Being an avid Rails user for over two years now, it’s very hard for me
to
even consider using another type of framework, much less another
language
altogether than Ruby. However, I do need to do a web portal for a
customer
in Java. I’ve been researching the available frameworks from Struts,
Spring,
and JBoss to RIFE, Tapestry, and Trails, and they all come across to me
as a
dirty conglomeration of Java code snippets and tons of XML configuration
files. I have plans on using Prototype / Scriptaculous, so I’m looking
for
frameworks that support AJAX, and of course link in well with an ORM
like
Hibernate. For those of you who have been in this situation, what did
you
choose and why?
Hibernate. For those of you who have been in this situation, what did you
choose and why?
The latest and greatest thinking in the java web frameworks is full
stack
stuff through JSF with Spring and Hibernate in the middle. Leading
examples
I can think of are SEAM and Shale.
They are not up there with the directness of Rails, but they are steps
in the
right direction, keeping all the wide applicability of the Java
technology and
minimising the glue code and configuration.
Stripes is the first Java framework I’ve seen to embrace “convention
over
configuration.” You can do all your work without jumping into any sort
of
XML configuration / glue files, though they are available for special
cases.
It doesn’t come with a persistence layer, but there’s a project
Stripernate
(http://www.mongus.com/Topics/Web%20Development/Stripernate/) that adds
support for Hibernate that also eliminates XML configuration where it
can.
Heck, some people are even saying that Stripes is better than Rails
because
of this non-reliance on a persistence layer, however I personally will
not
go that far, Java is not Ruby.
With SEAM, according to this tutorial: http://docs.jboss.com/seam/1.0.1.GA/reference/en/html/tutorial.html you
need
to edit 5 different XML files to get the application working (including
web.xml). While this may be fewer than Struts 1.x, it’s still 4 files
too
many for anyone trying to just get a web site up and running.
On top of all this, the website is packed full of well-written tutorials
and
plenty of information. Check it out, it looks promising.
I’ve heard great things about Tapestry (esp. for view stuff).
Also heard good things about Stripes, although it’s relatively young.
Solid fallback choice if Stripes would fail you would be Spring +
Hibernate.
Stay away from Struts.
My gut feeling on JSF is also to stay away, but not sure if I know
enough to advise on that. I saw a presentation on JSF w/AJAX that was
awful, so that’s coloring my perception.
It is nice framework and it was real pleasure for me (I am anti-XML
guy) to work with it. All logic implemented in Java. It is easy to
develop, easy-to debug. Wicket is easier in learning and using than
JSF and similar “enterprise frameworks”. From all Java frameworks that
I’ve used, Wicket concepts closier to RoR (DRY, Conversation over
configuration, easy of develop, very good performance, small
footprint). And wicket has very active community.
So this framework is really worth to look.
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