Wt is an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 widget

Web widget

In computing a web widget is a software widget for the web. It's a small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. They are derived from the idea of code reuse. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: portlet, gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule,...

-centric web application framework

Web application framework

A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, web applications and web services. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in Web development...

 for the C++ programming language

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

 developed by Emweb. It has an API that resembles the C++ desktop application library Qt, using also a widget tree and event-driven signal/slot programming model.

The goal of the library is to benefit from the stateful component model used in desktop applications APIs, applied to web development, instead of the traditional Model–View–Controller (MVC) model. Rather than using MVC at the level of a page, MVC is pushed to the level of individual components.

While the library uses a desktop application development model, it does support web-specific features including clean URLs and browser history navigation support.

A unique feature of the library is its abstraction layer of the browser rendering model. The library uses Ajax

Ajax (programming)

Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...

 for communicating with Ajax-capable browsers, while using plain HTML form post-backs for other user agents. Using a progressive bootstrap method, the user interface is initially rendered as plain HTML, and for Ajax-capable browsers, it is automatically upgraded to use Ajax for increased interactivity. In this way, it is the only server-side framework that implements progressive enhancement

Progressive enhancement

Progressive enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies...

 automatically, and the only Ajax framework with search engine optimization

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...

 (SEO) qualities.

Because of the popularity of C/C++ in embedded system

Embedded system

An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...

 environments, the library is often used in such devices, and has been highly optimized for performance as a consequence.

Major features

See the feature list on the project homepage for a more detailed overview.

• Automatic graceful degradation and progressive enhancement
  Progressive enhancement
  Progressive enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies...
  
  
• Supports server-initiated events (comet (programming)
  Comet (programming)
  Comet is a web application model in which a long-held HTTP request allows a web server to push data to a browser, without the browser explicitly requesting it. Comet is an umbrella term, encompassing multiple techniques for achieving this interaction. All these methods rely on features included by...
  
  )
• A unified rendering API (SVG/HTML5 canvas/VML)
• Both client-side and server-side validation
• Various security features to avoid Cross-site scripting
  Cross-site scripting
  Cross-site scripting is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in Web applications that enables attackers to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users. A cross-site scripting vulnerability may be used by attackers to bypass access controls such as the same...
  
   and CSRF vulnerabilities.
• Includes a compact, modern C++ ORM
  Object-relational mapping
  Object-relational mapping in computer software is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in object-oriented programming languages. This creates, in effect, a "virtual object database" that can be used from within the programming language...
  
   layer (Wt::Dbo)
• Uses WebSockets
  WebSockets
  WebSocket is a technology providing for bi-directional, full-duplex communications channels, over a single Transmission Control Protocol socket. It is designed to be implemented in web browsers and web servers, but it can be used by any client or server application...
  
   if available for communication between client and server, with fallbacks to Ajax
  Ajax (programming)
  Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
  
   or plain web pages

See also

• Comparison of web application frameworks
  Comparison of web application frameworks
  This is a comparison of notable web application frameworks.-Perl:-PHP:-Java:-Python:-Ruby:-CFML :-ASP.NET:-Other:-ASP.NET:-C++:-CFML:-Python:-Java:-PHP:-Ruby:-Others:...
  
  
• JWt Java web toolkit (JWt homepage), a native Java version obtained using automated C++ to Java translation.

External links

• Wt project homepage