GWT implementing-- Sophistication of CellTable behavior, flexibility of CellList look

Question

With a GWT CellTable its possible to add different columns that handle the click event in different ways.

For example lets say we have 3 columns:

1. an Avatar Image (ImageCell),
2. a name (TextCell),
3. checkbox (Checkbox cell).

Then image adding these events:

1. When the ImageCell is clicked we can open a popup.
2. When the checkbox is clicked select the row.
3. When the name is clicked open the users profile.

With a CellTable it's straight forward to accomplish this.

However what if we wanted a view that doesn't look like a table. The CellTable is tied to a HTML Table for its implementation. Why not allow for a general HTML implementation of the CellTable (behavioral) API.

Using a CellList we can accomplish any view. But the API isn't as sophisticated as the CellTable. It would be cool if we could add something analogs to CellTable 'Columns' to a CellList.

Is there anyway to accomplish this with the current Cell Widgets? I might have over looked something.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think there are two solutions:

1. Use a CellTable and style it so that it looks like a CellList. This should be quite straightforward and possible. However you would have to play with the CSS styles a little bit. Best approach would be to use Firebug to change the styles on the fly and see the results instantly
2. Use a CellList and create a custom cell which renders and handles events for your use case (Avatar, Name and Checkbox). This is more involved but there is a tutorial on the GWT page.

I would probably try to go with solution 2 because it also teaches you how to create custom Cells which might come in handy later on.

Update:

As Thomas suggested in the comments you can use a CompositeCell which wraps 3 different cells. That's probably the easiest way to implement it.