Question

I am torn between Wicket and Vaadin. I am starting a micro-isv and need to make a choice of web framework. I have narrowed down my choices to Wicket and Vaadin. I have used both frameworks and I love them both. however I need to make a choice.

If If I choose Vaadin:

1. I wont have to worry much about the look and feel. It comes with nice themes.
2. I will do all my programming in Java which am very good at and wont have to spend time hacking CSS which am not very good at.
3. And most of the components that I will need for a business applications are there OUT OF THE BOX including, desktop like layout, tooltips, Keyboard shortcuts, tables with draggable and collapsible columns to name a few.

However, if I go the Vaadin way:

1. I will loose the ability to create UI declaratively.
2. I wont have the fallback feature if the browser doesn’t support JavaScript – e.g most non Webkit mobile browsers.
3. Vaadin company is selling some components – e.g the JPAContainer so am not sure the company will be committed to offering full open-source framework. Business interests will always come first.
4. Vaadin applications will be mostly for the intranet. They are not very suitable for the internet with a web look and feel.

If I go the Wicket way:

1. I will have to style my applications and I can hardly give them a desktop look and feel.

Any advice? Anyone with experience on either framework kindly tell me the cons and pros and how you made your decision.

Answer 1

I think I’ve invested some time for both frameworks. I really like both because they bring the Swing-alike coding to web development. And I don’t know easier ones for me (although there is click but I don’t like the velocity templating thing)

And yes, there are differences.

I wont have to worry much about the look and feel.It comes with nice themes

true, but every serious company will style its app differently (unless you are prototyping)

I will do all my programming in java which am very good at and wont have to spend time hacking css which am not very good at

Then Vaadin would be ‘better’.

i will loose the ability to create UI declaratively.

What are the advantages of that? (BTW: you could code declarative in groovy ;-))

But ok. I know what you mean: if you can afford a few separate designers then wicket is ‘better’.

i can hardly give them a desktop look and feel.

Why not? Or what do you mean here? Wicket supports ajax and there are components which supports nice ‘desktop-alike’ things (ajaxlink, lazycomponent, autocompletion, progressbar, see wicket stuff + extensions). ok, for any more complex component you’ll have to code in javascript BUT BTW did you know that you could even use GWT within wicket

Some minor experiences:

Vaadin is surely faster while coding (no css, html stuff). But if you go production keep in mind that the ease of programming can come to the cost of performance on the client side: e.g. if you use the ‘wrong’ layouts such as Horizontal/VerticalLayout, … the massive use of javascript could slow down old browser.

But Vaadin is not slow! Use appropriate layouts such as CssLayout or FastLayout and also old browser can serve it. (Although if you would use CssLayout your coding-style is really wicket-alike.)

One issue with Vaadin is that it is a bit harder to profile, because you don’t see easily where the client needs all the CPU and the nested divs gets cryptic id-names.

One great thing about Wicket is its warp persist integration

(Guice can be integrated in Vaadin and Wicket)

Testing the UI should be easy with Vaadin (although I didn’t found unit testing stuff) and is very easy with wicket.

Last but not least creating lists/tables is VERY easy in Vaadin compared to wicket.