The easiest way to create a foundation for a Tapestry project is to use Maven, a popular project management tool. Maven will create a complete skeleton of the project, with all necessary files and libraries already in place. All we need to do is to download Maven, unpack it and then add its location to the system's PATH variable. We could continue to use Maven to compile, build and deploy an application as we develop it, but it is more convenient and efficient to use an integrated development environment.

There are two powerful, convenient and completely free integrated development environments available—NetBeans and Eclipse. It is actually a matter of taste which of them to use. My opinion is that NetBeans is better for beginners, as it brings all the necessary ingredients in one convenient package. If you have chosen Eclipse, I advise you to use the Eclipse WTP package, not the bare-bones version.

In both NetBeans and Eclipse, you can easily make use of the project skeleton created...