ZK - Open Source Java Web Framework

We created a mission critical project using ZK which is serving over 2,000,000 users while providing a rich end user experience. ZK not only provided us with the framework to do so productively but also first class support from their onsite consulting team which led to the tremendous success of the project

Could an undergraduate intern develop the UI for an entirely new module for our largest Java application entirely on his/her own?
VERDICT: Yes, within a week

This is unlike other frameworks that expose you to the painful details of making Ajax calls. Additionally, Ajax calls require extensive use and knowledge of JavaScript for manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM) on the browser (client) and synchronizing data during client/server communication. ZK shields you from these complexities and lets you focus on the business logic.

It lets you write a Web 2.0-enabled, rich Internet application without writing a single line of JavaScript code. This is a great tool to develop rich user interfaces, which are also easy to maintain. All code is written in Java, and there is no need to dive into arcane JavaScript details. ZK Studio is a plug-in for Eclipse and NetBeans. This makes it fairly easy and intuitive to create a UI project in Integration Developer.

Our development is going full steam ahead and our development team is going to double soon. I have been very satisfied with the support from ZK. They are responsive and courteous and I can’t ask for more.

The stability of the solution and the support (technical and commercial) from the Team has given me the confidence to use and reuse ZK.

We started the project with ZK and never regretted it.

With ZK, it is easy to build a complex web application front-end within acceptable timeframe.

With ZK, we are able to develop web-base rich client system, without any investment on training and staff development.

Building the UI in the new Banner by using ZK Grails simplifies the development of the user interface for everyday web developers.

Thank you for such a lovely framework. I was used to working in an old school manner: choose a MVC, a Javascript framework, cross your fingers, and try to make it work... Really, you are making my life easier, thanks!

ZK rimane uno dei migliori framework in assoluto perche’ è uno strumento maturo, intuitivo, b en progettato, con una comunità di sviluppatori e utenti molto vasta, con plugin open Source scritti da molti "contributori" volontari che lo complementano in alcune parti; e infine coniuga flessibilità con ottime performance lato server e client, e presenta una ottima curva di apprendimento.

We are impressed with your technology... I am expecting that we will be a pretty active participant in this respect.

I've done projects in JSP, Applet, Strut 1, and JSF in the early days. I've evaluated GWT, Openlaszlo, and Flex, and they were cool. When I learned the ZK framework two years ago, I started to fall in love with it. Its programming model let me make a rich ajax web app very quickly, and yet I don't need to know about javascript and browser compatibility issues.

Using ZK, our three developers wrote a system in twelve weeks that a team of eight outsourcing developers had been trying to write for eighteen months.

ZK Spreadsheet provides a powerful and useful web based spreadsheet. It saves our customer a lot of time and effort to manage their data. From the development perspective, ZK Spreadsheet is very easy to be integrated to our web application. Simple configuration and good integration with the other frameworks like Spring. We think ZK Spreadsheet is a very useful and valuable tool. Thank you.

In the last weeks a team of security experts tested my ZK application. They said that my application is definitely the most secure of the entire company. So congratulations, you are doing a really good job.

5 times productivity boost.

Swiss financial regulations are some of the most stringent in the world regarding security. As one of the leading interbank application providers we chose ZK for the security provided by its server-centric approach.

Our project uses ZK since 2008 and our customers are very happy with the business value earned using this technology.

In all honesty, ZK seems to be absolutely amazing, very rich, very fast, very flexible, etc. In my opinion, it is probably THE BEST AJAX framework on the planet, by a LONG shot.

We really recognize and appreciate your innovation and superb work on this project. ZK is simply an amazing platform… Credit must go to the amazing ZK team. Our tricked user interface is mostly done using your API. We like what you have built.

Thanks to the ZK Web Framework, Jease is easy to be customized even for people with basic Java skills

I'm very surprised on my own day after day what can be achieved with ZK with a minimum amount of time. Jease without ZK wouldn't be possible at all...

One thing I like about ZK is the simplicity and flexibility - you don't have to do much and it just produce the result that you wanted; and you can always tweak it if you want to.

Congratulations. Your product is wonderful... after evaluating many choices, we've decided to invest in developing many applications using ZK, both for internal, and citizen use.

They were easy to implement and, more importantly, to customize... With ZK, it was all possible!

OpenSourceServer: Web interface is built with the powerful zkoss framework. It runs with all popular Ajax enabled browsers. This lightweight RIA-type interface makes OSS as comfortable to use as a local software but it provides a much better response time.

Nur ein einziges Dateiformat müssen Entwickler mit Zk 5 pflegen, um attraktive Oberflächen und Ajax-getriebene Rich Internet Applications zu bauen. Schluss mit separatem HTML, CSS und Javascript.

None of this would have been possible, or look near as good without the ZK framework. This is a shining example of what an open-source project should be.

Yes, zk is the best in most ways. To us, we find ZK allows us to put in our best possible Design in place to build scalable and robust web applications

Today we are very strong in Communication Systems (PBX and Contact Centers) in Turkey. ... I believe most important share of our success is coming from you (you and ZK Team) so you have right to know success stories of ZK framework. And I hope our story is exciting for you.

