This document provides an overview of the state of the Apache Wicket framework. It discusses Wicket's origins and history from 2004 to present, including major releases and contributions over time. It also summarizes key metrics about Wicket's codebase and community based on an Ohloh report, including lines of code, contributors, and estimated development effort. Finally, it previews possible future directions for Wicket in areas like Java 8 support, JavaScript integration, and semantic versioning.

1. State of
Apache Wicket

2. presented at:
DEVELOPERS
DEV
ENTER
powered by Topicus

3. sponsored by
topicus

5. “We continue to see teams run into trouble using
JSF -- JavaServer Faces -- and are recommending
you avoid this technology.”
–ThoughtWorks Technology Radar January 2014
Wicket Developers Rejoice!
!
Our archenemy has been de
nounced!!
!
Or is there more to this stor
y?

6. “We continue to see teams run into trouble using
JSF -- JavaServer Faces -- and are recommending
you avoid this technology. Teams seem to choose
JSF because it is a J2EE standard without really
evaluating whether the programming model suits
them. We think JSF is flawed because it tries to
abstract away HTML, CSS and HTTP, exactly the
reverse of what modern web frameworks orks
from ThoughtW do. JSF,
he full webforms, attempts to create are
TASP.NET quote
like
. stateless od bits HTTP
gy Radthe The go protocol
echnolo top of ar
T
statefulness on
next s ide ..
the a whole lhost.of problems
on
and ends up causing
involving shared server-side state. We are aware
of the improvements in JSF 2.0, but think the
model is fundamentally broken. We recommend
teams use simple frameworks and embrace and
understand web technologies including HTTP,
HTML and CSS.”
–ThoughtWorks Technology Radar January 2014

7. “We continue to see teams run into trouble using
JSF and are recommending you avoid this
technology. We think JSF is flawed because it tries
to abstract away HTML, CSS and HTTP. JSF, like
ASP.NET webforms, attempts to create
statefulness on top of the stateless protocol HTTP.
We think the model is fundamentally broken.”
–ThoughtWorks Technology Radar January 2014
This is not a critique of JSF in part
icular but
(server side) component framework
s. The
grunt of the critique is that JSF att
empts to
create state fullness on top of the
stateless
protocol–which is precisely what J
SF, .Net,
Wicket and Tapestry are doing.

8. “We recommend teams use simple
frameworks and embrace and
understand web technologies
including HTTP, HTML and CSS.”
–ThoughtWorks Technology Radar January 2014
with this assessment:!
I don’t agree
managing frameworks were
server side, state
solution for problems
created to provide a
ifficult to solve with “simple
that are d
frameworks”. !
2004 is not the solution!
Going back to

9. A typical screen in one of our 1000+ pag
e
multi-tenant SaaS applications.!
Would a“simple framework” make it po
ssible
to maintain 3 of these 1M lines of code
applications with just 30 developers?

10. 10 years of
Apache Wicket

11. 2004

12. 2004
Wicket is presented to the w
or
!
ld.!
Raise your hand if you still r
ead
TheServerside.com?

13. 2004
The Server Side

14. 2004
The orig
The Server Side inal Wicket website. We have
seen
several different stylings ov
er the years...

15. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
The Server Side

16. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
The Server Side
icket meetup in 2005 in
The first W
r at the Topicus offices.
Devente

17. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
The Server Side

18. 2004 2005
JSF
Wicket
Tapestry
codehaus.org
The Server Side
Struts 2
(originally Webwork)
The web framework sh
oot-out at
JavaOne 2005. Now th
at was fun!
Shale

19. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
The Server Side
JavaOne

20. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
1.0
The Server Side
JavaOne

21. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
The Server Side
1.0
1.1
JavaOne

22. 2004 2005
codehaus.org
The Server Side
1.0
1.1
JavaOne
2006
1.2

23. 2007

24. 2007
Wicket joins !
The Apache Software Foundation!

