Technology- Glance at various Java Frameworks

1. Apache Cocoon- Apache Cocoon, usually just called Cocoon, is a web application framework built around the concepts of pipeline, separation of concerns and component-based web development. The framework focuses on XML and XSLT publishing and is built using the Java programming language. The flexibility afforded by relying heavily on XML allows rapid content publishing in a variety of formats including HTML, PDF, and WML. The content management systems Apache Lenya and Daisy have been created on top of the framework. Cocoon is also commonly used as a data warehousing ETL tool or as middleware for transporting data between systems.

2. Apache Struts- Apache Struts is an open-source web application framework for developing Java EE web applications. It uses and extends the Java Servlet API to encourage developers to adopt a model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. It was originally created by Craig McClanahan and donated to the Apache Foundation in May, 2000. Formerly located under the Apache Jakarta Project and known as Jakarta Struts, it became a top level Apache project in 2005.

3. AppFuse- AppFuse is an open-source Java EE web application framework. It allows developers to get started quickly and easily using Java open-source technologies like Spring framework, Hibernate and Struts. It was originally created by Matt Raible. He originally developed it to eliminate the "ramp up" time he found when building new web applications for customers.

4. Aranea framework- Aranea framework is an Open Source (APL 2.0) Java Hierarchical Model-View-Controller web framework that provides a common simple approach to building the web application components, reusing custom or general GUI logic and extending the framework. The framework enforces programming using object-oriented techniques with POJOs and provides a JSP tag library that facilitates programming web GUIs without writing HTML.

5. Cooee framework- The Cooee Web Application Framework is a Java framework for delivering "AJAX", or Web 2.0 applications. Cooee draws its strength by providing developers with a familiar API based on Java Swing whilst also completely abstracting the developer from having any knowledge of the Javascript. This has the benefit of allowing java developers to focus on code.

6. Google Web Toolkit- Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development framework that allows web developers to create Ajax applications in Java. It is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0. GWT emphasizes reusable, efficient solutions to recurring Ajax challenges, namely asynchronous remote procedure calls, history management, bookmarking, and cross-browser portability.

7. Grails- Grails is an open source web application framework that leverages the Groovy programming language (which is in turn based on the Java platform). Grails is intended to be a high-productivity framework by following the "coding by convention" paradigm, providing a standalone development environment and hiding much of the configuration detail from the developer. Grails was previously known as 'Groovy On Rails' (the name was dropped in response to a request by David Heinemeier Hansson, founder of the Ruby on Rails framework). Work began in July 2005 and the 0.1 release was released on March 29, 2006.

8. Hamlets- Hamlets (previously known as IBM Servlet-based Content Creation Framework) is the name of an open source system for generating web-pages originally developed by René Pawlitzek at IBM. He defines a Hamlet as a servlet extension that reads XHTML template files containing presentation using SAX (the Simple API for XML) and dynamically adds content on the fly to those places in the template which are marked with special tags and IDs using a small set of callback functions. A template compiler can be used to accelerate Hamlets. It provide an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand, lightweight, small-footprint, servlet-based content creation framework that facilitates the development of Web-based applications. The Hamlets framework not only supports but also enforces the complete separation of content and presentation.

9. IT Mill Toolkit- IT Mill Toolkit is a open source web application / RIA framework created by company IT Mill. The framework is based on Java programming language and uses server-side programming concept. Applications are created using object-oriented and event-driven programming techniques and the framework hides the request-response cycle of the HTTP protocol from application developers. IT Mill Toolkit relies on basic Java EE environment and does not include any JSF (JavaServer Faces) integration. The client-side widgets are implemented using GWT (Google Web Toolkit) and using similar object-oriented component architecture.

10. ItsNat- ItsNat is an open source Java AJAX Component based web application framework, it offers a "natural" approach to modern web development. ItsNat is server centric using an approach called TBITS, "The Browser Is The Server". ItsNat simulates a Universal W3C Java Browser at the server containing a W3C DOM Level 2 node tree and receiving W3C DOM Events.

11. JavaServer Faces- JavaServer Faces (JSF) is a Java-based Web application framework that simplifies the development of user interfaces for Java EE applications. Unlike other traditional request-driven MVC web frameworks, JSF uses a component-based approach. The state of UI components is saved when the client requests a new page and then is restored when the request is returned. Out of the box, JSF uses JavaServer Pages (JSP) for its display technology, but JSF can also accommodate other display technologies (such as XUL).

12. JBoss Seam- JBoss Seam is a web application framework developed by JBoss, a division of Red Hat. The project lead is Gavin King, who also was the key initiator of the Object-relational mapping framework Hibernate. JBoss Seam combines the two frameworks Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB3) and JavaServer Faces (JSF). You can easily access any back-end EJB component from the front-end by addressing it by its Seam component name. Seam introduces the concept of contexts. Each Seam component exists within a context. The conversation context for example captures all actions of a user until he logs out or closes the browser - even multiple uses of the browser back-button.

13. Makumba- Makumba is a query-centric application framework using the model-view-controller pattern and designed to develop data driven web applications. It provides a custom JSP tag-library as a main interface, but leaves API open for advanced access. It is implemented in Java.

