Finally, it's here! The Qooxdoo javascript framework has now reached the ultimate milestone, version 1.0, lending credibility to a tremendous tool for web development!

What Qooxdoo 1.0 provides is a stable, cross-browser Javascript framework that provides a comprehensive set of capabilities through an object-oriented (OO) library for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) or simply adding widgets to an existing website. If you do any amount of web development and have dabbled in adding javascript intelligence to your pet project, you should consider what the Qooxdoo framework can do for you.

First, it provides a complete build toolchain that tests for javascript and framework errors in your code, as well as performing size optimization for your final js package. The development process provides both a source environment with debugging support, as well as the optimized build environment for deployment to your web server.

Included is also a comprehensive set of widgets, smooth form controls, and various RPC environments for doing AJAX communication with your backend web server. In short, Qooxdoo gives you everything you need to be a better web application developer, especially if you are already comfortable in OO development but have little experience in HTML and CSS. (Qooxdoo takes care of all the HTML and CSS details, allowing you to develop completely in the OO world.) Qooxdoo comes with complete ready-to-use visual themes, but provides the ability to customize the visual theme when you want a specific look for your project.

In case that's not enough, it also comes with an easy-to-navigate API viewer that allows you to inspect the properties and methods of each object class in the framework, both core components and included widgets, etc. In addition, you can generate an API view of your own project as well, allowing you to see at a glance the properties and methods for own object classes. To get you started, it also comes with a set of demos to explain the various framework components, allowing you to view the source code of the included demos. In addition, there's a "playground" application with several included examples where you can try out simple Qooxdoo code without doing any project setup or even downloading anything - a great way to get a feel for Qooxdoo right away.

There's a unit test tool included as well, so you can incorporate Test-Driven-Development (TDD) in your projects, if that's the way you do your development work. While I have not yet used the unit test tools in Qooxdoo, it's nice to know it's there if and when I decide to take advantage of it.

To top it all off, Qooxdoo has a thriving support community that begins with the framework developers but extends to all current users and contributors for Qooxdoo. Errors, enhancements, and documentation feedback are managed by a bugzilla system, which is open to anyone using the framework. Also, it's easy for you to become involved in improving all aspects of Qooxdoo, either through providing framework code, improving the documentation, or just giving general feedback to the Qooxdoo team, which is a globally diverse team at that.

If you have been delaying your dive into Javascript frameworks up until now, this is the time to find out what you are missing. You can find out more through the Qooxdoo website at http://www.qooxdoo.org.