We're currently reconsidering technologies and frameworks to get more agile with "simple" RMS CRUD-based projects. In short, short-living things like this

Right now we have a custom extension on top of SmartGWT but after some time it has proven not to be flexible enough.

I also personally dislike the java-js compilation process and the whole GWT codebase. Not only is the design ugly, it also makes certain low-level js things very complicated if not completely impossible. So what I'm looking for is:

• closest to web as possible, like JSF or possibly Tapestry, it is very important to be able get "low" and weave framework if necessary. Happens more often than we thought.
• datagrid capable - Ext.js & PrimeFaces looks pretty good, Vaadin does too.
• db-schema generators (optional, no matter in which way)

If it were only on me, I'd probably stick to Ext.js + custom rest-based java solution, possibly generated from database schema (not sure about concrete tooling yet).

I only have experience with vanilla Ext.js, vanilla GWT and JSF 2.0 / Seam, so it hard for me to judge or even propose other frameworks.

What would be your proposition? What are the problems you've faced? What was your solution and how hard do you think it was to deal with them in "big picture"?