14. Mentawai- The Mentawai Web Framework is an opensource 100% Java MVC framework that is easy to use and has no XML configurations. Its configuration is programatic and the framework is built on interfaces. Some of the features it offers is sending email, internationalization, file uploading, custom tags, dynamic lists and dynamic messages.

15. OpenLaszlo- OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications. It is released under the Open Source Initiative-certified Common Public License.

16. OpenXava- OpenXava is a web application framework for developing business applications in an effective way. It allows rapid and easy developing of CRUD modules and report generation, but also it's flexible enough to develop complex real life business applications as accounting packages, customer relationship, invoicing, warehouse management, etc. OpenXava uses XML as definition language and Java as programming language. Currently OpenXava generates Java Web Applications (J2EE/Java EE), they can be deployed in any Java Portal Server (JSR168) as portlet applications. The essence of OpenXava is that the developer defines instead of programming, and the framework automatically provides the user interface, the data access, the Java code, the default behavior, etc. In this way, all common issues are solved easily, but the developer always has the possibility of manually programming any part of the application, in this way it is flexible enough to solve any particular cases. OpenXava is based on the concept of the business component.

17. Reasonable Server Faces (RSF)- Reasonable Server Faces (RSF) is an open source web programming framework written in Java, developed at the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) at the University of Cambridge. RSF is built on the Spring framework, and allows views to be templated in pure XHTML, as well as other XML dialects. RSF takes responsibility for the entire request processing cycle through HTTP request decoding, maintaining a bean model, invoking actions, directing errors, intepreting results and rendering views. A principal aim of RSF is to facilitate designs where zero server state is held in between requests. RSF is notable for its extremely lightweight component model, a request-scope Inversion of Control layer (RSAC) modelled on the Spring framework, and a pure HTML templating engine, IKAT.

18. Restlet- Restlet is an open source REST framework for the Java platform.

19. RIFE- RIFE is a full-stack open source Java web application framework with tools and APIs to implement most common web features. Each of its toolkits is usable by itself and together they offer powerful integrated features that boost your productivity. RIFE ensures that every declaration and definition is handled in one place in the code. This simplifies the developer's task by reducing code replication, enforcing consistency, and easing maintenance.

20. Shale Framework- Shale is a web application framework maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. It is fundamentally based on JavaServer Faces.

21. SmartClient- SmartClient is an Ajax framework created by Isomorphic Software. First released in 2001, SmartClient has been integrated into products from major software vendors including Informatica and Wily/CA, and has been deployed in thousands of enterprises. Since November 2007, SmartClient has been available for free under an open source LGPL licence.

22. Spring Framework- The Spring Framework (or Spring for short) is an open source application framework for the Java platform. The first version was written by Rod Johnson, who first released it with the publication of his book Expert One-on-One Java EE Design and Development (Wrox Press, October 2002). A port is available for the .NET Framework.

23. Stripes- Stripes is an open source web application framework using the model-view-controller pattern. It aims to be a more lightweight framework than Struts by using Java technologies such as annotations and generics that were introduced in Java 1.5.

24. Tapestry- Tapestry is an object-oriented Java web application framework to implement applications in accordance with the model-view-controller design pattern. Tapestry was created by Howard Lewis Ship independently, and was adopted by the Apache Software Foundation. Tapestry emphasizes simplicity, ease of use, and aims to avoid forcing programmers to create enormous blocks of "glue code". Tapestry uses a modular approach to web development, by having strong binding between user interface components (objects) on the web page and their corresponding Java classes. This component-based architecture borrows many ideas from WebObjects.

25. ThinWire- ThinWire is an open source, Java based web application framework that utilizes Ajax techniques to give Web Applications the look and feel of traditional GUI applications. ThinWire attempts to differentiate itself from the plethora of Ajax frameworks by bringing the event-driven programming model of desktop applications to web programming. The source code of a ThinWire based application will more closely resemble that of a traditional desktop GUI application than it will a web application. ThinWire handles all the web rendering and browser/server communication automatically.

26. WebObjects- WebObjects is a Java web application server from Apple Inc., and a web application framework that runs on the server. It is available, at no additional cost, as part of the Xcode Developer Tools included with Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Its hallmark features are its deep object-orientation, powerful database connectivity, and rapid prototyping tools. Applications created with WebObjects can be deployed as web sites, Java Web Start desktop applications, and/or standards-based web services.

27. WebWork- WebWork is a Java-based web application framework developed by OpenSymphony. It was developed with the specific intention of improving developer productivity and code simplicity. WebWork is built on top of XWork, which provides a generic command pattern framework as well as an Inversion of Control container.

28. Wicket framework- Apache Wicket is a web application framework for the Java programming language that reached version 1.0 in June of 2005. Wicket is a component-based web development framework similar to JavaServer Faces and Tapestry. It became an Apache top level project in June 2007.

29. XTT Framework- The XTT Framework (eXtensible Transmission Technology Framework) is a standards-based Java framework from InsiTech for building and deploying smart, rich, thin, Swing-based Internet applications.

30. ZK Framework- ZK is an open-source, all Java, Ajax Web application framework that enables rich UI for Web applications with no JavaScript and little programming.