We Keep Coding

Development of a Web Application(CRM) in GWT

I am student. Currently, I am experienced with Core Java and very introductory Servlets and JSPs concepts.
For my summer internship, I have a task at hand where I am to develop a social CRM for a small startup.
I am very new to web development, I have no prior experience in this field, I am familiar with the technologies involved though, however I want to start off now and develop a good project in the summers.
I want to base my project on Java, I am considering using GWT for all client side AJAX work along with a J2EE server.
Would this be a right decision on my part? What is the learning curve involved with GWT? Can I really start off with something like a small CRM without doing nothing more than a HelloWorld previously?
Need some suggestions as to how should I kick start my work and progress quickly with concepts and my project as well.

If you want to develop a good project, like you say, then I believe this is a very fine choice. It's certainly not the easiest one (you could probably hack something quickly with PHP etc.), but I'd say that it really pays off.
I would suggest to follow the official tutorial and the remainder of the official documentation (stay away from the "Editors" framework for now though, it's madness at the moment.)
If you already have a solid background in Core Java, and if you get the right picture of how GWT works (eg which code is transformed to JavaScript / when HTTP requests will occur / ...) I think you can absolutely do it. Make sure to get some solid HTML/CSS and a little bit of JavaScript background first.
I must add, that I would personally not go the Roo route (sorry #jgrabowski) - especially not at first (probably not ever, even though Roo is probably a very good tool, if you like such tools.)
Understand the GWT technology,
create a few very simple prototype apps (just for fun),
then learn to apply best architecture practices, and improve your code.
And maybe you'll find, that a different architecture may even work better for your app (Just as an example: In the case of the largest application I'm currently working on, the generally-suggested MVP architecture would simply not work very well, at least not the way it's usually presented. So it's sometimes better to form a good solid understanding first, instead of blindly copying "best practices". Then you can make an informed decision, and develop a good project!)

You can start playing with Spring's Roo and generate GWT skeleton of your application. Then you can analyze it, try to understand it, improve it (and even remove Roo from it afterwards:-).
Roo is able to generate well architected GWT application that is inline with current best practices, so I believe it might be good start for you.

Found an excellent source for exploring GWT in depth.
I would stronly recommend the book "Google App Engine Java and GWT Application Development", as of now the book is quite updated on GWT, GAE and the APIs.
https://www.packtpub.com/google-app-engine-java-and-gwt-application-development/book

In recent months the GWT Activities and Places pattern has matured.
The example covered at http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/trunk/DevGuideMvpActivitiesAndPlaces.html gives a broad introduction to the pattern. The downloadable sample will lead demonstrate how to 'slice' your application into Activities and Places. This pattern will take away some of your 'architecutre' concerns - you can just go with the flow and do it the A & P way.
Note, however the intro page and the demo code are very light on UI. Separate to your architecture planning you'll need to get up to speed on laying out a GWT app - but that's also covered well in the GWT articles. As #Chris-Lercher suggested, create a couple of UI prototypes that you're happy to throw away to get you started.

Best approach to creating a database driven Java website?

I'm fairly new to programming and new to java, but I'd like to jump in the deep end with a little database driven website project. I've read quite a lot about requirements in the 'real world' requesting experience with Spring and Hibernate, so I have those installed on netbeans and a project created (if I hit run I get the default spring page). Now I just need a little guidance as to where to start designing my app (please tell me if I'm getting in a bit too over my head for a beginner!).
Should I start off with my classes? - create all my classes as they map to my database tables and decide which attributes and methods each will require?
Can anyone suggest any good books for maybe.. making a java based website from scratch (i.e. from design right through to deployment) that might be useful for a beginner?
Any help appreciated thanks.
Edit: since posting this I've found a brilliant book that fits my needs just right to get started. Firstly I tried both spring in action and hibernate in action - but found both to be a bit too heavy for my novice mind. Instead I got the Java EE 5 Development with Netbeans 6 book https://www.packtpub.com/java-ee5-development-with-netbeans-6/book and its been a great help. If you use netbeans and are in a similar position to me, I'd say pick it up!

