Java Reference
In-Depth Information
C H A P T E R 5
■ ■ ■
Developing Your Application
In the last chapter we looked at some of the libraries and frameworks that are compatible
with App Engine plus some sample applications that run on App Engine's servlet
container. Now it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. To make your application
a little more interesting, you are going to be writing the presentation layer using Google
Web Toolkit (GWT).). We'll examine the functional and technical specifications for the
project and then walk through the code over the next couple of chapters.
If you are reading this topic, you are probably a software engineer. At some time
or another you have probably worked as a consultant writing code for clients for
money, billing your work as a fixed-price job or as time and expense. If you've done
any time-and-expense work, then you are familiar with reporting your time to clients
and having them pay you for your efforts. If this is the case, then the application you
will be building will be quite familiar to you.
Functional Specifications
You will be building a simple timecard-entry system throughout the next couple of
chapters. Your application won't have all of the bells and whistles of a commercial-
grade system, but it will have enough to really sink your teeth into Google App Engine
and GWT, to a certain extent.
The basic functionality of your application should include:
•
Authentication against some type of user repository to provide
users with their own project settings and data.
•
The ability for users to select a date range so that they can enter
time for any start day of the week.
•
A picklist for displaying a list of all projects that users are working
on so that they can report time against each project.
•
A picklist with project-specific milestones that users can report
time against.
89
