Java Web Application Framework is an effort to combine best-of-breed frameworks into a fully integrated open-source framework that performs well on all software tiers (presentation, application, and data). The objective is to develop a framework that provides a complete solution for building entire web applications.

Goals

JWAF has the following goals:

1. Open source and extensible
2. Adaptable to different business problems
3. Easy to understand, simplifies industry standard patterns and frameworks
4. Easy to deploy on popular application servers
5. Applies standard frameworks and design patterns

Architecture

The following diagram shows the tiered architecture of JWAF and how the different frameworks fit in.

This is a preliminary list of frameworks and tools selected to be included and integrated into JWAF:

• Apache Taglibs (http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs)
• Apache Struts (http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/)
• Struts Layout by Improve (http://struts.application-servers.com)
• Castor XML and Castor JDO (http://www.castor.org)
• Apache XML (http://xml.apache.org)
• Apache Log4J (http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j)
• JUnit (http://www.junit.org)
• JavaFromDTD by Zak Mandhro

Features

JWAF provides the frameworks for the following application components:

• Presentation logic with JSP custom tag
  • Form input and validation
• Business logic
  • Business objects management
  • Create, delete, and update
  • Business logic objects
  • Searching interface
  • Form to business object mapping
  • Form actions and service objects
  • Workflow and business process management
  • Notification and alerts
• Persistence
  • Object-relational mapping
  • Java-XML mapping
  • Transactions
  • Extensive RDBMS support
• Other
  • Logging
  • Unit testing