What is Apache Wicket?

Apache Wicket is an open source, java, component based, web application framework. With proper mark-up/logic separation, a POJO data model, and a refreshing lack of XML, Apache Wicket makes developing web-apps simple and enjoyable again. Swap the boilerplate, complex debugging and brittle code for powerful, reusable components written with plain Java and HTML.

Apache Wicket can be found at: http://wicket.apache.org and is licensed under the Apache Software Foundation license, version 2.0.

Getting started

The Wicket project has several resources and projects where you can learn from, and get started quickly:

What is in this package

The archive you just downloaded and unpacked contains the source code and the jars of the core projects of Wicket. If you are just starting out, you probably only need to include wicket-util-x.jar, wicket-request-x.jar and wicket-core-x.jar, where x stands for the version. As a rule, use just the jars you need.

You will find the source code here:

|-- apidocs
|   |-- org
|   `-- resources
|-- lib
|-- licenses
`-- src
    |-- archetypes
    |-- testing
    |-- wicket
    |-- wicket-auth-roles
    |-- wicket-bean-validation
    |-- wicket-cdi
    |-- wicket-cdi-1.1
    |-- wicket-core
    |-- wicket-datetime
    |-- wicket-devutils
    |-- wicket-eclipse-settings
    |-- wicket-examples
    |-- wicket-experimental
    |   |-- wicket-metrics
    |   |-- wicket-http2
    |-- wicket-extensions
    |-- wicket-guice
    |-- wicket-ioc
    |-- wicket-jmx
    |-- wicket-native-websocket
    |-- wicket-objectssizeof-agent
    |-- wicket-request
    |-- wicket-spring
    |-- wicket-util
    |-- wicket-user-guide
    `-- wicket-velocity

Here is a list of projects in this distribution and what they do.

  • wicket: the core project, includes the framework and basic components;
  • wicket-extensions: contains utilities and more specialized components;
  • wicket-auth-roles: a basic authorization package based on roles;
  • wicket-datetime: contains date/ time specific components such as a date picker;
  • wicket-jmx: registers JMX beans for managing things like your Wicket configuration and markup cache;
  • wicket-objectssizeof-agent: utility for making better estimates of object sizes in the JVM - most people probably never need this;
  • wicket-ioc: base project for IoC (aka DI) implementations such as Spring and Guice;
  • wicket-spring: support project for using Spring with Wicket and including Spring managed dependencies through using @SpringBean annotations;
  • wicket-guice: support project for using Google Guice with Wicket;
  • wicket-velocity: contains special components for rendering Velocity templates using Wicket components - most people probably don't need this, but it can be neat when you want to do CMS-like things;
  • wicket-examples: contains a basic component reference and many examples of how to use Wicket and Wicket components, including examples for sub projects such as wicket-spring, wicket-velocity and wicket-auth-roles.
  • wicket-devutils: provides small utilities which can help in development phase
  • wicket-bean-validation: validates beans with annotation based on javax.validation;
  • wicket-cdi: the context and dependency injection of the jee standard for wicket;
  • wicket-cdi-1.1: the context and dependency injection of the jee standard 1.1 for wicket;
  • wicket-devutils: some utils to help debugging wicket;
  • wicket-experimental: experimental implementations for wicket;
  • wicket-native-websocket: wicket's native web sockets integration for several servers;
  • wicket-request: lightweight project which contains all classes dealing with request handlers and so on;
  • wicket-util: the util project for wicket;
  • wicket-eclipse-settings: specifies Eclipse settings for a uniform development environment. Most notably the formatting rules;
  • wicket-user-guide: the user guide of wicket
  • wicket-metrics: collects data of a running wicket application
  • wicket-http2: http/2 push support

Dependencies

The easiest way of getting the dependencies of your Wicket based projects right is to use Apache Maven (http://maven.apache.org) with your projects and include the wicket dependencies you want is outlined in the wicket-quickstart. Maven will then take care of including the appropriate dependencies.

If you do not want to use maven, here is a break down of the dependencies you need. For the complete and precise reference see the wicket-parent pom.xml in the src/ folder.

Building Wicket from source

The Wicket distribution contains the final Wicket jar. You can use this directly in your applications. The Wicket project also uploads the source and JavaDoc jars as well as the final jar to the Maven repository used by the Maven build tool. So there is actually no specific need to build Wicket yourself from the distribution.

Building using Maven 2 or 3, change the working directory to src and either do:

  • mvn package

    creates wicket-x.y.z.jar in target/ subdirectory.

  • mvn install

    creates wicket-x.y.z.jar in target/ subdirectory and installs the file into your local Maven repository for use in other projects.

Migrating from 7.x

This file is a copy of the migration guide from available on our Wiki:

https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/WICKET/Migration+to+Wicket+8.0

Getting help

  • Read the online documentation available on our website (http://wicket.apache.org)

  • Read the migration guide (migration-to-wicket-60.html)

  • Read the mailing archives available on Nabble, GMane and Apache

  • Send a complete message containing your problem, stacktrace and problem you're trying to solve to the user list (users@wicket.apache.org)

  • Ask a question on IRC at freenode.net, channel ##wicket

License

Wicket is distributed under the terms of the Apache Software Foundation license, version 2.0. The text is included in the file LICENSE in the root of the project.

Java/Application server requirements

Wicket requires at least Java 1.8. The application server for running your web application should adhere to the servlet specification version 3.1 or newer.

Cryptographic Software Notice

This distribution includes cryptographic software. The country in which you currently reside may have restrictions on the import, possession, use, and/or re-export to another country, of encryption software. BEFORE using any encryption software, please check your country's laws, regulations and policies concerning the import, possession, or use, and re-export of encryption software, to see if this is permitted. See http://www.wassenaar.org for more information.

The U.S. Government Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), has classified this software as Export Commodity Control Number (ECCN) 5D002.C.1, which includes information security software using or performing cryptographic functions with asymmetric algorithms. The form and manner of this Apache Software Foundation distribution makes it eligible for export under the License Exception ENC Technology Software Unrestricted (TSU) exception (see the BIS Export Administration Regulations, Section 740.13) for both object code and source code.

The following provides more details on the included cryptographic software:

For encoding HTTP URL data (see org.apache.wicket.core.request.mapper.CryptoMapper) Wicket requires the Java Cryptography extensions (http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/security/). Wicket does not include these libraries itself, but is designed to use them.