Spring — DWR — Ext JS Chat Application

[GitHub Repository for Code Samples]
https://github.com/sumithpuri/skp-code-marathon-kabootar

I was curious to explore the capabilities of Reverse Ajax. That's when I created this simple chat application using Spring/DWR/Ext JS.

From my experience, I can easily say that DWR is easy to learn and configure, especially when you are planning to integrate with Spring on the application tier. DWR has a powerful API to perform all relevant operations, right from accessing page script sessions to util classes for sending updates to the client.

I used Ext JS for creating the user interface, which renders stunning displays for elements like forms, buttons, etc. Ext JS has a very steep learning curve and each operation requires a lot of configuration and reference. Also, I found that the event handling mechanism, though complete, is very complex to use. I relied on external Javascript coding for handling events. On the upside, the documentation and support are really good for this framework. Despite this, I would instantly recommend the use of Ext JS for large-sized customer-facing web-based applications, especially for the internet. For medium-scale projects or enterprise-based projects, I would think twice.

Login Screen

Chat Screen

Simply, drop the .war file in your web/app server. All dependencies are available in the archive itself. The only external reference is 'servlet-api.jar', which is part of the default lib in all the latest containers. The source is packaged separately. Once deployed, the URL to access should be: http://[server_name]:[server_port]/kabootar/login.kabootar

If you are trying to figure out what 'Kabootar' means, it's Hindi for 'Pigeon'...

Though this Example is from Spring 3.1.x and DWR 3.x and Ext JS 2.x => The Concepts Demonstrated will Continue to Hold Good for any Version of these Frameworks (Albeit with Some Modifications, which can be Easily Ascertained via Internet Research)

[GitHub Repository for Code Samples]
https://github.com/sumithpuri/skp-code-marathon-kabootar