AppFuse sounds like an interesting project:
AppFuse is an open source project and application that uses open source tools built on the Java platform to help you develop Web applications quickly and efficiently. I originally developed it to eliminate the ramp-up time I often found when building new Web applications for customers. At its core, AppFuse is a project skeleton, similar to the one that’s created by your IDE when you click through a wizard to create a new Web project. When you create a project with AppFuse, it prompts you for the open source frameworks you’d like to use and then creates your project. It uses Ant to drive testing, code generation, compilation, and deployment. It provides your directory and package structure, as well as the libraries you’ll need to develop a Java language-based Web application.
Getting started with open source tools for the Java™ platform such as Spring, Hibernate, or MySQL can be difficult. Throw in Ant or Maven, a little Ajax with DWR, and a Web framework — say, JSF — and you’re up to your eyeballs just trying to configure your application. AppFuse removes the pain of integrating open source projects. It also makes testing a first-class citizen, allows you to generate your entire UI from database tables, and supports Web services with XFire. Furthermore, AppFuse’s community is healthy and happy — and one of the few places where users of different Web frameworks actually get along.