and advanced charting.

Sencha GXT 3.1 is available under both open source and commercial license options.