What are good combinations of Scala + Web framework + Javascript framework? [closed]

Question

I have been trying for a long time to study something different to build my so planned web project (lol) and I went through some Django and Rails but gave up, mainly because of the language. I work with Java, but don't want to develop using JSP/JSF/Servlet... Reading about Scala raised again my interest in Studying web technologies to build my project.

To be honest, I never worked with javascript frameworks and therefore json.

I went through a long list of Scala web frameworks (mainly Lift, Scalatra, Bowler, Scalate, Play!....) and then I realized I would need some javascript technology to build the pages. Frankly, I don't know if I am willing to build from scratch components, when I could simply use something like Extjs, so I decided to search for javascript frameworks.

So, I went down one level in the search tree (Scala -> [web framework] -> [javascript framework]) and realized I am screwed.

I need to choose something to learn, and I would like to choose something useful, even if has commercial license like Extjs.

When I decided to study Lift, I could see some problems in Lift+Extjs integration, mainly because they don't provide this integration, and suggest you to implement your own (don't know how much work this would be).

Then I read about Lift + Cappuccino, but instantly cried blood after realizing the learning curve of Scala + Lift + Cappuccino... but if it really worths, I could do it...

So, my question is, what are the possible good combinations of Scala web frameworks and javascript frameworks?

I am really stuck in this question, and fed up of simply searching about frameworks just trying to guess which is the best and more flexible so I wont waste my time with future huge achitectural problems.

ps: one of my main concern about the javascript framework is the components. For instance, I need a good tree implementation, but I couldn't build one myselft (I could see there is tree components in Extjs, Cappuccino, jQuery and others....).

ps2: thank you for the suggestions! Question closed :-(

ps3: I decided to use Play/jQuery/Coffeescript/Backbone.

Answer 1

Try Scala + Wicket

When it comes to JavaScript and Wicket, I've had good results wrapping YUI. Here's a blog post on how to do it in Java, you can very easily do the same in Scala: YUI Autocomplete Tutorial

There are libraries that wrap JavaScript widgets for Wicket, such as WiQuery which is probably all that you need.

Keep in mind that one of the selling points of Wicket is that for typical Ajax behaviors (loading / updating a given div etc.) you can do it in Java (or Scala) without writing any JavaScript code.