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IT Mill Toolkit provides server-side API:s on top of GWT and thus gives you direct access to "stuff like EJB3". For an example, see this tutorial

IT Mill Toolkit provides server-side API:s on top of GWT and thus gives you direct access to "stuff like EJB3". For an example, see this tutorial

To take the "anyone" in its strictest definition, yes, someone is using it. I'm working for a company that develops an opensource UI toolkit for Java, that takes heavy use of GWT.

OTOH, this is probably the only application outside of Google I, too, have seen using GWT.

I think that (just released) IT Mill Toolkit 5 is an answer to most of your questions:

*works on the server and the client
=> Java both on server and client.

*something that makes making UIs as easy as drag and drop
=> Not there yet. UI:s are programmed, but layouts can be composed in WYSIWYG manner.

*something that does not forgive idiot html "programmers" who write bad code
=> As it is based on Java, it has statical typing and compile-time checks.

*something that doesnt suffer from XSS
=> As most of the UI programming can be done on server-side, security is top notch (when comparing to client-side solutions)

*something that can be extended easily
=> Check

*something that can be "compiled" for faster execution
=> Check

*something thats implemented same way in all browsers (or even better doesnt require a browsers and works on range of platforms)
=> Relies on Google Web Toolkit compiler technology to abstract out browser differences. Google has done wonderful job with GWT 1.4 and while as runtime is not as fast as Flash, it is very browser agnostic. Furthermore - as most of the programming can be done on server, all UI widgets can be tested with wide variety of browsers.

If you're already into GWT, try out IT Mill Toolkit. It lets you do the same as GWT, but you don't need a separate server-side application: you only write the server-side and the toolkit does the client-side. So, it really simplifies application development. If you have some GWT widgets that you would like to integrate, or to modify some of the standard widgets, the client-side code of IT Mill Toolkit is GWT.

Disclaimer: I work for the company.

public class HelloWorld extends com.itmill.toolkit.Application {
    public void init() {
        Window main = new Window("Hello window");
        setMainWindow(main);
        main.addComponent(new Label("Hello World!"));
    }
}

Doing big AJAX applications is not practical with JavaScript. You would need to do both client and server development, handle communications, and do that in two different languages.

Take the approach of IT Mill Toolkit, for example. You don't need to see a line of JavaScript. Actually, you don't need to code anything on the browser, but all the UI logic is done in the server-side application. The JavaScript running on the browser simply turns it to a thin client that does some trivial user interaction in the browser and forwards most of user events to the server-side application. And if you need some custom client-side stuff, you program it in Java with Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

Disclaimer: I work for the company.

"there are no frameworks (that I know of) that provide for things like fully semantic code, graceful degradation of capabilities, and full separation of content, behavior, and presentation"

Millstone UI Librarys base philosophy has been since its launch under LGPL in year 2002 to: (1) Program semantic (logical) users interfaces in Java, (2) Fully separate the presentation and behavior layer, (3) Gracefully adapt to "any" browser/terminal. You can create an user interface in Java and then use it with lynx (plain HTML without JavaScript) as well as with Firefox (or other AJAX capable browser) where the actions does not require changing pages. You can even create adapters for complitely different terminals - there has been prototypes for Swing, WAP, J2ME and Personal Java.

See online AJAX demo in http://demo.itmill.com/AJAX/

Quick comparison of "program AJAX UI in Java frameworks":
echo2: released, server side executed, wysisyg ui editor
millstone: prerelease, server side executed, theme separated from application
zk: released, server side executed, xul support
google web toolkit: beta, java executed on client, google brand

All of the toolkits try to solve the same problem - allow creation of rich web ui with Java and avoid infinite testing often with JavaScript centric AJAX programming. From technical point of view, millstone, echo2 and fk are fairly similar. Google stands out with novel idea of cross-compiling java to javascript, that might make UI more responsive, lower server load and introduce security problems and make creation of client-server separation harder.

From marketing point of view the game is quite clear - Google is the brand.

echo2, zk and millstone are backed by small companies that support and live from the frameworks. All those products somehow combine open source licensing with business. Googles motivations are not clear in this stage.

For a quick demo about Millstone, see:
http://demo.itmill.com/AJAX/

Disclaimer: I am CEO of IT Mill Ltd that is the company behind Millstone UI Library.

Echo has a wonderful model of writing web user interfaces. My company IT Mill Ltd is the author of an Open Source lisenced (LGPL) Millstone User Interface Library that is very similar (in model) to Echo. In my (biased of course) opinion Millstone provides developers with better UI components and more flexibility.

Main difference is that Millstone UI components are not dependant on Web, but has been (as prototypes) shown to work also in Swing. When doing Web-development, Millstone provides flexibility of using XSL stylesheets (in addition to CSS) for themeing, which makes customization of Millstone UI easy and flexible.

See the the online demo. If you have any questions, please join our just opened discussion forum.

BTW: In addition of being an Open Source project, commercial support is provided (by us) and currently Millstone is used (has been for 3 years) in very large commercial applications.

First a disclaimer: I am one of the head developers of Millstone and CEO of the company behind it.

I see that the difference in the nunber of features between Echo and Millstone is huge -- in favour of Millstone. I think that this can be most easily demonstrated by just going through Millstone feature online demo (also available for download) and Echo Test application. Some of the most obvious differences are: extensive data binding, server side events, tree component and xsl-theme support.

Still Echo is very nice framework and provides good competition for Millstone. I hope that the both frameworks gain popularity.

In fact the name was meant to describe a stable core that is spinning inside the mill (Millstone was targeted to be internal tool in the beginning). Anyway - blame me, as I was the one who came up with that name...

Keep in mind that the company open sourced their core product. Would you rather read about closed source products, of which there is no lack in /. anyway?

Lol, good irony indeed, yet the real etymology of the name, is the name of our company that created it, IT Mill Ltd.

Miq