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- ---
- title: Background
- order: 5
- layout: page
- ---
-
- [[intro.background]]
- = Background
-
- 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.
-
- [[intro.background.toolkit-5]]
- == Release 5 Into the Open
-
- ((("IT Mill
- Toolkit")))
- ((("AJAX")))
- 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. ((("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.
-
-
- [[intro.background.vaadin6]]
- == Birth of Vaadin Release 6
-
- IT Mill Toolkit was renamed as __Vaadin Framework__, 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.
-
-
- [[intro.background.vaadin7]]
- == 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.
-
-
-
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