Vaadin: Develop Pure Java Web Applications in NetBeans IDE

What I've always found to be most interesting about Wicket is that it is great for Java developers: no XML configuration and no JavaScript for AJAX functionality. However, today, during TheServerSide Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic, things went a step further for me: I discovered a Java web framework without any HTML (or markup) whatsoever.

The framework is called Vaadin, it is from Finland, and (seriously) it is 100% Java.

It is a truly intriguing framework, one that I want to spend more time exploring. However, in a twist of fate as much in favor of the NetBeans APIs as the Vaadin framework, I met someone today with whom I managed to create a plugin for NetBeans IDE support of Vaadin... in the space of an hour.

I met Sami Ekblad, from the Vaadin Team and, thanks to his input and insights, it's now possible to get started very quickly with Vaadin development in NetBeans IDE:

Currently, the Vaadin Framework plugin is the latest plugin in the NetBeans Plugin Portal, here. And the sources are open sourced and publicly available here on Kenai.

After you install the Vaadin plugin in NetBeans IDE 6.8 Beta, you can choose the "Vaadin" checkbox in the Frameworks panel within the New Web Application wizard. Then, when you click Finish, your web.xml is correctly configured, the Vaadin JAR is on the application classpath, and you have a simple Vaadin Application class to get you started with this very interesting framework:

package com.example.vaadin;           

import com.vaadin.Application;
import com.vaadin.ui.Label;
import com.vaadin.ui.Window;

public class MyApplication extends Application {

    @Override
    public void init() {
        Window mainWindow = new Window("MyApplication");
        Label label = new Label("Hello Vaadin user");
        mainWindow.addComponent(label);
        setMainWindow(mainWindow);
    }

}

Future plans for NetBeans IDE support for this plugin include:

• provide code templates (we can then focus on quality of the code)
• provide samples, focusing on the following things specifically: 
  • layouting 
  • navigation
  • Vaadin's UI components 
• provide file templates 
• provide component palette for Java editor, containing UI components 

So, watch this space... and try out the Vaadin framework here. And here, again, is the NetBeans plugin for working with Vaadin:

http://plugins.netbeans.org/PluginPortal/faces/PluginDetailPage.jsp?pluginid=21965

Farewell all HTML, XML, JSP, whatever. The only thing you need to know anything about is Java, when creating web applications in Vaadin. I will show some examples of this in future blog entries and screencasts.