Google Open-Sources AJAX Toolkit

Google, one of the most admired practitioners of AJAX Web development, is now sharing its development secrets. The company on Tuesday released its Google Web Toolkit (GWT) for free under the open-source Apache 2.0 license.

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is an increasingly popular bundle of tools and techniques that help online applications mimic the smooth responsiveness of traditional desktop software. Google initially released parts of its toolkit in May, but the current version is the first to make public Google's complete development framework, including its debugging tools and Java-to-JavaScript compiler.

Google also is opening GWT's development process. Design discussions, bug tracking and road-map planning now will happen in an open discussion group on the Google Code project hosting site that the company opened in August to challenge SourceForge. Google is even promising to post notes from its internal GWT planning meetings.

AJAX burst on the application development scene two years ago when Adaptive Path developer Jesse James Garrett penned an essay coining the phrase to describe the technologies that Google leverages for its elegant online applications. Since then, the approach has spread like wildfire, with many tools developers releasing AJAX toolkits. More than two dozen vendors participate in the OpenAjax consortium, a group dedicated to promoting open AJAX standards and development tools.