25. 2007
ket meetups in
One of 3 Wic
rganised by Arjé
Amsterdam o
hn (Hippo CMS)
Ca

26. 2007

27. 2007 2008
1.3

28. 2007 2008
1.3

29. 2007 2008
1.3

30. 2007 2008 2009
1.3
1.4

31. 2007 2008 2009 2010
1.3
1.4

32. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
1.3
1.4
1.5

33. 2012 2013
2014

34. 2012 2013
6.0
2014

35. 2012 2013
2014
6.2 6.6 6.10
6.0 6.4 6.8 6.12
6.1 6.5 6.9 6.13
6.3 6.7 6.11

36. State of
Apache Wicket

39. 1. core
2. extensions
3. spring
4. datetime
5. auth-roles

40. Mailinglist traffic

41. Commit activity
Wicket in Action
Wicket Cookbook

42. Commit activity
Wicket in Action
Wicket Cookbook
e a dent
used quit
ng has ca
tivities:!
book writi
related ac
ur Wicket
in o
ajor part.
plays a m
burn-out

43. In a Nutshell, Wicket...
– Ohloh report for Wicket

44. In a Nutshell, Wicket...
… has had 17,645 commits made by 52 contributors
representing 314,959 lines of code
– Ohloh report for Wicket

45. In a Nutshell, Wicket...
… has had 17,645 commits made by 52 contributors
representing 314,959 lines of code
… is mostly written in Java with
a well-commented source code
– Ohloh report for Wicket

46. In a Nutshell, Wicket...
… has had 17,645 commits made by 52 contributors
representing 314,959 lines of code
… is mostly written in Java with
a well-commented source code
… has a well established, mature codebase maintained
by a large development team with stable Y-O-Y
commits
– Ohloh report for Wicket

47. In a Nutshell, Wicket...
… has had 17,645 commits made by 52 contributors
representing 314,959 lines of code
… is mostly written in Java with
a well-commented source code
… has a well established, mature codebase maintained
by a large development team with stable Y-O-Y
commits
… took an estimated 83 years of effort (COCOMO model)
starting with its first commit in September, 2004
ending with its most recent commit 2 days ago
– Ohloh report for Wicket

48. Wicket 1.4
rity fixes only
secu

49. Wicket 1.5
rity fixes only
secu

50. Wicket 6
released along
continues to be
, monthlies will
side Wicket 7
onthlies when
nsform into bi-m
tra
resolved tickets
number of
subsides.

51. Java 6

52. semantic
versioning
Works wonderful for us. Only
snag: JQuery updates.

53. Monthly releases
also wonderful: no longer waiting
for a long time for a fixed bug.

54. Wicket 7
ch to say about Wicket 7:
not mu
no major API changes.

55. Java 7

56. Servlet 3

57. Minor API breaks

58. Wicket 8
Anything written here is just
speculation from my side. This is
not set in stone, this is not how
e are going to implement things,
w
or quite reasonably at all.

59. Java 8

60. PROJECT LAMBDA
“functional” programming
in Java

61. @FunctionalInterface
public interface ILinkListener {
void onLickClicked();
}

62. ILinkListener l = new ILinkListener() {
@Override
public void onLinkClicked() {
System.out.println("Klik");
}
}

63. ILinkListener l = () -> {
System.out.println("Klik");
}

64. ILinkListener l = new ILinkListener() {
@Override
public void onLinkClicked() {
System.out.println("Klik");
}
}
-of!
ILinkListener l = () -> {
System.out.println("Klik");
}

65. add(new Link<Void>("save") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
dao.save(object);
getSession().info("Saved.");
setResponsePage(new OtherPage())
}
});

66. add(new Link<Void>("save") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
dao.save(object);
getSession().info("Saved.");
setResponsePage(new OtherPage())
}
});

67. add(new Link<>("save").onClick(()-> {
dao.save(object);
getSession().info("Saved.");
setResponsePage(new OtherPage());
});

68. private void onSave() {
dao.save(object);
getSession().info("Saved.");
setResponsePage(new OtherPage())
}
!
!
!
!
!
!

69. private void onSave() {
dao.save(object);
getSession().info("Saved.");
setResponsePage(new OtherPage())
}
!
!
add(new Link<Void>("save")
.onClick(this::onSave);
!
!

