If there's one thing the Java community has an addiction for, it's frameworks. There are 100s of Java frameworks and surprisingly there's even a passionate community of users behind many. However only a handful of frameworks have made it big. Struts and WebWork figure in that list.

The two frameworks recently announced their plans to merge into Struts Ti / Struts Action Framework 2.0, which has resulted in some anxiety and uncertainty in both communitites.

In this interview we speak to Patrick Lightbody, project lead for WebWork and now a committer at Apache Struts. He answers several WebWork + Struts queries and also talks about Ajax frameworks and Ajax support in WebWork. The interview concludes with Patrick's thoughts on Ruby on Rails and its relevance to the Java community.

IndicThreads >> Hi Patrick and welcome to IndicThreads. Could you introduce yourself?

Patrick Lightbody >> Sure. I am the founder of Autoriginate, Inc, which provides software development and quality assurance automation tools. Before that I was the manager of Professional Services at Jive Software, which builds online collaboration software, such as web-based forums and chat products. In the open source world, I am most closely associated with OpenSymphony, which is where WebWork has called home for the last few years, and OpenQA, which is an organization dedicated to open source QA tools.

"I can't think of anything better than open source as a tool for learning software..."

My involvement in open source follows the typical story: I first began as a user, got involved with some simple patches, and over time began to take a larger role in various projects. Looking back at when I first started, or some of my early open source projects, such as OSWorkflow, I feel a bit ashamed at how much of a novice I was at the time. But the learning process was amazing. I can't think of anything better than open source as a tool for learning software.

IndicThreads >> WebWork made news recently with its planned merger with Struts. How far has the merger progressed? Any release dates / road map that you can disclose?

Patrick Lightbody

Patrick Lightbody >> We are just about to push the WebWork code base in to the Apache incubator. Once that happens, much of the WebWork activity under the OpenSymphony umbrella will stop. Assuming all goes well, by the end of April 2006, the incubator process should be complete. At that point, I would expect another 3-4 months of development time on Struts Action 2.0. That means we expect Struts Action 2.0 to be out around August 2006. Of course, all if this is subject to change!

Webwork + Struts should be released by Aug 2006

IndicThreads >> Both the Struts and the WebWork community would be a bit anxious about the merger, so do you have a message for them? Particularly to Struts users ignorant of WebWork and vice versa?

Patrick Lightbody >> I totally understand. In fact, I'm nervous too! This is a big move for both communities and there are no guarantees that it will be pulled off perfectly. In fact, I'm sure problems will arise. However, I'm very confidant that this is the right move. I feel confidant because when I speak with the Struts development team and the WebWork development team, there is a common synergy and feeling that working together is more important than any specific detail of the framework. We all recognize that as the Java web space has matured, new players in the landscape, especially in the scripting language world, will require us to stay on our toes and be ready to embrace new styles and techniques.

"New players in the landscape, especially in the scripting language world, will require us to stay on our toes..."

So I have no doubt that during the merger individual issues will come up and give various people grief. But I also have no doubt that any of us will let those individual problems stop progress. We recognize the importance of this merger and know that the greater good is being served by working together.

As for specific details about compatibility, our plan is to make compatibility a high priority - though not overriding one. Various options include bundling Struts Action 1.x within Struts Action 2.x so you can migrate just certain pages/actions over as you see fit.