Interesting web application tools

Date Arrow  September 14, 2007

This is a small list of some interesting web frameworks that I’ve evaluated for previous projects, and that have gotten a lot of attention from the developer community lately. They all share the following characteristics:

  • Open source code base;
  • Enterprise-class widgets, simulating native OS controls;
  • Platform-independency (either Java- or JavaScript-based);
  • Skinnable through CSS (or otherwise presentation-independent);
  • Well documented, community-enhanced source code base.


OpenLaszlo (Common Public License, currently in version 4.0.3)

OpenLaszlo takes an interesting approach to web development: it is a Java-based framework that allows developers to design web applications using an XML dialect; the OpenLaszlo runtime translates this to either DHTML or Flash (versions 6, 7 and 8) and soon to other toolkits and runtimes as well, at least that’s what they plan to do. The project has great visibility in the open source landscape and the roadmap looks promising.

Google Web Toolkit (Apache license, currently in version 1.4)

This one uses a similar approach to OpenLaszlo’s, but without the use of an independent XML dialect (or support for Flash): developers can use native Java code (as well as all of its tools) to create application that will be translated to AJAX-driven DHTML applications. GWT is used by Google internally (most notably for Google Base and Google Checkout) and by many other companies.

Ext (Dual LGPL and commercial license, currently in version 1.1.1)

I left the best for the end.

Ext started as a spinoff project of the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI), but has evolved to a standalone project, and it consists of a JavaScript-only framework, as such, independent of any underlying server technology. It features the most advanced JavaScript widgets on the market, all categories taken into account, and there’s a large community behind creating new widgets that integrate seamlessly with the core framework.

A quick trip to the docs and samples page shows clearly the level of maturity of the framework and its capabilities. The source code is thoroughly commented out, available in both compressed (for high-performance production environments) and uncompressed forms (for development and testing setups).

Similar Posts:

Tagged   Open Source · Opinion · Technology

Commenting

←
→