RIA Development - Choosing the right tools

I've been quite busy these days, but now I’m back with something pretty interesting. During the time I’ve been a Java Web Developer I had pass many of my free time researching about the right tool for the right Job, which mean I’ve test a bunch of tools available in the market.

Even that RIA is not a new term for me, I start wondering myself how would be a full Ajax-Enabled application with no servlets, no JSF, not any framework that tie me up to a Preprocessing Life Cycle for generating dynamic content into my pages.

I know HTML, I know JavaScript (at least that what I think :-] ) , and I know Java, how can I mix this up and build a Web 2.0 Application with zero Page processing (JSF, JSP, Servlets, SpringMVC, Struts, Wicket),because all of them required you to build your JSP/HTML with some kind of markup in order to get processed in the server.

The answer is just at the next corner: DOJO + DWR

DOJO with its incredible set of JavaScript Widget, DOM manipulator utilities and great look and feel, makes you take it seriously as the right tool for developing RICH UI with just HTML and JavaScript.

Check the "Why Dojo"? .

Check the next example as well.

What’s great from DOJO is that you have a lot of JavaScript power for the price of "24K" (Relax, 'K' stands for Kilobytes not Money :-] )

Now in the other hand with DWR:
Which turns to be my Counterpart for the Server Side Processing, since DWR can automatically Marshall and UnMarshall Java Object into JavaScript Object make it perfect as my Transport and Processing Layer between the Client and the Server.

This mean I can have my plain Java Class with access to my set of Hibernate DAO and have communication back and forth without need to write a Servlet or any Special Class that will be managed by the Container.

And since with DWR I can have access to the Http Session Object via the WebContextFactory I can managed the State between my JavaScript AJAX calls. :), for me that something cool.

Think about it, I believe this two technologies can work pretty well if you're a trying to build the Next Web2.0 Application for your Customer. Give them a try and let me know your thoughts.