Overview
You can develop Vaadin applications in
essentially any development environment that has the Java SDK and deploys to a
Java Servlet container. You can use Vaadin with any Java IDE or no IDE at all.
Vaadin has special support for the Eclipse and NetBeans IDEs, as well as for
IntelliJ IDEA.
Vaadin installation steps
Managing Vaadin and other Java libraries can get
tedious to do manually, so using a build system that manages dependencies
automatically is adviced. Vaadin is distributed in the Maven central
repository, and can be used with any build or dependency management system that
can access Maven repositories, such as Ivy or Gradle, in addition to Maven.
Vaadin has a multitude of installation options
for different IDEs and dependency managers. You can also install it from an
installation package:
• With the Eclipse IDE, use the Vaadin Plugin
for Eclipse, as described in Vaadin Plugin for Eclipse
• With the Vaadin plugin for NetBeans IDE (
Section 3.6, “Creating a Project with the NetBeans IDE”) or IntelliJ IDEA
• With Maven, Ivy, Gradle, or other
Maven-compatible dependency manager, under Eclipse, NetBeans, IDEA, or using
command-line, as described in Section 3.5, “Creating a Project with Maven”
• From installation package without dependency
management, as described in Section 3.8, “Vaadin Installation Package”.
The Vaadin Framework was not written overnight.
After working with web user interfaces since the beginning of the Web, a group
of developers got together in 2000 to form IT Mill. The team had a desire to
develop a new programming paradigm that would support the creation of real user
interfaces for real applications using a real programming language.
The library was originally called Millstone
Library. The first version was used in a large production application that IT
Mill designed and implemented for an international pharmaceutical company.
IT Mill made the application already in the year
2001 and it is still in use. Since then, the company has produced dozens of
large business applications with the library and it has proven its ability to
solve hard problems easily.
The next generation of the library, IT Mill
Toolkit Release 4, was released in 2006. It introduced an entirely new
AJAX-based presentation engine. This allowed the development of AJAX
applications without the need to worry about communications between the client
and the server.
Release
5 Into the Open
IT Mill Toolkit 5, released initially at the end
of 2007, took a significant step further into AJAX. The client-side rendering
of the user interface was completely rewritten using GWT, the Google Web Toolkit.
IT Mill Toolkit 5 introduced many significant
improvements both in the server-side API and in the functionality. Rewriting
the Client-Side Engine with GWT allowed the use of Java both on the client and
the server-side. The transition from JavaScript to GWT made the development and
integration of custom components and customization of existing components much
easier than before, and it also allows easy integration of existing GWT
components. The adoption of GWT on the client-side did not, by itself, cause
any changes in the server-side API, because GWT is a browser technology that is
hidden well behind the API. Also theming was completely revised in IT Mill
Toolkit 5.
The Release 5 was published under the Apache
License 2, an unrestrictive open source license, to create faster expansion of
the user base and to make the formation of a developer community possible.
1.5.2. Birth of Vaadin Release 6
IT Mill Toolkit was renamed as VaadinFramework ,
or Vaadin in short, in spring 2009. Later IT Mill, the company, was also
renamed as Vaadin Ltd. Vaadin means an adult female semi-domesticated mountain
reindeer in Finnish.
With Vaadin 6, the number of developers using
the framework exploded. Together with the release, the Vaadin Plugin for
Eclipse was released, helping the creation of Vaadin projects. The introduction
of Vaadin Directory in early 2010 gave it a further boost, as the number of
available components multiplied almost overnight. Many of the originally
experimental components have since then matured and are now used by thousands
of developers.
In 2013, we are seeing tremendous growth in the ecosystem around
Vaadin. The size of the user community, at least if measured by forum activity,
has already gone past the competing server-side frameworks and even GWT. 1.5.3.
The Major Revision with Vaadin 7.
Vaadin 7 was a major revision that changed the
Vaadin API much more than Vaadin 6 did. It is certainly more web-oriented than
Vaadin 6 was. We are doing everything we can to help Vaadin rise high in the
web universe. Some of this work is easy and almost routine - fixing bugs and
implementing features. But going higher also requires standing firmer. That was
one of the aims of Vaadin 7 - redesigning the product so that the new
architecture enables Vaadin to reach over many long-standing challenges. Many
of the changes required breaking API compatibility with Vaadin 6, especially in
the client-side, but they are made with a strong desire to avoid carrying
unnecessary legacy burden far into the future.
Inclusion of the Google Web Toolkit in Vaadin 7
was a significant development, as it meant that Vaadin now provides support for
GWT as well.
When Google opened the GWT development in summer 2012, Vaadin (the
company) joined the new GWT steering committee. As a member of the committee,
Vaadin can work towards the success of GWT as a foundation of the Java web
development community.
