This is the website for the open source Naked Objects framework, running on the Java platform. If you are looking for Naked Objects for .NET, or to contact Naked Objects Group, please visit http://www.nakedobjects.net

Naked Objects for Java

Naked Objects for Java is a full-stack open source application development framework, designed to let you rapidly develop domain-driven business applications.

The framework is called Naked Objects because all you need to develop are your pojo domain objects - the Naked Objects framework auto-creates an object-oriented user interface (OOUI), either as a desktop app or as a webapp. You can also choose where and how to persist your domain objects.

As you might imagine, not needing to write any GUI code substantially speeds up development, and improves the feedback loop to allow you to improve your core domain model without lots of GUI code slowing you down.

The OOUIs generated by Naked Objects are especially suitable to "expert" users, typically those internal to your organization who have a good understanding of the domain and just want to get their job done. But for less expert users (or for a webapp deployed on the internet), a more scripted UI may be called for. Naked Objects therefore lets you customize the user interface according to your users' needs.

Alternatively, you might want to just use Naked Objects as a design tool. Naked Objects goes to a lot of trouble to ensure that the domain objects you build have no dependencies on the framework: they are basically annotated pojos that follow a number of straightforward programming conventions. So, you can use Naked Objects to rapidly evolve your domain objects, and then deploy them within some other runtime framework if you wish.

What Next?

Here's some places to go next:

Using this Site

As you can see from this size of this site, there's quite a lot to Naked Objects. All the components that make up Naked Objects are shown in the left-hand menu, along with some sister projects that further extend its capabilities. To keep things manageable, we've tried to scope information closest to where it's relevant. But if all you want to do is just use the framework, then:

  • to learn how to write domain objects that run on Naked Objects (that is, the Naked Objects programming model), see the Application Library module
  • to find out about the different viewers and object stores supported by Naked Objects, see plugins.
  • to run your application using one of the standard viewers (either desktop or webapp), see runtime module. This module also describes various configuration options supported by Naked Objects, as well as the main APIs that define the plugin points.
  • to see how to deploy your application as a client/server app, see runtime; to deploy it as a webapp, see the webapp module.

    If you want to use the customization capabilities of one of the viewers, then see the module for that site. []

Learning More

A couple of books have been written about Naked Objects:

  • Domain Driven Design using Naked Objects, Dan Haywood, Pragmatic Bookshelf 2009
  • Naked Objects, Richard Pawson and Robert Matthews, Wiley 2002 (also available online here).

    In addition, you may want to check out Richard Pawson's PhD Thesis on Naked Objects.