Should data sorting be done on the client or on the server?

Question

I get data from a server and want to display it using GWT on the client.

GWT is not the problem here, you can replace GWT by Ajax calls or you can transpose it to a real

Answer 1

Ideally, the sort should be done on the server because:-

1. It is best to assume that your client will be having low resources. For example, some people will launch the GWT app from a desktop but another may launch the GWT app from a iPad/phone which is having less CPU/RAM

2. There are standard ways to do sorting on the server side, for example, by using SQL ORDER BY clause but you may have to implement your own routine/method to do the sorting on the client side.