ZK - Open Source Ajax Java Framework

The ZK team is pleased to release ZK 5 RC with its developer-centric and architectural innovation such as Server+Client Fusion and Ajax-as-a-Service.

Since 2005 ZK has been renowned for its' server-centric approach, providing the ultimate in productivity gains. In addition, developers can now optionally leverage the full controllability of client-side programming. It is not about server-centric or client-centric, it is about developer-centric!

With the release of ZK 5 RC come some very important changes.

* Server+Client Fusion: With ZK 5's new architecture, developers can not only leverage the productivity boost of the server-centric architecture, but also the full controllability and instant responsiveness of client-side programming.

* jQuery: ZK 5 now allows developers to maximize the user experience using enterprise-level ZK widgets and the simplicity of jQuery.

* Ajax-as-a-Service: ZK 5 now brings the ability to load client-side JavaScript packages from distributed servers. This delivers EAI integration client-side, enabling the same close knit ease of backend integration but at the client!

* LGPL: ZK 5 is now licensed under the LGPL license.

Download & other resources

* Download ZK 5 RC

* ZK 5 RC Release notes

Hi, Guys
What is a price for new ZK5 pro and ent?
Regards, Vlad

I see trial period for professional and enterprise version. What about pricing ?

We recognized that the module zkex is not longer part of the community edition and also never more included in the sources. That means that core parts of ZK like BorderLayout and ColumnLayout will not work anymore for all our customer applications which are all under GPL. So we can't switch to newer Versions of ZK and have to decide seriously what to do in the future. This is a very hard kickback for the Open Source Community and the overall acceptance of ZK as an "Open Source" solution. Please rethink that decision.

I agree with what was said by jduemmel in post previous mine! What a pity!!!

@ VladKon & cicciobellomo,

If you are interested in Professional and Enterprise Commercial Licenses, please contact us at info AT zkoss DOT org. Thank you.

Dear jeanher, this is no solution. It's not about the $$$ for a developer license. It's the fact that we cannot deliver our Open Source Solutions with ZK under GPL anymore. Our customers won't accept this.
You cut core ZK functionality, which where under LGPL since V3.0.0. A maintenance agreement may be ok fur us, but not the change of the license behaviour.

Hi Guys,
I'm a bit surprised to see a change in the terms of the license.
ZK is great work, but I think this kind of license will stop up 90% of people to share this great work, and lost more and more ZK developer.

Hi,

its even not clear if the prices applies to older versions or only to the new zk 5 Release.

I think and hope the older Versions like 3.6.2 where released under the GPL and so the licence could not be changed with retrospective effect.

So we will continue to use these older versions in our existing projects and for new projects we will use other free frameworks.
Fortunately the 3.6.2 version runs very stable and includes the most used features.
Even if it is a pity, cause we like to use zk in our projects and the new version 5 features looks great.
But the prices for the licences per year are to high and the community editon lacks in essential features.

HI @ofeus,

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but today I writed email to info@zkoss.org for requesting license information! I'll carry you a part of the email response:

Hello ...,

Glad to hear from you and thank you for your interest in ZK.

With regard to the price,
You can take a look at our pricing table here: http://www.zkoss.org/price/pricing.dsp#license

This table is applicable to ZK 3.6 and prior versions. With regards to ZK 5.0, the items included in each package will be finalized before the official release scheduled by the end of the year. It may slightly differ from the current table and includes more new features, but offered at the same price as ZK 3.6. ...

Hi @smigol,

thank you for the information.

So it seems that beside the community editions the other editons never where released under a free license.
Perhaps Potix just forgot to list the prices. ;)

This seems to be the reason, why there is no license text delivered with the older download packages.

This seems to me a little bit strange.

Fortunately we just have used zk in some small test projects and if the
prices also applies to older versions we will switch to another web
framework.

There are and there will be many other promising open source web frameworks
and I think such an license model will be the end for the zk community and
the framework.

To clear a little bit the confusion: Download the Source Code packages - The comunity edition - and you will see that zkex (including Borderlayout, Columnlayout, etc...) is included until Version 3 and you can check the file headers:
This program is distributed under GPL Version 3.0 in the hope that
it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
In Source Code package - The comunity edition - of version 5.0.0 RC zkex has simply disappeared.

Why do not use LGPL. Seam is licensed under the LGPL. My customers do not want to see your source codes open or pay for close your code.

Hi @jduemmel.

if I understand your comment right, the older versions of zk (3.6.2) where explicitly released under
GPL. So I think the usage of these versions should be possible without any license fees including the
zkex package.

Hi,

it's really sad that ZK has taken this step! I was interested in using ZK in some Open Source solutions but I'm afraid this is no longer possible.

Neither the community edition nor the professional/enterprise editions are usable for me because the community edition doesn't include all features, that I need and the professional/enterprise edition is not compatible with the gpl as far as I know.

My cusomers wouldn't accept this!

What I don't understand is why don't you offer a service contract for maby 1000$ a year.
This contract should include free updates, all features and the ability to deliver solutions under the terms of the GPL.

You should also consider that to high prices will scare people. Especially small companys or non-profit-organizations wouln't be able to pay a lot (even if the framework is great) which will lead to fewer earnings for you.

I really hope that Potix rethinks this step.

Hi @ofeus an everyone intrested in.

First, I'm customer (consultant and solution provider), our company uses ZK from the beginning for solutions under GPL for the "communal sector" in germany. This solutions have to be "open source" with no discussion, because of existing contracts. We use ZK for the web interfaces and until 3.6.2, everything we needed was included in the community edition and the source of the community edition 3.6.2 is under GPL 3.

The community edition of ZK 5 is under LGPL 3, but stripped-down of functionality compared to 3.6.2. Functionality, you need for every serious web solution. E.G functions like Borderlayout, Columnlayout, Portallayout, etc ...

The upcomming problem and tragedy, which the people from Potix didn't recognized is that, also when buying the ZK Enterpise License or anything else, we would have to change the license of our solutions, which is definitly not possible.

The people of Potix did and do a great job, and we don't have any problem to honor this (e.g. yearly maintenance costs like we do with our solutions). But if we can't use it as open source, we can't use it anymore and we have do change the framework even it heavy hurts.
We will use 3.6.2 as long as we rewrote our large libraries for another open framework and then say good bye to ZK.
This will cost a lot - we would better invest this to maintenance for ZK, if it would be open source again.
In my opininion - strategy consulting is our job - this is the beginning of the end of ZK framework and this makes us blue for this great product.

Bad news.
I'm very unpleasantly surprised with this business decision
for example of commercial solutions there is a pricing for asp.net web components.

And what about ZK Studio? what strategy will you follow?

Hello everyone,
I wanted to add that ZK 3.6.3 Freshly (with some bugs fix) is under GPL 3 (I CHECK THE LICENSE MANIFEST IN THE ZIP FILE) ...
so I will continue to use until you can!!

I really have no words.
I'll have to start looking around for a new ajax solution that is not owned by greedy persons.

I will keep using 3.6.3 and for the future starting considering this: http://www.icefaces.org/main/home/