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Component based webapp framework Wicket 1.2 released

by Alexandru Popescu on May 24, 2006 |

Wicket, the component based web application framework has released version 1.2 today, it's third major release and according to the Wicket team, a highly anticipated major landmark in the history of Wicket.

Wicket is one of the three component based web frameworks being widely talked about these days, including Tapestry and JSF. Wicket pages can be mocked up, previewed and later revised using standard WYSIWYG HTML design tools. Dynamic content processing and form handling is all handled in Java code using a first-class component model backed by POJO data beans that can easily be persisted using your favourite technology.

Some of the major new features of Wicket 1.2 include:

Built-in Ajax support without the need to write any Javascript. Runs cross browser and cross platform.
The ability to render multiple components in one AJAX call, where each component can occupy any part of the page
Out of the box default resource bundles for many languages.
Multiple form component validation allowing the validation of two or more fields that are related
URL mounting
Inline panels / Markup fragments
OGNL replaced with their object graph language parser to improve performance
Response filter support, added ServerTime and ServerClientTime filters
Out-of-the-box AJAX components: paging navigator, link with fallback, auto-updater, AJAX form, AJAX submit buttons, etc.
Component level authorization support; a sample project featuring a role based, annotation framework is now part of the standard distribution.
Spring dependency injection support while maintaining Wicket (Java new operator) idioms
Improved settings system: settings are now partitioned into logical groupings to make them easier to find

Wicket only requires Servlets 2.3 and JDK 1.4, and is released under Apache 2 license. Wicket 1.2 is not a drop-in replacement, though most previously written application pages and components should not be affected. The Wicket team has also posted a Migrating to Wicket 1.2 guide. Wicket's next major release will focus on integrating Java 5 language features such as generics.