Instantiations, Inc., announced the release of GWT Designer 1.0, the first comprehensive tool for creating AJAX Web applications using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). Shorthand for asynchronous JavaScript and XML,AJAX is increasingly popular as a way to code rich Internet applications. GWT Designer is built on WindowBuilder Pro, the company's market-leading Eclipse tool for creating Java graphical user- interface (GUIs) applications for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh and other operating systems.

"By building on the WindowBuilder product framework, we were able to bring the first comprehensive, GWT development tool to market just four months after Google announced GWT," said Eric Clayberg, senior vice president of product development, Instantiations, Inc. "GWT Designer uses wizards, WYSIWYG builders and code generation to help developers rapidly create and test GUIs in Eclipse and Java before deploying them as AJAX applications."

Like WindowBuilder Pro, GWT Designer provides developers with a rich WYSIWYG GUI construction environment. Developers simply drag-and-drop composites, layouts and controls when building user interfaces. They can focus on creating and testing rich Internet applications using Eclipse, Java and GWT without worrying about the complexities of AJAX coding. In less time, they can develop reliable applications and test and deploy them as AJAX applications using the Java-to-JavaScript compiler provided by Google. GWT Designer also contains many other features including:

*True bi-directional code generation - All changes made directly to the
Java source code are reflected immediately in the graphical designer.
And changes in the graphical designer are reflected immediately in the
Java code.
*Real WYSIWYG design - The design view shows real GWT/HTML controls so
all properties are reflected graphically.
*Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) support - GWT Designer can apply CSS to
Design View, so you can see exactly how screens will look in the
browser.
*Speeds up design processes - Using acceleration technology for fast
bytecode modification, GWT Designer opens a design in a couple
seconds - much faster than launching the application in the GWT Hosted
Web Browser.
*Rich editing experience - GWT Designer supports all panel types with
convenient and appropriate layout edit policies. AbsolutePanels provide
"Matisse-like" widget snapping and alignment. Graphically layout grids,
flextables and tabpanels.
*Wizards and builders - GWT Designer provides wizards for creating new
PopupPanels, DialogBoxes and Composites. Wizards for creating new GWT
projects and RemoteServices.
*GWT application launching - GWT Application launch configuration
includes a launch shortcut for fast launching using popup menu or
editor hot key.
*Intelligent refactoring - Renaming or moving a module class or remote
service updates the module XML file and renames any associated Async
and Impl classes.
*Internationalization - Extract hard coded strings to resource bundles
and automatically manage multiple locales.
*Easy build and deployment - One-click deployment tool automatically
creates a project WAR file and uploads it to your server. An ANT script
is generated for an easy, repeatable build process.

"Several members of our GWT development team have participated in the beta test of GWT Designer and were impressed by its speed, WYSIWYG design and bi-directional code generation," said Bret Taylor, GWT product manager at Google. "GWT Designer is the kind of tool that will encourage greater adoption of GWT and reinforce Java as a viable programming model for creating Ajax applications that work in all browsers."

"I have worked with at a lot of Eclipse plugins and I have to say this is absolutely one of the best," said Ray Lukas, who is a software architect at Pilot Software and beta tested GWT Designer. "I have used Eclipse plugins for a number of different products and none of them are as good as GWT Designer. The team at Instantiations should be very proud of this product."