How can I put a widget in a CellTable Cell?

Some time ago I faced with the similar problem (tried to insert a custom widget into CellList cell), but unfortunately did not find an easy solution.

Generally, you can implement specific cell class, extending AbstractCell or ActionCell. In this case you will have to override render() method and implement your own rendering. Good example is given in AbstractCell class javadoc.

There's a post on the GWT google group that discusses the answer. Basically you create your custom widget as normal, and inside the render function you use widget.getElement().getInnterHTML().

@Override
public void render(com.google.gwt.cell.client.Cell.Context context,
            String value, SafeHtmlBuilder sb) {
        if (value != null) {
             MyWidget widget = new MyWidget(value);
             sb.appendEscaped(widget.getElement.getInnerHTML()); 
        }
}

This is an anti-pattern. The whole purpose of cells is so that you do NOT have widgets: you are supposed to "render" html directly in the cell.

There's a post on the GWT google group that discusses the answer. Basically you create your custom widget as normal, and inside the render function you use widget.getElement().getInnterHTML().

@Override
public void render(com.google.gwt.cell.client.Cell.Context context, String value, SafeHtmlBuilder sb) {
    if (value != null) {
         MyWidget widget = new MyWidget(value);
         sb.appendEscaped(widget.getElement.getInnerHTML()); 
    }
}

It works but there is a limitation:

• You CAN'T attach any handler directly on your widget (outer or inner).

eg:

widget.addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
        // Won't work!!!
    }
});

or:

widget.getMyTextBox().addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
        // Won't work!!!
    }
});