This is a mature and impressive Ajax-based framework… This approach gives developers a great degree of freedom to use powerful techniques... This framework allows for very rapid application development, as the XML mark-up typically replaces a lot of code and the framework lends itself well to reuse.

ZK provides a means of supplying a rich user interface with minimum complexity. The ability to use ZUL to prototype a screen with user feedback is extremely useful! The prototype can then be developed into the actual interface, reducing initial development time!

From time to time I take a look at SourceForge.net projects to see what's active. This speculative browsing has resulted in the discovery of gems such as FileZilla, GAIM, and most recently ZK.

Due to the server-centric approach, programmers don’t even think of the Web.

I've experimented with most of the AJAX frameworks that have come out over the last year and ZK lives up to its marketing line of, "Simple and Rich".

Overall the framework is a joy to use. The ZUML makes it easy to do quick iterations -- edit, test, edit, etc. -- without a long compilation step. The ZUML is also easy enough so that non-programmers can compose or modify a UI. Exposing effects such as drag-and-drop, async update, etc., as components or attributes further eases the development of complex user interfaces for non-programmers and programmers alike.

The ZK site provides excellent documentation. I think you will find it worth your while to experiment with ZK and learn how to build Ajax web applications with minimal effort.

A really simple Ajax Framework. Needs only basic HTML knowledge. You can give it a try.

ZK is one of the best XUL tool for Java that I've known. It's a very powerful framework working on server-side to render DHTML with Ajax capability.

Es gibt auch ein nettes Live Demo, wo man ein bisschen was sehen kann... Mit dem TryMe button kann man nicht nur den Quelltext der einzelnen Beispiele sehen, sondern auch gleich mal direkt ändern und live ausprobieren... sehr genial... Das Forum ist sehr aktiv und man bekommt schnell Antwort von den Entwicklern...

Very interesting project for the JAVA developers, that could be very helpful to develop advanced AJAX applications, and the use of XUL make it much more powerful in my opinion.

ma evidenziano come ZK sia uno degli strumenti migliori nel mondo Web 2.0: la sua facilità di apprendimento e di uso, la sua notevole flessibilità e la possibilità di essere integrato con JSF, di funzionare anche sui palmari e di disporre di complicati componenti Ajax pronti all’uso ne fanno sicuramente un ottimo strumento da tenere in considerazione.

La caractéristique de ZK est de combiner Ajax pour l'interactivité et le langage de description d'interface XUL (comme Mozilla FireFox et Thunderbird) pour l'utilisation des composants prêts à l'emploi et non propriétaires. ZK dispose de son langage de balisage ZUML permettant de concevoir des interfaces utilisateurs comme une page HTML, sans programmation.

データベースアプリケーションがgrailsコマンド一発で構築できる時代なんだから、リッチなUIだって簡単に作りたい。ZKはそんな希望に応えてくれるWebアプリケーションフレームワークだ。本稿では、ZKが提供するUI作成ツールZK Designerを紹介する。

GUI的美观程度至关重要，怎么办呢？思前想后，决定使用Ajax技术，但我们也知道，如今Ajax的框架多如牛毛，我该选择哪一个呢，通过 Google找到了ZK。在看完她的在线演示后，被她华丽的外观，简洁实现方式所吸引。于是，就这样，我一边看着ZK技术手册，一边上路了。

Grazie alle sue potenzialità e caratteristiche uniche gli utenti sperimentano la stessa interattività delle applicazioni desktop, e anche per lo sviluppatore la realizzazione di un'applicazione diviene semplice come creare un normale programma per pc.

ZK seems more flexible and it's based on several interesting technologies, like XUL. I believe both (GWT and ZK) can have success.

ZK 真的是個好東西。如果要開發大型的 Ajax 專案非常值得考慮使用。

Un amigo me comento de estas "librerias" para implementar Ajax y se ve que estan muy buenas o al menos se ve relativamente sencillo para implementar.

ZK, uma engine de eventos baseada em AJAX incluindo componentes XUL, XHTML e uma linguagem markup para facilitar a criação de aplicações internet ricas sem a necessidade de programação em JavaScript. Licensiada sob GPL, a ZK consiste em um conjunto de servlets e filters em uma aplicação Web que trata requisições a arquivos. zul.

I was experimenting with different frameworks in order to find something that would boost the productivity within our company’s development team... The fact is that for me ZK has proved to be a great working tool and an inspiration at the same time!... I really think that you have developed something very good with great potential. I truly believe that sky is the limit.
- Chris Spiliotopoulos, creator of Zero Kode,

Wow ZK is amazing..i was looking for something just like this..before i was looking at laszlo but... I want to integrate ZK with a new project using ZK as front end with JSF + Spring and Hibernate.

I do want to thank you guys. ZK is the first framework that actually makes it easy to create real complex applications in Java.

We're really very impressed with ZK, so much so that we've already started integrating it as the presentation layer for our own forms framework, replacing in one go all of our UI code with ZK.

We are Lucky with ZK! It's fast, stable and easy to use! It's just amazing!

I am better off with pure open source libs ZK for all my ajax needs!

excellent concept!!, excellent programming work!!... From my perspective best Ajax framework on the market (and I have evaluated all inclusive the commercial Backbase Framework). Keep doing so!!!

First, the framework is amazing! Great work! I use it without the tags, coding directly against the api like I used to do with swing...