Too over your head? Depends on what you hope to accomplish. Are you trying to create a revenue-generating site to which users will be asked to trust credit card numbers and other sensitive information? Then yeah, you're getting way ahead of yourself. Is this a tool for personal use or a toy you're throwing together primarily as a learning experience? Then I say "Pffffft!" to the notion of over-the-head-ness. Go for it.
As to where to start, I say start with whatever portion of this beast is clearest to you. Have a solid idea of what the database is going to look like? Then start with it and its supporting classes. Have a clear vision of what the guts of the code are supposed to do? Start there. Etc. And if all things are equal, I'd say start at the bottom with the database layer and work your way up -- but that's just me.
And as for the books, can't help you there, but I'm sure somebody can.

I suggest to take a look at web application frameworks such as Spring's Roo or Grails. Sadly I have no experience with Roo. But I do have some experience with Grails.
With Grails you will be working mostly with Groovy, a language similar to Python, but still using the JVM. You'll still have the option to use Java anywhere you like (I think). Grails (and maybe Roo too?) manages Spring and Hibernate for you.
As for books on Grails, I recommend "Grails in Action". I have read a little of "Grails 1.1 Web Application Development" and it also seems to be a good reference. BTW, netbeans supports Grails too.

Not trying to gut your goals, but if you are wondering whether to start with your classes, I would suggest you work on your programming skills more.
I'd suggest taking a look at Larman's "Applying UML & Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development (3rd Edition)" as well as a book on relational database theory (you need to know how to model databases properly.)
You can try your hand at building a database driven web app, and it might give you an insight into how to do it, but you need have some programming maturity to take those skills into the non-trivial.
This is a completely personal opinion so please take it with a grain of salt: Before someone tackles the building of a data-driven application with the purpose of eventually being able to use it in non-trivial projects, that person needs to have a good exposure to programming (by good I mean a LOT, say 1-2 introductory courses, 1-2 intermediate and at least one junior-level course, perhaps a total of 15-30 credits.) Unless that person is a natural programming virtuoso, I don't see it happening otherwise.
I would suggest, if you are serious about programming, to spend a substantial amount on learning the fundamentals before tackling something like this.
Good luck.

Java Swing : Write cross platform application (basically CRUD)

I need to write cross platform application (basically CRUD).
Is usage of Java Swing good idea? Or is it out-dated and you know better solution?
I dont want to use like 5 languages for various stuff, one or two should be enough.

Java and Swing will absolutely fit the requirement, and you will be able to make do with just the language runtime as downloaded from Oracle/Sun and nothing else. Java is one of few languages that comes with a complete and powerful GUI library of its own already included.
If I were to write a program like this these days, that's what I'd use.

Swing is complete, maintained, well documented, and implemented in Java, ensuring cross-platform portability. Most relevantly, it's part of the Java language so no other downloads for the user to manage / bloat your program.
Although the default look and feel is ugly, Java 7 is to update the default look and feel of Swing to Nimbus, which looks very glossy.
If your question relates to using the language itself, I'd say "yes". Java is, like Swing, well documented and highly developed. It may seem verbose but if there's a problem, you can sure tackle it in Java.

Personally, I've always much preferred the Standard Widget Toolkit in terms of GUI toolkits myself.
Some argument and discussion.

Java/Swing will definitely do what you want. There are other solutions such as .NET/Mono, Various cross platform GUI libraries and C++.
If I had to decide today which to use it would be Java/Swing. Java because it is better supported, Swing because it's built in and JDBC simply tips the balance away from the others.
Gavin's right +1 for the SWT. If I didn't already know Swing I'd consider SWT before making a final decision. However I do know that Swing does the job well.

