Java Application Frameworks (not only client side …)

In an old post I listed all Java libraries,where only two application frameworks were listed.

Today it is time to list some client side Java application frameworks, because I discovered some new ones while reading the W-JAX announcement. Some of the listed frameworks will make developing application with DB easier. And some of them are real 3 tier architectured frameworks. Some of them even allow you to develop RIA’s and web frameworks at the same time.

Here is now the list of open source Java application frameworks especially for the desktop. Feel free to add some more (via comment):

1. NetBeans RC Platform, my IDE is build on this 😉
2. Eclipse RC Platform, has an interesting ‘subproject’ called Riena
3. Spring RC, at the moment my favourite used in TimeFinder
4. AppFramework which won’t be in JDK 7, but has a lot of derivatives
   1. Swing application framework fork
   2. Guice Utilities & Tools Set
   3. Better Swing AppFramework
   4. … with OSGi
5. JVx, looks very nice! Makes fast development of Swing applications possible (with db support)
6. OpenXDev a framework which could be used as a base for your next Swing project
7. Genuine is a client framework for Java Swing applications for which it provides basic infrastructure
8. Genesis with Swing and SWT binding; Easy, transparent remoting; etc
9. GWT (although only intented for javascript widgets it could theoretically being used as a rich client running in the jvm)
10. OpenSwing Framework is an open-source suite of advanced graphics components based on Swing toolkit
11. Leonardi Framework
12. Jspresso is a framework for building rich internet applications
13. Viewa framework
14. XUI is a Java and XML RIA platform
15. Swing + XUL = SwiXAT looks interesting but dead, the same for the next:
16. Swing + XML = SwiXml a small GUI generating engine.
17. buoy built on top of Swing. Xml serialization of UI possible
18. But why xml if you have groovy: Griffon 😉
    Now, a nice approach would be to send/receive groovy code and build the clients’ GUI on fly… this would be like replacing the browser+html+javascript system with rock solid JVM+Groovy 😉
    Another Comment from Andres: An addtional tidbit about Griffon, it can be seen as a polyglot programming desktop/RIA framework as it supports 5 JVM languages at the moment: Java, Groovy, Scala, Clojure and JavaFX. It also lets you embed JavaFX components on Swing containers.
19. JMatter is a software framework for constructing workgroup business applications based on the Naked Objects Architectural Pattern.
20. Metawidget is a ‘User Interface widget’ that populates itself, at runtime, with UI components to match the properties of your business objects.
21. Pivot a platform for building rich internet applications in Java

Especially JVx with a webstart demo looks very promising! It even feels better and faster than an ordinary flash application!

Commercial:

1. Aviantes-Business-Application-Framework
2. Jide Desktop Application Framework
3. Jazz

I listed only frameworks which help developers to easier build client side desktop application and only if they run in the JVM. So frameworks where the client is browser-based (aka web frameworks) are not listed here.

For a good list of J2EE frameworks go to java-source.net or to wikipedia. (Or here, or there, or even here)

Update: For additional comments look at dzone