Framework Watch - ThinWire

Dietrich Kappe, Tuesday, September 19, 2006 @ 8:00 am

Since I'm such a big fan of server-side Ajax frameworks, some readers have been encouraging me to take a look at ThinWire, a Java-based component GUI framework. On the surface, this framework promises the same things as Echo2 and ZK -- a familiar GUI development model, increased productivity plus lower complexity than traditional web applications using Ajax, and a single development language and environment.

Also on the surface, the demo applications show off an attractive set of widgets, like for the Mail application below. I do have a few minor complaints, such as a particular panel blanking out while I was dragging a dialog box. If this behavior was intentional, it certainly was inexplicable. They are missing some of the cooler behaviors that Echo2 and ZK already support, such as drag-and-drop, and leveraging other Ajax and JavaScript code seems to be at an embryonic state. They are working on an implementation of drag-and-drop for the next major milestone.

Under the covers, the ThinWire appears to be divided in the usual two pieces of the server-side framework: a client-side JavaScript engine, and a Swing-like Java component GUI toolkit that sits on the server. Documentation looks to be a bit sparse, although there is a nice tutorial by a third party here. Again, they are working on completing the API documentation, and I'm sure friendlier and more copious documentation is on the way.

The company distributes the framework under both a GPL and a commercial license. I guess the latter is where they make their money.

Overall, the framework looks promising, but less mature than Echo2 and ZK; when developing, some assembly of the project structure is required. If they had released it six or 12 months earlier, they might have built a bigger developer following. As it is, adoption looks somewhat weak, and they trail in the wake of the other server-side frameworks.

 
  Technorati : ajax, echo2, framework, thinwire, zk

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