[ann] WebWork 1.0 released
I'm proud to announce the release of WebWork 1.0! WebWork is a HMVC web application framework in Java, developed as Open Source (BSD license) and designed to help create dynamic websites using minimal effort and maximum flexibility. It's architecture is easy to learn and understand, yet has features that allow for complex applications to be built.
One of the main features is it's total separation between the controller and view aspects of an application, thus allowing for a multitude of view technologies to be utilized. Out of the box WebWork has support for JSP (and comes with an extensive tag library that covers most needs), XSLT, and the template engine Velocity. Adding support for more such tools is very easy (the Velocity "integration" was done in hours), allowing you to have maximum flexibility with regard to how you structure your application.
You also get to choose whether you want to use a Model-1 or Model-2 approach to building applications, although we'd recommend using both as is described in our comprehensive documentation that includes reference sheets (for the tag library and expression language) and many useful tips&tricks sections.
WebWork comes with a comprehensive set of examples that are both used to test the functionality of the framework, as well as showcase how it can be used. Many examples are conversions from other frameworks (such as Struts) so that you can see firsthand how WebWork differs from the rest of the crowd.
One of the most important tasks when working with frameworks like this is the configuration step, which is where Java classes are mapped to logical names (used for invocation) and where the connection between controller and view (such as a JSP or Velocity template) is made. This configuration can be done manually, but to ease this process there is an XDoclet extension available (through the XDoclet project, see http://xdoclet.sourceforge.net) that will allow you to specify all such configuration directly in your Java code using custom WebWork-specific JavaDoc tags.
XDoclet is also used to generate HTML documentation of your application, which helps to serve as a
communication channel between the Java developer and web designer (if those roles are separated into
several team members).
There are a multitude of other unique and interesting features that we are very excited about, but we'd encourage you to download and find out about those yourself. So get it now from:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14797
Documentation can be found in the download, or online at:
http://213.203.18.31/
We encourage you to try WebWork together with the wonderful SiteMesh (http://www.opensymphony.com) and XDoclet tools, a combination which can give you an amazing productivity and clean application architeture.
This is an OpenSource project, developed using an open development process, and is hosted by SourceForge. If you have any questions we recommend the user mailing list, and if you have suggestions for improvements we're all ears on the development mailing list, both of which can be found on the project homepage at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/webwork
If you are attending JavaOne this year, then you might want to stop by our WebWork developer meeting on Wednesday March 27, 6.30pm at Fourth street Bar & Deli (across from the Metreon). See ya there :-)
/Rickard Öberg, WebWork project manager