FAQ
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions. Please also see the comprehensive documentation or contact the mailing list for more help.
General
How do you pronounce the name?
It’s like “cooks-do”, as in the sentence “Cooks do cooking for their living”. Actually, it’s the literal transcription of some German slang meaning “Look at that!”. 
Is qooxdoo freely available?
Yes. qooxdoo is Open Source, dual-licensed under LGPL/EPL, i.e. the “GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)” and the “Eclipse Public License (EPL)”. As a recipient of qooxdoo, you may choose which license to receive the code under. More licensing info.
Who is behind this project?
qooxdoo was initiated and is maintained by 1&1, the world’s biggest web hosting company. There is a team of full-time core developers as well as many committers and contributors.
Will it stay Open Source?
Yes. Always has, always will. It is a true Open Source project: standard licensing, contributor-friendly, public code repositories, public bug tracking and roadmap planning.
Never heard of it. Is it the "new kid on the block"?
No. It was registered as an Open Source project at SourceForge on January 2005, one month before the term “AJAX” was even coined. It is constantly being developed and improved, which makes it one of the most mature and innovative web application frameworks today.
Is it enterprise-ready?
Yes. Its solid programming model and tooling allows for creating large-scale applications. To get an idea, see GMX.com or other user-contributed examples.
Where do I get support?
Use the general mailing_lists. Many active users as well as the full-time core developers try to answer all your questions. There is no commercial support currently available, but it is planned for 2010.
Technical
Which browsers are supported?
A qooxdoo application runs in all major web browsers - with identical look & feel.
Does it come with a server?
No. If you already have an existing backend that serves HTTP (or HTTPS) requests, it’s probably fine to continue using it. Optionally qooxdoo offers several RPC servers for an elegant client-server communication. BTW, during development of your client application the local file system often is sufficient, without the need to use a real server.
What languages and technologies do I need to know?
Not many. qooxdoo features regular object-oriented GUI programming without requiring knowledge of low-level web technologies. No HTML, no CSS, no DOM. Just JavaScript. Even non-JavaScript programmers get easily familiar with qooxdoo’s OO capabilities and its tool chain.
Isn't it just another JavaScript library?
No. It’s also not just a “library”, but a “framework”. It is much more comprehensive than a typical JS library like jQuery or Prototype. qooxdoo’s main focus is on creating full-featured rich internet applications (RIAs), so it comes with a large set of high-quality widgets and features a powerful, platform-independent tool chain. But due to some recent advancements it is now also possible to leverage qooxdoo as a low-level library for extending traditional HTML documents.
I'm familiar with jQuery. How does it compare?
As with other typical JS libraries, much of jQuery’s features are a subset of the qooxdoo framework. To allow for a jQuery-like programming style, an API very similar to jQuery is provided.
Are visual GUI builders available?
Some, but it’s limited. Several implementations exist on-top of qooxdoo, but they might not always be in sync with the framework: Weida (browser-based, contributed), PyQooxCard (part of the QxTransformer project). A commercial solution is Delphi for PHP from Borland/CodeGear (frontend largely qooxdoo-based). A sophisticated debugging tool rather than a GUI builder is Inspector, but it might help nonetheless by manipulating the user interface.
Any alternatives to the JavaScript-based programming model?
Yes, several. Java-oriented are QxWT, which provides a qooxdoo wrapper for GWT, or the Eclipse Rich Ajax Platform (RAP). An XML-based UI description is featured by QxTransformer. A visual RAD solution is Delphi for PHP. See some more solutions.
Community
How do I correct/change/extend the homepage?
The homepage is a Wiki, that allows you to easily modify its content. You are welcome to contribute. See here for more information.
Where to look for and file bug reports?
Use bugzilla.
Are you interested in contributing?
Absolutely. You are invited to become a fellow developer and contributor to the project. There is an infrastructure for contributions, which allows for easily setting up, developing, releasing a project and for collaborating on it.
Other sources of information?
Wanna meet people? Wanna connect to people via social networks? Presentation slides are also available. Subscribe to feeds. Enjoy some real-life examples from other qooxdoo users. Become a member of the Community!