Since both good java answers are already given, It should be possible to do the UI in c# as well (as long as you don't use anything Windows specific). System.Windows.Forms type applications can run on Windows, linux and Mac OS X (with mono). It does require a bit more work to get the packaging done for each platform you want to support, but it is possible.
(If you already know java you're still better off using that though as the support is better across platforms and it doesn't require your users to install mono or .net)

Java/Swing is fine. I would recommend getting a license for JFormsDesigner or one of the other UI layout tools that makes life much easier.
Also, check out SwingX which is people who work at Swing making custom controls and what not that look good and are very useful.
That's also a good place to look for best practices.

Maybe you can decouple the front end from the back by creating XML request/response streams and using web services. Then you can write the front end in whatever technology you want, as long as it uses an appropriate web client.

other than framework and java syntax, what else is a must to master?

Other than learning java, spring, hibernate, servlets, jsp's, how to use eclipse/netbeans, databases like mysql/oracle/postgresql, JMS, JUnit, etc.
What other skills are essential?
Coming from a MS background, and I am just a little overwhelmed by all the things going on in the java world! (btw, you guys have TONS of dlls also, a big eye-opener for me in my java pursuits)
Other things I can come up with so far are solid linux skills, maybe how to use a mac.
Other than that, there are so many of these tools that I see referenced, which so far I am pretty much clueless how to use:
ant
maven
what else is there that are common or important to know?

Debugging techniques
XML technologies (SAX, DOM, XPath)
How to find libraries that do what you're attempting to accomplish, rather than writing them yourself.

The number #1 tip for you:
How to research.

Debugging techniques
How to learn a new API/framework
Java concurrency API
The standard tools (JConsole, jmap, VisualVM, etc.)
Profiling techniques
GC tunning
The Java memory model.
As well written/well thought Java code to read and learn from I would suggest Google-collections (or Guava) and maybe Functional Java and Guice.

It depends. When you are experienced with the foundations (automated testing, design, know how to 'learn' generally, modeling, working well with other programmers, etc.) you are lucky :) Technologies change often but you can adapt extremely quickly if you have the much less changing concepts in your head and fingers.
Still the frameworks + techs are different. So get used to new tools (Java has different tool-set and IDEs as MS-tools), this also includes build-envs like maven or ant. For getting used with new tools find a little private project (with small scope). And then step by step puzzle together + solve your technology todo-list.
Parallel to that download a little open-source project based on Java and see how they did the stuff. And read a lot of code done by others!

how about documentation - javadoc

recommendation for choosing a new web development stack

I work in a medium to small team ( 10 people ) developing and supporting several web enterprise applications.
We have a dozen of them built with a house-made framework with asp-classic working against ms-sql server.
We are evaluating the migration to a new development stack.
We'd like it to be open (free) and simple.
I've been looking around the java web frameworks, but all of them seem to be extremely overbloated for our needs (with the possible exception of http://www.playframework.org/, which I couldn't study yet...)
We are thinking about porting our own framework to this new stack, rather than adopting a whole new stack that we are unaware of ...
so far now, we though about the following possibilities
plain java - jsp - jsf
groovy - gsp (no grails at all)
jruby (no rails at all)
we feel really comfortable working with dynamic languages (well, as dynamic as classic asp can be) and with a lean and understandable framework...
I see no small and simple web frameworks for java, like there are for php or ruby...
I really like groovy, but I see no web implementations outside of grails... Besides the language documentation doesn't seem to be quite complete (I might be looking in the wrong place, perhaps)
php could be an option, but I think it would be hard to advocate for it in my current work...
any other option, advice, pros and cons?
thanks a lot
--
edit
some related link Can anyone recommend a simple Java web-app framework?

I'd suggest you take another look at Grails. It does use hibernate and spring under the covers, but for most situations, you don't need to know the details of those frameworks. There's a large community and lots of documentation/blogs/mailing lists for support, as well as a thriving plugin community with over 300 plugins solving pretty much any need.
If you're still put off by grails, you could look into the play framework. I don't have any experience with it, but there has been some traffic recently around it on hacker news and the like. I know it uses groovy for the templating language.

