Google has just released the beta version of the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). The GWT is a Java-based toolkit that lets you create AJAX-enabled pages using Java. The main idea of the toolkit is that once you create your app following the GWT API, you will then compile your Java classes into Javascript and HTML, so you can deploy your application in any web server (it doesn’t require Java to run your application, since everything is converted).

GWT provides a new, fresh and different concept to the Java web toolkits realm by providing a Java to Javascript compiler, however you might be able to see some similarities with other Java frameworks, and even with some non-java frameworks, like Ruby On Rails. For example, in order to create a new project, GWT provides you with some scripts that you use to create the basic directory structure and templates. The Widgets (UI components) look somewhat like Swing or Wicket components, and the hosted mode looks like how RoR does its development. Still, the whole Java-to-Javascript concept seems new to me, and it looks like you can do some really good-looking ajaxy-feeling sites with it. GWT provides back-end interaction via RPC mechanisms too, because not everything can be done on the client-side.

I will definitely keep an eye on this framework, since I think that it will provide much needed RAD features for Java web development.