Usage scenarios

Restlet is a very flexible framework that is suitable for most Web application developments. 

Thanks for its unique design, it can be used for both client-side and server-side applications and of course for applications that act as both clients and servers. With the availability of a port for the GWT plateform, it can also works in your favorite Web browser!

Restlet was an attempt to build a better Servlet API, more inline with the true Web architecture (REST) and standards (HTTP, URI). Therefore the Restlet API has no dependency on the Servlet API, it only depends on the Java SE. However, it is perfectly possible to deploy a Restlet application into JEE application server and Servlet containers. This is possible using a simple adapter Servlet provided as an extension.

Contrary to the Servlet API, the Restlet API gives you an extensive control on the URI mapping and on the virtual hosts configuration. It allows includes a powerful Directory class to server static files in a way comparable to what a Apache Web Server would do. For example, we run our Restlet.org web site directly with Restlet!

By staying open to all presentation technologies (HTML, Swing, Eclipse, GWT, AJAX, etc.), all persistence technologies (JDBC, Hibernate, db4o, iBatis, etc.) and all execution environments (standalone Java, JEE, Servlet, Spring, OSGi, Guice, SLEE, etc.), your investment in Restlet is secured. With very little care, your Restlet applications can even be fully portable from one environment to the other.