JWebToolkit

Many people see the future of the Internet in terms of web applications, and there are many different frameworks for building web applications, especially in Java. However, although there are frameworks for building simple applications (such as plain JSP and servlets) and there are frameworks for building enterprise level applications (such as EJBs), what about those middle level web applications? This is where JWebToolkit comes in. It provides a framework for some of the common requirements of web applications but without the bloat of the full J2EE stack.

1. A database connection pool (independent of database type) that is configured by an XML schema file. The pool also supports schema removal at shutdown for development purposes.
2. A set of data representation interfaces, including implementations for both JDBC ResultSets and XML data, providing a seamless link between different data sources.
3. An implementation of the command pattern, with the facility for chaining groups of commands together. An example command would be a login command. This could be run when a user logs into web-application, or run directly after a user has registered for a web-application. In the first scenario the command would be run first, in the second scenario the command would be run after registration has occurred. This allows for flexible reuse of code, and facilitates good application design.
4. A wrapper around the Dom XML parser to provide greater flexibility and ease of use. Features include XML tree navigation and XML tree searching.
5. A lightweight XML parser, suitable for embedding in those applets that are targetted at clients with older Java implementations, such as the Microsoft JVM or the Symantec MacOS9 JVM.
6. A set of convenient JSP tag libraries to complement the rest of the toolkit.

Well, some knowledge of Java is required to use the toolkit. It is designed to be a programmers resource, though hopefully it will remove some of the mystery away from creating well architected and functional web applications. Included in the package is a pre-compiled binary of the toolkit, a full Javadoc API, the source code and an example application that uses JWebToolkit. Jakarta's Ant is required to build the toolkit from scratch.

JWebToolkit is released under the LGPL license and can be freely used in any project, personal to commercial, with no restrictions - though a mention of JWebToolkit and its authors would be much appreciated.

JWebToolkit is currently in development and, therefore, there is no binary release yet. However, you can monitor progress and try out an early version by downloading from the CVS repository. The JWebToolkit project page is here and CVS instructions are here.