Crank allows idiomatic, efficacious GUI development based on your Java object model.
"Even Chuck Norris feared JSF...until he saw Crank" --CM
Crank Google Group for Questions and Such
Slides from Los Angeles JUG, 1/5/2008
Crank is a master/detail, CRUD, and annotation driven validation framework built with JPA, JSF, Facelets and Ajax. It allows developers to quickly come up with JSF/Ajax based CRUD listings and Master/Detail forms from their JPA annotated Java objects.
Crank uses a lot of the new JSF features from Facelets, Ajax4JSF, etc. that will be used in JSF 2.0. Crank is a use case analysis of what is possible with the new JSF 2.0 stack.
The validation piece does server-side validation, Ajax validation or just emitted JavaScript validation based on Java annotations, property files, XML files, or database tables. Currently works with JSF, Spring MVC and Spring Webflow.
The framework is named Crank as in: "crank out, to make or produce in a mass-production, effortless, or mechanical way: She's able to crank out one (CRUD listing) after another" and "crank up: to get started or ready", "to stimulate, activate, or produce", and most importantly "to increase one's efforts, output, etc.: Industry began to crank up after the new (CRUD framework became our corporate standard)." http://www.dictionary.com
The CRUD framework has support for JPA enabled DAO objects. The CRUD framework implements a Detached Criteria API/DSL similar to Hibernates (R) Criteria API except it works with JPA. The Detached Criteria API/DSL (DCAD) could be ported to other frameworks for example Hibernate, iBatis, etc.