The framework, named Telosys, is an Ajax extension of ObjectWeb’s J2EE middleware stack intended to mimic client/server applications that operate in a web environment. Consequently, like client/server apps, Telosys uses a screen rather than a web page metaphor, and comes with a tool that looks a lot like a 4GL.

The obvious advantage of going by screens is that it simplifies or eliminates the need to spread client side Internet applications across multiple web pages.

From an architectural standpoint, Telosys looks a lot like Ajax. On the client side there are Dynamic HTML (DHTML), JavaScript, and XML components. On the server back end, there are separate layers for request processing, screen painting, and data access. It uses core J2EE pieces like Java Server Pages, servlets, and JDBC for data access.

But the difference is that Telosys overlays a screen map atop the browser page, thereby giving the framework its client/server look and feel. Actually, the framework can work with any HTTP client, meaning it’s not limited to HTML-based web pages. It could also run on Java, C++, or any 4GL client such as Borland (soon to be CodeGear) Delphi. And the pages can be deployed from a variety of servers including J2EE, .NET, or PHP.

The prerelease version being released addresses standardizing actions for list/detail management, provides Ajax-style navigation, and supports JavaScript refactoring for the Ajax programming style. Future releases will expand the tag libraries and support internationalization, XUL generation (eXtensible User interface Language, used for developing screens for the Mozilla Firefox browser), and shared screen displays.

Telosys is hardly the only open source Ajax framework out there. It joins an increasingly crowded field that includes alternatives like Helmi, an open source Ajax cross-browser platform based in a J2EE environment that also includes tooling; ZK, an XUL and Java-based framework that supports event-driven interactions on Firefox web pages; and Ajax4JSF, which manipulates Ajax assets, not at the individual component level, but grouped within Java Server Pages. That’s only the top of the list.

So one could be excused by reacting to the ObjectWeb proposal with the question, What, another open source Ajax framework?

Telosys is now available as release candidate for version 1.0.