Beginning GWT and Java - which is the best route when coming from LAMP background? [closed]

Question

I've worked a lot with php/mysql on Linux servers, including frameworks, orm etc. Now I want to give GWT and Java a try!

Installing GWT SDK, Eclipse plugin etc and running a "Hello world" is no problem. The server is running automagically in the background, taken care of by Eclipse. But when it comes to setting it up my self, there seems to be confusingly many options. Jetty? Tomcat? Glassfish? How are those related/combinable to/with Apache?

Are there any good resources or tutorials for setting up java development and server environments suited for one like me with PHP background? Maybe pointing out the possibilities of running PHP and Java on the same server?

Answer 1

Jetty, Tomcat and Glassfish are all Servlet containers (well, Glassfish is much more but in the context of a GWT application, it is). They deal with running your GWT application's backend (the server endpoint of RPC calls).

What you call "Apache" is probably Apache's HTTP Server. Tomcat is also produced by Apache. It is not uncommon to want both running on the same server, with the HTTP Server serving up mainly static or non-Servlet content and Tomcat handling servlet requests. This seems to be a good lead: Tomcat-Apache HOWTO