Make Goole Waves UI Look/Feel the default for GWT.

[dankurka]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 3742

I've been blown away with how good Google Wave looks and feels and would
like to suggest that the Wave look and feel be the default for GWT.

This comes about for a couple of reasons.

The first is that in our team we are all Java developers (GWT fits), but
not CSS Designers.  We love writing software for our users, but hate
styling it.  We need something that just looks good OOTB.

Second is that we would want to stick with core GWT and not a library on
top.  We have been looking at GXT, SmartGWT etc.  Although these give you
that OOTB look and feel, we tend to shy away as they do not use all the new
features from GWT.

Is the Wave theme possible as this is the biggest hurdle for us developers
(not designers).

Reported by djb.bell on 2009-06-11 11:42:16

[dankurka]

Damn my spelling/typing :)

Reported by djb.bell on 2009-06-11 11:43:18

[dankurka]

We should look into whether Wave's theming can be generalized for inclusion in a 
default theme.

Reported by sumitchandel+legacy@google.com on 2009-06-11 23:22:02

• Labels added: Type-Enhancement, Category-UI

[dankurka]

That would be great.  I'm sure the uptake of GWT would go through the roof if it had
a default theme like Wave.

Thanks.

Reported by djb.bell on 2009-06-12 23:55:59

[dankurka]

Any update on whether this can be included?  We are going to make a decision soon on
which toolkit.  We'd like to use GWT 2.0, but would like a nice OOTB theme.

Thanks.

Reported by djb.bell on 2009-07-12 20:54:33

[dankurka]

This would be nice, but it certainly won't be happening in the GWT 2.0 time frame.

Reported by rjrjr+personal@google.com on 2009-07-13 17:55:44

• Status changed: NotPlanned

[dankurka]

How about 2.1?  ;)
Time to start digging into CSS.

Reported by djb.bell on 2009-07-13 21:53:12

[dankurka]

Would it be possible just to have the Google Wave Theme as an option?

Reported by srdrucker on 2009-12-23 03:20:00

[dankurka]

I definitely support this. The default GWT themes are ugly. Plus, I feel teased
seeing the themes on the GWT screenshots on the GWT docs.
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/latest/DevGuideUiPanels.html Maybe I'm missing
this theme somewhere?

Reported by jprichardson on 2009-12-26 07:43:15

[dankurka]

This would be very nice indeed, but Wave uses relatively few native browser widgets
for things like scrollbars, dropdowns, buttons, etc., instead using richly styled
divs in their place.  Arguably, ditching many of the native browser widgets like this
is the only way to achieve consistent, cross-browser themes, and is almost certainly
the reason that Wave (and other libraries, like GXT) does it this way.

That being the case, this is more than just a styling issue but also a widget library
issue, since you need for example a Button interface with multiple implementations
(one for the real button and one for the styled div), and even worse you might need
to deal with use cases that assume the DOM element is actually a button.

I remember reading at one point that a design goal of GWT was to prefer the use of
native widgets whenever possible.  The reality is that this is a limiting decision
from a visual styling perspective, especially when you start mixing native widgets
with ones that are not natively supported by any browsers (true combo boxes,
spinners, sliders) but are required for many applications.

I thought that I had seen that stated goal in the "Design Axioms" section of the
"Making GWT Better" page, but it doesn't seem to be there now.  Maybe I saw it
somewhere else, or maybe the axioms are being softened so as not to conflict with
something like this.  Either way, it's not going to be simple but I agree it would
be
awfully nice to have.

Reported by geoffspeicher on 2010-01-05 22:08:51