Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know I am a big, big, big fan of Apache Wicket.
Besides the technical merits of true object oriented web development and productivity on a level way beyond that of brain-dead frameworks such as Struts 1 & 2, JSF, Spring MVC et al, Wicket did something else for me: it re-awakened my entrepreneurial spirit.
I started out working for startups in my first few years of working, I even founded one myself, it was something I enjoyed immensely and always wanted to get back to. The problem for me was I didn’t know how: most of the ideas I got where web based, and for years I had shunned web development because it was such a bag of pain – Java based frameworks where braindead, PHP et al where not really an option for someone who hated doing markup. I kept procrastrinating with my ideas because I realized that implementing them was just going to be painful and boring given the technology choices I was aware of.
But then I discovered Wicket, web development became fun again. It might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not: Wicket can be attributed for getting my ass up (or is it down into the chair?) and starting to implement some of my ideas.
Granted, my success so far has been limited – I’m making a small profit on my webapps, but hardly anything to write home about, but that’s not the point. The point is that Wicket made it fun again, I’m putting my ideas to work, creating, trying things. If I can only get a bit of luck and improve on my marketing & sales skills, I’m sure at least Ramen profitability and beyond from my webapp efforts is within reach.
June 30, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Hi,
I have been evaluating java web frameworks and have been delaying the implementation of my idea for the want of a decent java web framework.
Either they are too bulky or really time consuming to get started on. Learning curve, especially for JSF is high. A lot of things gets done under the hood and sometimes doing a very minor modification is a pain. After surfing through multitude of sites I have found some good reviews on wicket and somehow am inclined towards it. I would appreciate if you could provide some technical info on why you find wicket a better framework so that it helps me in making a decision
Thanks
Naveen
June 30, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Naveen:
of the top of my head:
- Code is Java: makes developing and testing so much quicker and easier, as all code is compilable and unit-testable and can leverage your favourite IDE.
- Object oriented: use inheritance, composition etc as it should be used. No compromises, re-use and object-orientation are several orders of magnitude better than anything else.
- Separation of concerns: markup is markup (html, js, css), code is code (Java).
- Easily testable: WicketTester makes it very easy to unit test pages and components as plain unit-tests. Rids you of the build-deploy cycle for simple testing.
- Active community: you can find help very easily if Google isn’t helpful, and there are a LOT of pre-rolled components out there just for you to use.
Wicket has a bit of a learning curve, as it is API-based, but if you are a Java-developer it should be minimal. Also, the fact that you don’t have to learn new tags, markup-languages etc and that code is plain Java, means that any Java-developer will be productive quickly.
I am most definitely NOT a “web developer”, yet I enjoy using Wicket, whereas I don’t enjoy JSF, Struts, Spring MVC et al at all.
June 30, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Willie,
Thanks for your quick & useful response
July 8, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Willie:
Couldnt agree with you more. Wicket does make Web development fun again. I too have a similar experience — put off my ideas of personal web applications – first tried in plain Jsp, Struts, then Spring and never got more than half way, because of the sheer amount of typing i have to do in jsp.
One day casually looked at Wicket, immediately bought the WIA book and within a week with full enthusiasm completed my app.
Biggest Yes for Wicket: I dont have to end up writing logic in jsp.