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Announcing Apache Wicket 8: Write Less, Achieve More

The Apache Wicket project announces the 8th major release of the open source Java web framework servicing websites and applications across the globe for over a decade. With this release Wicket embraces Java 8 idioms fully, allowing the use of lambda expressions in all the right places. With Wicket 8 you can write fewer, faster and more maintainable code.

A Careful Application of Java 8

While previous versions of Wicket work well with Java 8 and beyond, the Wicket API was not optimized to make full use of Java 8 idioms. After careful consideration and trying many paths to adopt new ways of combining Java 8 and Wicket, we finally settled on the current API.

Java 8’s new idioms and types have been applied throughout Wicket’s API. Learn more about the details below.

Java 8+ Required

Starting with Wicket 8 the minimum required version of Java is Java 8. All Wicket supplied projects have been upgraded to Java 8 and Wicket 8, and shortly all active community projects, such as Wicket Stuff, will follow suit.

With the adoption of Java 8 we were able to provide support for Lambdas.

Servlet 3.1 Required

As of Wicket 8 we only support the Java Servlet API 3.1 (or newer). This means that to run applications built using Wicket 8 you have to run your application in a modern server like Tomcat 8.x, Jetty 9.1+ or a Java EE 7 compatible server.

Java Date/Time API

Wicket 8 provides out-of-the-box support for the new types for handling dates in Java 8. These can be converted, validated and bound to components.

Lambdas in All The Right Places

The major feature of Java 8 was the addition of lambda support in the language. With Wicket 8 we have looked at providing lambda support in the API and have weighed it against performance and memory usage considerations.

In this light we have opted to continue using subclassing as the primary extension mechanism for Wicket components. Factories for lambdas have been provided for various forms of models (databinding) and behaviors (adapters for components).

Optional is Sometimes Required

The new Optional type in Java 8 is intended for places in your API where things can be null. In Wicket’s case we have adopted Optional in just those places to clarify the API.

For example the AjaxFallbackLink, a link that works using both with and without AJAX, now uses Optional to signify whether the link was clicked utilizing AJAX or normal request processing: the AJAX request is wrapped in an Optional. Previous versions of Wicket would provide a null value for the AJAX request.

Because we have modified the API to utilize Optional, you will get compile errors when you start migrating to Wicket 8. This gives you the exact positions where these improvements have occurred and you can start working with the Optional API. 

// WICKET 7:
add(new AjaxFallbackLink<Void>("wicket7") {
    @Override
    public void onClick(AjaxRequestTarget target) {
        if(target != null) {
            // ...
        }
    }
});
// WICKET 8:
add(new AjaxFallbackLink<Void>("wicket8") {
    @Override
    public void onClick(Optional<AjaxRequestTarget> target) {
        if(target.isPresent()) {
            // ...
        }
    }
});

Models as Functional Interface

Wicket uses models as the databinding method: each data-aware component can take a model implementation to retrieve and store data in. From Wicket 8 we have made the root interface IModel a functional interface. You can now use lambdas where you can use models.

The following example binds a Label component to the name of a person object in different ways using Wicket 8: 

add(new Label("name1", person::name));
add(new Label("name2", () -> person.getName()));
add(new Label("name3", LambdaModel.of(personModel, Person::getName)));
add(new Label("name4",
  LambdaModel.of(contractModel, Contract::getPerson)
    .map(Person::getName)));

The new LambdaModel type in Wicket enables type safe, refactor safe databinding for components. Previously one would bind data to components using PropertyModel, using a string expression to determine the exact property to show. The string expression is something like "person.name". This is inherently difficult to refactor when you decide to change the name field into for example "lastName". With LambdaModel, this refactoring is trivial for IDEs to perform: the Java methods can easily be renamed and the IDE will find all the references.

Microbenchmarks have shown that using lambda models provides much better performance than the string based PropertyModel at the cost of slightly larger memory footprint.

No Rewrite Necessary

The Wicket team has been very careful of adopting Java 8 technologies and as such you don’t have to rewrite your whole application, whilst still reaping all the benefits of Java 8.

As this is a new major version we have, in accordance with semantic versioning, cleaned up many APIs and you will get compile errors when you migrate from previous Wicket versions.

Migrating to Wicket 8

When you migrate from a previous Wicket version to Wicket 8, a full list of changes and migrations is available at the following page:

https://s.apache.org/wicket8migrate

Please consult this migration guide when you are moving towards Wicket 8.

Getting Started with Wicket 8

It is very easy to get started with Wicket: use our quick-start wizard or use one of the options below.