I cannot recommend anything, but strongly recommend that you consider these things:
Rapid development. Basically you want to save a page file, and reload it in the browser. Instantly! It can be done, do not settle for long deployment times.
Plain, readable text files!
Convention coding instead of explicit coding - big XML files will eventually drive one or more developers insane. The less, the better.
Good tool support (just having syntax coloring may be a big help)
Consider the long term support of your choice. You are basically remarrying with your software - will it still be maintained in 10 years? By whom? Will you have alternatives (JSR's are great - look at the amount of servlet engines)?
And WHEN you choose - get the source code for it, and ensure that it builds correctly. It will never be easier than now, and some day you WILL need to fix something inside. On short notice! (You may even consider allocating resources for donating documentation/patches/time to the open source project you are building your business on).
EDIT: A few more things:
You want to be able to verify things at compile time. One of the things that make it possible to build cathedrals in Java is that the static typechecking prevents a lot of nasty runtime errors. "Oh, THAT method? Well, it's not here, sorry. Boom!"
You want good error reporting. Built in! Try throwing a NullPointerException deep, deep down and see what 1) the user and 2) the developer is told about it. Anything that requires going to a log file to get the details WILL cause calls at 3 AM eventually.
Look into scalability from the start. Any non-trivial customer will need to and the world goes to multicores, so you might as well think about it already now. What will you do when all the magic pixie performance dust has been used and it just isn't enough: The application requires more than a single box.
And read this: http://www.pragprog.com/titles/mnee/release-it

You're forgetting about the other major player in this field: the LAMP stack (linux, Apache, MySQL and mod_perl). All components are free, there are many books available on LAMP development and each of these components, and there are vast numbers of libraries and components already available.
Apache: the Definitive Guide
Learning Perl: by SO's brian d foy
Practical mod_perl

If you are afraid of Grails and need Java, try Stripes and read the excellent Stripes book (http://www.stripesbook.com/blog/). You can buy the eBook pdf for $23. The book covers the framework in amazing detail. Stripes is a very strong, lightweight MVC framework that deals with all the common problems of web development (templates, url mapping, form validation, security, internationalization, testing) but it won't automagically create the database layer for you unless you want it to by using Stripernate. You can also use Groovy with it. You can use it standalone or with Spring.

I've had great success in simple web projects using Spring MVC with JSTL JSPs. Spring MVC is a framework that can be kept pretty darn simple (1 additional XML file used for configuration). You can eschew all the fancy options and just specify a set of JSPs that you want to associate with view names, then forward to those views by specifying their names in the controller.
Spring MVC can also easily scale up and be as complex as you need, letting you switch from JSTL to JSTL with Tiles, or Struts, or JSF, or Wicket. It can also handle complex web flows using the Spring Web Flow project. But for most projects I just keep it simple -- build a JSTL JSP, create a controller that provides the objects that JSP needs, and associate them by having the controller return that view. Once you get the project set up and you're familiar with the configuration, it takes maybe a couple minutes to wire a new page into place.

If you like Groovy but don't like Grails you could try Gaelyk, which is a lightweight Groovy framework. However, AFAIK you can only use Gaelyk if you're hosting the app on the Google App Engine
If your apps won't be hosted on GAE, and you really don't want to use Grails, another option is to use Groovlets, Groovy template servlet, GSPs.
However, personally I think it's a big mistake to dismiss Grails. It really is a great framework, and you can go a long way without knowing much about Spring and Hibernate. One of your complaints is a lack of Grails documentation. I think you must have been looking in the wrong place, because in addition to all the books available, there's a very extensive reference document and a lot of other documentation available on the website. Finally, there's a very active mailing list.

My platform of choice is JRuby - Rails (3) because of its very rich and powerful ecosystem, but mainly because:
* very easy to use
* many MANY libraries
* fast support via IRC
* deep documentation
You can also check out Scala + Lift Web Framework ( imho best static typed language, nice framework )