For developers who use tools to build desktop applications, there’s Sencha’s announcement of the availability of Sencha GXT 4, which now allows them to extend their desktop applications to tablet devices with little to no modification to the existing application codebase.
Sencha GXT 4 is a comprehensive Java framework for building feature-rich applications, which Java developers can use to build and deploy HTML5 applications for desktops and tablets, as well as convert existing GXT applications to mobile. The framework also includes support for RPC, RequestFactory, and JSON so developers can feed data to the applications using any data source.
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“Twenty years in the making, the Java ecosystem is now stronger than ever,” said Gautam Agrawal, senior director of product management at Sencha. “By introducing tablet support, we’re building on that strength by enabling our developer community to easily deliver robust Java-based HTML5 applications on modern devices that provide the right user experience, on the right device, at the right time.”
Touchscreen device support in GXT 4 includes:
• Gesture Recognizers: Convert touch events into logical gestures such as double tap and long press.
• Touch-Enabled Components: GXT components have been enhanced to respond to touch and gestures, and in most cases, developers will not need to update their application code to take advantage of these features.
• Touch Scroller: Improves the browser scrolling experience on touch-sensitive devices.
A full overview of Sencha GXT is available here.
