Open-Source Web Scripting for Java

Helma (also called Helma object publisher, or Hop for short) is a scriptable open source web application server written in Java.

Helma is already being used by popular sites that serve hundreds of thousands of dynamic pages per day. Our goal is to build on that to make it the tool of choice for a broad range of web services while keeping it fun to work with.

Far from being an April fool's joke we proudly announce the release of Helma 1.4.0. A number of smaller bugs has been fixed since the release of RC3, so once again this is the best Helma there ever was. Get your flavor from the downloads page now!

The 3rd and hopefully last release candidate for Helma 1.4.0 has been released on March 11, 2004. Among the changes are fixes for _parent related problems in HopObjects and JDK 1.3 compatibility. Get it now!

Helma 1.4.0-rc2 is the second release candidate for the 1.4 release. There has been a number of bug fixes against the first 1.4.0 release candidate. Users of both Helma 1.3 and 1.2 should update, since there are rather few backwards incompatible changes in Helma 1.4, but lots and lots of fixes and improvements. Get your copy from the downloads page!

Why another scripting framework/application server?

Because, quite honestly, the one we need hasn't been built yet. What we need is a platform that offers a high level of abstraction on the prevalent web application concepts, but is not dumbed down and stripped of power and flexibility in order to be "idiot proof". The problem of so many J2EE solutions is that they are targeted to Java developers. But how many web developers you know sleep with the EJB spec under their pillow? That's what we thought. On the other hand, high level platforms often sacrifice the smart concepts in the underlying layers because their architects don't trust their users to be able to grasp those concepts. That's why JSP was patterened after Microsoft ASP when everybody doing serious web work already knew how broken that approach was.

Our credo is: Building websites should not be a task of system level programming. But when you bring web site building to the "ordinary people", they should be able to use the serious tools to get the job done. That's what we're trying to provide with Helma.

See Helma in action

To see what a Helma site can feel and look like - not just from the outside, but from a site manager's point of view - head over to Antville.org. Antville is a Weblog publishing system we're building on top of Helma that has some of the features of a full grown content management system. Like Helma, Antville is an open source project so feel free to get involved!

Get Involved

Helma keeps evolving and growing. You can be part of it if you want to. The first thing to do is to get one of the download packages and start playing. If you get interested, join the mailing list. We're eager to hear from anybody using Helma, even if it's just a few kind or critical words.