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Currently writing about GWT, Ajax, Leopard, iPhone Development, and Java.
Announcing GWTFlow: Ajax Cover Flow photo gallery
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
View GWTFlow version 0.1
GWTFlow is a mashup photo viewer I wrote using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) for an upcoming Dr. Dobbs article. GWTFlow uses CoverFlow-like effects for navigating through photos. Currently you can view photos from Flickr, but it's designed to support other image services like Picasa Web Albums. The article, which I co-authored with Ed Burnette, gives a hands-on look at GWT development using GWTFlow as our sample application. It is scheduled to be published in the December issue of Dr. Dobbs Journal.
GWTFlow's user interface is inspired by the .Mac Web Gallery, which was redesigned in August 2007 to make extensive use of the Prototype & Script.aclo.us frameworks. Apple's web gallery has three viewing modes: grid, mosaic, and carousel. Grid and mosaic modes are great examples of Ajax applications (if slightly resource intensive). Unfortunately, the Cover Flow-like carousel mode initially used Flash instead of Ajax*. This led to some criticism from Ajaxian readers, wishing that Apple had done the entire application in Ajax. GWTFlow, I'm proud to say, is 100% Flash-free. : )
GWTFlow uses standard GWT widgets for positioning the images and callouts to Script.aculo.us for the effects. All of the photos are just Image objects placed on an AbsolutePanel, with a little math behind the scenes to determine positioning & simulate perspective. Albums & images are retrieved via RPC calls to a Java service, which then calls out to Flickr's public API using flickrj. GWT made development & debugging a breeze, with history & cross-browser support basically coming for free. Not being a JavaScript expert, this would have been a nightmare for me to build by hand and expect it to work on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
As a 0.1 release, there are obviously some bugs. Performance is dependent on the client machine; everything runs smoothly on my workstation, but the effects are a little jumpy on my laptop and downright ugly on my iPhone (poor 620mhz ARM processor). Larger photo albums also degrade performance. There's a known bug where some Flickr accounts aren't getting loaded properly, possibly due to spaces in the username. In future versions, I'd like to add Picasa support, more options for navigating through photos (keyboard, slider, etc), and integration with Adam Tacy's gwt-fx effects library. I'd also like to angle the images & add reflections to make it more like Cover Flow, but I'm a little worried about hurting performance.
The latest GWTFlow version should always be available at http://www.adamhoughton.com/GWTFlow. Any feedback is appreciated! Once the Dr. Dobbs article is published, I'll post a link. I should have the complete source code online soon.
* Since I first starting working on GWTFlow, it looks like Apple rolled out a version of Carousel mode that uses Ajax instead of Flash. Good for them.
Comments:
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Just what the doctor ordered. Great component. When can we expect to see the source code?
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# posted by 
: November 17, 2007 5:16 AM
: November 17, 2007 5:16 AM << Home
