Wicket

Wicket is a very attractive Web framework for Java. In contrast to other Web frameworks, such as JSP or Asp.NET, Wicket strictly separates the visual design in HTML from the executed code behind the scenes and does make use of very little extra non-HTML tags in the visual representation. This feature enables the use of visual prototypes at an early stage of a software project which can be developed towards the actual piece of software.

Even though Wicket framework is very mature, I was missing some features when I was using it in the last projects. The following few blog articles will present a few useful extensions to the framework, namely:

• A validation error container for nested wicket containers/components that allows to use CSS to show validation errors in components and that enables the feedback on the component level resulting from a validation errors of a form validation.
• Show the way how to customize/rewrite the FeedbackPanel component in order to adapt the look of the feedback panel to own needs.
• An extension for Radio buttons which allows one to cope with Boolean values and to retrieve the selected radio button.
• Showing how to introduce a component which sets the focus on a particular component.