A new open-source framework aimed at simplifying the development of Java-based Web applications will debut at JavaOne Monday with support from a former Sun Microsystems Java evangelist.

Wicket, an open-source project founded in spring 2004 by Jonathan Locke, a member of the team that developed the JFC (Java Foundation Classes)/Swing framework, will introduce Wicket 1.0 next week at the annual Java developer confab, according to a press statement from the Wicket project.

Mike Matsumura, former Java evangelist at Sun and currently vice president for Infravio Inc., will host a session about Wicket 1.0 Tuesday at JavaOne with one of the members of the project's development team, Martijn Dashorst, senior staff engineer at Topicus BV.

Wicket 1.0, which will be released under the Apache Software License, simplifies developers' ability to create and package reusable Web components by separating the creation of dynamic Web pages into two separate domains for designing and coding, according to the Wicket team. This allows the design and code teams to work independently without interfering with the other's process.

Additionally, since Wicket is comprised of Java and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), developers can use what they already know about Java and leverage any HTML editor to write Wicket applications, according to the Wicket project Web site.

Wicket joins a long list of open-source tools and frameworks available for Java developers. In addition to JFC/Swing, Eclipse, Struts, Cocoon and Hibernate are among some of the more well-known.

The 2005 JavaOne conference, the 10th annual gathering of Java developers hosted by Sun, kicks off Monday in San Francisco.