We’re happy to announce the release of GXT 4.0.3, now generally available! The GXT 4.0.3 release includes GWT 2.8.x support, new Forkable and Explorer Examples and hundreds of defect fixes to help you build feature-rich, HTML 5 applications faster.
Table of Contents
Try It Out
- GXT customers: Download GXT 4.0.3 from the support portal or Maven artifactory
- New Users: Download a free 30-day trial of GXT
- Learn more by reading the what’s new in GXT 4.0.3 guide
Join our upcoming webinar on April 24th at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST, “What’s New in GXT 4.0.3”. Register now.
What’s New in GXT 4.0.3
Forkable Examples
In GXT 4.0.3 there are some exciting new enhancements that we have implemented to help improve developer productivity. We extracted the Examples Explorer from the SDK and added it to github, which allows you to quickly import it to your system, run and debug the examples. We’ve also added the source for the executive dashboard and two new examples you can view in our documentation.
More Explorer Examples
In the GXT 4.0.3 Examples Explorer you’ll see new examples to help you determine the proper configurations for using font icons with your modern GXT application, layout container type examples like HTML layout, and more. And now that the GXT examples have been extracted, we can add more examples over the months to come, so keep your eyes peeled on the GXT communities for more updates.
The GXT Explorer examples
GWT 2.8.x Support
GXT 4.0.3 works great with GWT 2.8.2. With GWT 2.8.2 you can use the new JsInterop libraries which allows you to write Javascript easily with Java. You will also be able to take advantage of writing your GXT application with Java 1.8 syntax. And this version supports using Java 1.9 as the default runtime. Check out all the features in GWT 2.8.2 here.
Javadocs
We’ve added more Javadocs including all of the GXT 4.0.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, and 4.0.3 javadocs. You’ll also find the Javadocs for GWT 2.7.0 and GWT 2.8.2. Find all the Javadocs here.
The Javadocs api list
Defect Fixes
We’ve fixed hundreds of issues in GXT 4.0.3. We’ve also spent hundreds of hours on testing for regressions. You can find the full list of fixes in the GXT release notes. With so many issues fixed, there may be some differences in the application layout and typical behavior when upgrading.
Support
The Sencha Support team is always standing by to help you build your application. They can help you figure out unique scenarios that may not seem like there is an easy solution readily available. You can contact Sencha Support at support@sencha.com.
The Future
GXT has an exciting future this year, with two major initiatives to come. The first is putting GXT back on course with a regular minor release cadence. And the second is providing major features to help quicken your application development.
Try GXT and Share Your Feedback
Download GXT 4.0.3 from the support portal or get started with a free trial today and share your feedback in the forum. We look forward to reading your comments.
It will work in Windows 10?
Good question. Yes, we spent many hours fixing issues around the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows 10.
Thanks Brandon!
Good to hear, thanks for the feedback.
When is gxt 5 going to be released?
At the moment, GXT 5 has been put on ice. And the reason for that, we wanted to concentrate our business where the vast amount of customers were at. With that said, we’ve been waiting for GWT 3 as well. This doesn’t mean we have stopped looking and developing into the future, we just decided to slow down and wait for for the GWT 3 release.
Will it work with Java 10 onward? What is the release plan for that?
Java 10,11 are on the roadmap. Although, I’m not sure when we will get there yet. That said, Java 9 runtime can be used with GXT 4.x and GWT 2.8.2, except you can’t use the Java 9 syntax yet. I have a list of the versions we currently support here, minus Java 9 hasn’t been added yet. http://docs.sencha.com/gxt/4.x/guides/getting_started/Versions.html
I am a bit frustrated… when we first used GXT a couple of years ago, it boasts that there are no external css/javascript (iirc) but it seems that, on the road forward, it will eventually become a wrapper of ExtJS and… what is the value-add of GXT, instead of coding in ExtJS, if it no longer have its widgets natively created above GWT? For example, if it is really going to everything JsInterop/JSNI into ExtJS, will the code ultimately compiled via GWT be as scrambled (unreadable by human) as before, when the widgets are no longer implemented natively with GWT? And, we would like to know if, and when, we have to convert existing code with native GXT Grid/Tree/etc. to the wrapped ExtJS equivalents?
I know how feel, I’ve felt the same way. And what I have found is we have rich components in our sister product that could be used with GXT. I’d like to provide a feature rich framework with even more features to use with GXT to get the job done. And I’ve had requests for more charts, and we only have so many engineers that are really great at math. So I’d like to save on time, and help get those to GXT quickly and the JSNI/JsInterop provides a quick road to offer these data rich features for application development. That said, all this can be easily done the Java benefits of static syntax and compilling. While were making charts available, this will expose all the core features of Ext JS as an option to use. So this is going to bring more features to the GXT application development.
We have companies with huge investements sunk into GXT and we plan on continiously making it more stable, and better. We don’t plan on stopping with what we have currently just because we want to bring more features to our frame with using Ext JS.
Currently there is no need to convert into this new model, it’s going to be seen as an extension, where you could pick from the Ext JS shopping cart. The goal is to provide more value with what we have.
Great job Brandon
… I am going to give it a try very soon :)
Cheers,
Sorinel
Thank you and thanks for the feedback!
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Brandon,
What is the future road map for GXT. Currently we are using GXT 2.3.1a-gwt22 and have plans to upgrade to GXT 4.0.3. but we are thinking what’s the road map after this upgrade. So can you give more on details on future road map including the java 11 support.
Thanks,
Venkat
Hi Brandon
I downloaded gxt jar one, few years back , didnt pay anything , and its still working ,
but every where it says GXT is for a price and not free, I like to understand , what is Free is GXT and whats not ,
A simple jar download and keep working on it is Not Free ?
thanks