70. A link with onclick,
visibility and body

71. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

72. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

73. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

74. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

75. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

76. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

77. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));

78. A link with onclick,
visibility and body

79. add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);

80. add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);

81. add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);

82. add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);

83. add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);

84. add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);

85. add(new Link<Void>("like") {
@Override
public void onClick() {
person.likedBy(me);
}
@Override
public boolean isVisible() {
return person.isNotLiked();
}
}.setBody(new AbstractReadOnlyModel<String>() {
@Override
public String getObject() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Like ");
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
}
}));
add(new Link<>("like")
.visible(() -> person.isNotLiked())
.onClick(() -> person.likedBy(me))
.body(() -> {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("L
sb.append(person.getFirstName());
return sb.toString();
})
);
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Anon inner classes: 17 lines
Java 8 lambdas: 9 lines

86. nashorn

87. JavaScript validation

88. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
try {
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
} catch(Exception e) {
}

89. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
try {
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
} catch(Exception e) {
}

90. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
try {
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
} catch(Exception e) {
}

91. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
try {
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
} catch(Exception e) {
}

92. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
try {
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
} catch(Exception e) {
}

93. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
try {
} catch(Exception e) {
}

94. ScriptEngineManager m
= new ScriptEngineManager();
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName("nashorn");
!
nashorn.put("age", validatable.getValue());
String js = "age >= 18";
!
try {
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
if(!((Boolean)result) {
ValidationError e = new ValidationError();
validatable.error(e);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
}

95. ScriptEngineManager m
=
!
ScriptEngine nashorn
= m.getEngineByName(
!
nashorn.put( was only a proof-of-concept
This
.
String js =is probably won
Th
’t ever fly due
!
to business entities residing on
try
server, and difficult to share those
Object result = nashorn.eval(js);
in browser, including I18N
m e = new
ValidationErroressages. ValidationError()
}
}
}
validatable.error(e);

96. java.time
support for this will be for
converters, validations and
possibly wicket-datetime

97. Roadmap
Anything written here is just
speculation from my side. This is
not set in stone. Dates are mere
guidelines.

98. Monthly releases

99. 2014
feb
mar
may
6.1
4
6.1
6.1
-M
7.0
7.0
1
5
-M
2
jun
8
7.0
6.1
9
7.1

100. 2015
feb
mar
7.1
7.9
8.0
-M
1
may
7.1
8.0
0
-M
2
jun
2
8.0
7.1
3
8.1

101. git organization

102. master
wicket-1.0.x
wicket-1.1.x
wicket-1.2.x
wicket-1.3.x
wicket-1.4.x
wicket-1.5.x
wicket-6.x
!
Current organisation of
our repository: master is
new development, rest
is maintenance.

103. master
wicket-1.0.x
wicket-1.1.x
wicket-1.2.x
wicket-1.3.x
wicket-1.4.x
wicket-1.5.x
wicket-6.x
!
x!
cket 7.
wi
Current organisation of
our repository: master is
new development, rest
is maintenance.

104. master
wicket-1.0.x
wicket-1.1.x
wicket-1.2.x
wicket-1.3.x
wicket-1.4.x
wicket-1.5.x
wicket-6.x
wicket-7.x
wicket-8.x
proposed layout: no more master,
but just product branches.

105. experimental modules
Jay! Many exper
imental modules
have been upgra
ded to core
modules! beanva
lidation, CDI-1.1,
web sockets will
be part of Wicket
core from 6.14 an
d onwards.

106. org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-6.x
wicket-atmosphere
wicket-bootstrap
wicket-new-examples
!
org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-7.x
Remaining
wicket-atmosphere
experimental modules
wicket-cdi-1.1

107. org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-6.x
wicket-atmosphere
wicket-bootstrap
wicket-new-examples
!
tstrap: bootstrap is
No more boo
org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-7.x
new examples:
ource reference to
no
just a res
wicket-atmosphere r
time to do anyth
CSS. Write you
t and
ing
JavaScrip
wicket-cdi-1.1 use
useful with them
0 lines of code) or
.
own (~1
’s bootstrap wicket
L0rdn1kk0n
component library.

108. Wicket 6.x
org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-6.x
wicket-atmosphere
!
Wicket 7.x
!
org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-7.x
wicket-atmosphere
!
How to separate the same
experimental modules in multiple
product lines?

109. Wicket 6.x
org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-6.x
wicket-atmosphere
!
Wicket 7.x
!
org.apache.wicket.experimental.wicket-7.x
wicket-atmosphere
!
Make the groupId specific to
the
product line, keep code as sim
ilar
as possible.

110. The state of Apache Wicket:

111. The state of Apache Wicket:
HEALTHY

112. DEVELOPERS
DEV
ENTER
powered by Topicus