Download using Apache Maven

With Apache Maven update your dependency to (and don't forget to update any other dependencies on Wicket projects to the same version): 

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.wicket</groupId>
    <artifactId>wicket-core</artifactId>
    <version>8.8.0</version>
</dependency>

Download sources/binaries manually

Or download and build the distribution yourself, or use our convenience binary package

Introducing Apache Wicket

Invented in 2004, Wicket is one of the few survivors of the Java serverside web framework wars of the mid 2000's. Wicket is an open source, component oriented, serverside, Java web application framework. With a history of over a decade, it is still going strong and has a solid future ahead. Learn why you should consider Wicket for your next web application.

Just Java & HTML

Leverage what you know about Java or your favourite HTML editor to write Wicket applications. With pure Java code and HTML markup Wicket is the go-to web framework for purists.

Secure by Default

URLs do not expose sensitive information and all component paths are session-relative. Wicket keeps your model private except those parts you explicitly expose.

AJAX Components

Write Ajax applications without having to write a single line of JavaScript code. Wicket's Ajax functionality makes it trivial to update selected parts of a UI, and comes with a great selection of basic Ajax components.

Open Source with Apache License

Since its inception in 2004 Wicket has been an open source project and remains available under one of the most permissive licenses: the Apache Software License.

Maintainable code

Pages and Components in Wicket are real Java objects that support encapsulation, inheritance and events. Create high level components with ease and bundle its stylesheets, JavaScript and other resources into one reusable package.

Internationalized to take on the world

With support of over 25 languages out-of-the-box, Wicket let's you get started in your own language, or a second language with no effort. You can provide alternative languages on the application, page, or even component level.

Multi-tab and window support

No more pain while keeping taps on multiple tabs and windows. Wicket's automatic state storage ensures that your users can open pages in new tabs and windows without causing problems.

Work with JavaScript and CSS

Global JavaScript libraries and CSS styling mix properly with component local JavaScript and CSS resources. You can use custom component libraries that ship with default JavaScript behaviour and CSS styling, without having to do anything yourself. Creating such self-contained component libraries is as easy as creating a JAR file.

Test your pages and components

With WicketTester you can achieve testing coverage your QA department can only dream of. Test your pages without having to run inside a browser, or start a container. Test your components directly, check their rendered markup tags, attributes and contents with ease.

Injection support

Inject your services into your pages and components with the technology of your choosing: Wicket provides integration with CDI (JSR-305), Spring and Guice.

JavaEE integration

If you are using the Web profile of JavaEE 6 or newer, you can leverage JPA, EJBs, Bean Validation and CDI with Wicket's integrations for these specifications.

News about Apache Wicket

Get the latest updates to releases, security bulletins, community news and more.

Apache Wicket 8.8.0 released

24 Apr 2020

The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 8.8.0!

Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers thousands of web applications and web sites for governments, stores, universities, cities, banks, email providers, and more. You can find more about Apache Wicket at https://wicket.apache.org

This release marks another minor release of Wicket 8. We use semantic versioning for the development of Wicket, and as such no API breaks are present breaks are present in this release compared to 8.0.0.

Using this release

With Apache Maven update your dependency to (and don’t forget to update any other dependencies on Wicket projects to the same version):

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.wicket</groupId>
    <artifactId>wicket-core</artifactId>
    <version>8.8.0</version>
</dependency>

Or download and build the distribution yourself, or use our convenience binary package you can find here:

  • Download: http://wicket.apache.org/start/wicket-8.x.html#manually
Read more...

Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M5 released

06 Apr 2020

The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M5!

Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers thousands of web applications and web sites for governments, stores, universities, cities, banks, email providers, and more. You can find more about Apache Wicket at https://wicket.apache.org

This release marks another minor release of Wicket 9. We use semantic versioning for the development of Wicket, and as such no API breaks are present breaks are present in this release compared to 9.0.0.

New and noteworthy

With this milestone Wicket introduces support for content security policy (CSP) which is active by default and prevents inline JavaScript and CSS code from been executed. For more details about CSP support see Wicket 9 migration guide linked below.

Using this release

With Apache Maven update your dependency to (and don’t forget to update any other dependencies on Wicket projects to the same version):

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.wicket</groupId>
    <artifactId>wicket-core</artifactId>
    <version>9.0.0-M5</version>
</dependency>

Or download and build the distribution yourself, or use our convenience binary package you can find here:

  • Download: http://wicket.apache.org/start/wicket-9.x.html#manually
Read more...

Older news

See the archives for all news articles concerning release, security and community updates.

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  • Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M5 released

    06 Apr 2020 The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M5! Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers... more

  • Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M4 released

    09 Jan 2020 The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M4! Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers... more

  • Apache Wicket 7.16.0 released

    08 Jan 2020 The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 7.16.0! Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers... more

  • Apache Wicket 8.7.0 released

    07 Jan 2020 The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 8.7.0! Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers... more

  • Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M3 released

    16 Sep 2019 The Apache Wicket PMC is proud to announce Apache Wicket 9.0.0-M3! Apache Wicket is an open source Java component oriented web application framework that powers... more