Post by Hendy Irawan on May 10th, 2007

ZK: Rich Web Applications Supporting Ruby Scripting

ZK is a popular open source Ajax framework written in Java. It simplifies rich web applications by treating the browser as a simple display server, which reduces the need to have lots of application logic. It's Java, so why it's in RubyInside?

The interesting part here is that recent versions of ZK (version 2.3.1 as of this writing) support more languages for its ZUML markup, in addition to Java: JavaScript, Groovy, and Ruby. ZUML is an XML-based markup language to create user interfaces very similar to the desktop GUI component/event driven model.

Being Java, ZK's Ruby engine is powered by JRuby, which is already quite mature. With the recent announcement of Microsoft Silverlight technology (which also supports Ruby), this can only mean wider adoption of the Ruby language in many aspects.

(One particular note: both Rails and ZK use Script.aculo.us as their visual effects JavaScript library.)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 9:56 am and is filed under Cool, Elsewhere, Enterprise, JRuby, News. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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5 Responses to “ZK: Rich Web Applications Supporting Ruby Scripting”

  1. #1
    Rajesh Says:
    May 11th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    Hendy Irawan wrote :
    Being Java, ZK's Ruby engine is powered by JRuby, which is already quite mature.

    Hendy Irawan must have somked "something" that I would like to "smoke". JRuby is mature?? huh?? Have you deployed application on Jruby? Do it before you promote it.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Peter Cooper Says:
    May 11th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    It's all relative, but even ThoughtWorks are deploying a commercial app on JRuby.

    http://studios.thoughtworks.com/2007/5/7/mingle-to-run-on-jruby

    They claim "JRuby is ready for prime time!"

    Depends on whether you see mature as having been around and proven a long time.. or in the sense of "finally mature". ThoughtWorks (and Hendy) seem to take the latter view.

  3. #3
    Hendy Irawan Says:
    May 12th, 2007 at 8:01 am

    Dear Rajesh,

    I agree with you that to decide which solution fits best for our clients, we must conduct a thorough research and testing first. This applies to any kind of technology, even old ones and, especially new ones as you said.

  4. #4
    Java, Please! Stirred, Not Shaken Says:
    May 15th, 2007 at 7:25 am

    ZK for Rich AJAX Web Applications in Java

  5. #5
    Java, Please! Stirred, Not Shaken Says:
    May 16th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

    ZK for Rich AJAX Web Applications in Java

    Looking to develop rich AJAX web applications? ZK is your friend. It also supports scripting in Ruby: (via RubyInside)

    ZK is a popular open source Ajax framework written in Java. It simplifies rich web applications by treating the browser as a simple ...