Wicket is a lightweight, component-oriented framework that does much to bring the easy, intuitive interfaces found in desktop applications to Java Web development. In this series Nathan Hamblen (of databinder and coderspiel blog ) introduces key aspects of Wicket that differentiate it from other Web application frameworks This first ( of 3 ) article investigates Wicket's virtual state, demonstrating the many ways Wicket accommodates both stateless and stateful Web application development.