Metawidget integrates with: Java Android JBoss Forge Google Web Toolkit Groovy Hibernate ICEfaces Java Server Faces OVal PrimeFaces RichFaces Scala Spring Struts Swing SWT Tomahawk Vaadin
Metawidget is proudly: Open Source (OSI) Friend of the JBoss Community

Metawidget is a smart User Interface widget that populates itself, either statically or at runtime, with UI components to match the properties of your business objects.

Metawidget does this without introducing new technologies. It inspects your existing back-end architecture (such as JavaBeans, existing annotations, existing XML configuration files) and creates widgets native to your existing front-end framework (such as Swing, Java Server Faces, Struts, Android).

Metawidget does not replace or hide your existing UI framework and guarantees that your investment in its technology and knowledge is as valid as always. The LGPL Open Source license allows the use of Metawidget in open source and commercial projects.

1

Metawidget comes with a UI component native to your existing front-end

2

Metawidget inspects, either statically or at runtime, your existing back-end architecture

3

Metawidget creates native UI subcomponents matched to the back-end

Supported Technologies

1. Front-Ends

Metawidget has a native component
for each of these
  • Android
  • Google Web Toolkit (GWT)
  • HTML 5 (POH5)
  • Java Server Faces (JSF)
    • Facelets
    • ICEfaces
    • PrimeFaces
    • RichFaces
    • Tomahawk
  • Java Server Pages (JSP)
    • DisplayTag
  • Spring Web MVC
  • Struts
  • Swing
    • Beans Binding (JSR 295)
    • Commons BeanUtils
    • JGoodies Validator
    • MigLayout
    • SwingX
  • SWT
  • Vaadin
  • ...help us add more!

2. Back-Ends

Metawidget can read business object
information from all of these
  • Annotations
  • Bean Validation (JSR 303)
  • Commons JEXL
  • Commons Validator
  • Groovy
  • Hibernate
  • Hibernate Validator
  • JavaBeans
  • Java Persistence API (JPA)
  • Javassist
  • JBoss Forge
  • JBoss jBPM
  • OVal
  • Scala
  • Seam
  • Swing AppFramework
  • ...help us add more!

At a high level, the goals of Metawidget are:

  • to create UI widgets by inspecting existing architectures
  • not to try to 'own' the entire UI, but to focus on creating native subcomponents for slotting into existing UIs
  • to perform inspection either statically or at runtime, detecting types and subtypes dynamically

Metawidget requires Java SE 5 or higher.

The download includes documentation and examples for all supported front-ends and back-ends. Click here to download it.

Desktop: Metawidget has a native Swing JComponent and a native SWT Composite
Web: Metawidget has a native component/taglib for each popular Web framework
Mobile: Metawidget has a native Android View
Inspect: all Metawidgets, regardless of which front-end they are native to, use a common inspection process to inspect the existing back-end architecture
Properties: Metawidget inspects runtime properties from objects such as JavaBeans, GroovyBeans and Scala objects
Annotations: Metawidget inspects runtime Java objects for existing annotations, such as JPA and Hibernate Validator annotations
XML: Metawidget inspects existing XML configuration files, such as
struts-config.xml, hibernate.cfg.xml and pageflow.jpdl.xml
Create: the inspection results are used to choose the best UI subcomponents, depending on those available on the native platform. This includes support for third-party component libraries
Web: Metawidget creates native components/taglibs for each popular Web framework, including attaching validators
Desktop: Metawidget creates native Swing JComponents, optionally bound with Beans Binding (JSR 295), and native SWT Controls
Mobile: Metawidget creates native Android Views
Embed: the native UI subcomponents slot into the existing front-end