Where do I put static files for GWT app? war folder or public folder?

Question

I have some JavaScript files, a main HTML file, a main CSS file, and some CSS files that get imported into the main one.

I understand that I can put static files in

Answer 1

As I see it, it depends on your requirements, but let's start at a speaking example first ...

I find the documentation (should be GWT 2.6.0) about this to be incorrect or at least incomplete/confusing. As I see it (I am not a guru so please correct me if my investigations are wrong!) I am looking at the following example proj structure

myproj/
  src/my/gwtproj/
     client/
       img/
         foo1.png
       AppClientBundle.java
       foo2.png
     public/
       img/
         foo3.png
       foo4.png
  war/
    img/foo5.png
    foo6.png
  .classpath
  .project

Imagine we may (or may not) need to reference such resources in some AppClientBundle interface (or other application reference context):

interfaces AppClientBundle extends ClientBundle {

  @Source("img/foo1.png")
  ImageResource fooImg();
}

Then it seems to depend on your Requirements, e.g.:

• R.a) these resources (like images) are refered to in the application code, e.g. in our AppClientBundle interface via @Source annotations
• R.b) these resources are to be grouped by folders, e.g. foo2.png vs. img/foo1.png
• R.c) these resources should be available outside some specific application URL context path, e.g. if used as widget library, e.g. http://host1/gwtapp1/foo4.png vs. http://host1/gwtapp2/foo4.png
• R.d) these resources need to be application-independently (e.g. externally) URL-referenced, e.g. http://host1/gwtapp1/foo4.png vs. http://host1/foo6.png

Here's what one can do (Possibilities) and it's implications regarding R.* above:

• P.1) (generally recommended as I see it) put nicely folder-structured resources under my.gwtproj.client (here e.g. foo1.png)
  • this way @Source("img/foo1.png")... works fine
  • in the docs above they speek about some public folder (in my case my.gwtproj.public), but creating it as a package in Eclipse does not me allow this (since public is a reserved Java key word, but creating it via the Navigator view works)
    • however, this way the @Source above does not work (likely because it's an issue with the relative AppClientBundle file system location)
    • nevertheless if the resource should be publicly available under the application context one may have to do it via this public folder
• P.2) put "ungrouped" resources directly under myproj/war, e.g. projdir/war/foo6.png
  • this way it can be used/found within annotations, e.g. @Source
  • and it can be referenced outside the application itself via e.g. http://host1/foo6.png
• P.3) put folder-structured resources under myproj/war, e.g. projdir/war/img/foo5.png
  • in contrast to P.2) @Source("img/foo5.png") would not work anymore