10 Best Java Web Development Framework
There are a majority of enterprises running
Java
applications and working on Java web development framework. What remains
to be seen is that a number of companies are tied to the conventional
web development framework and haven’t actually started to anticipate
what could be the best Java web development framework. Even the Java-one
might hold no unified voice for
what web framework is best.
There are several easy to use Java web frameworks that are out now a
days, and they are too many. Essentially choosing the best web
development framework has become more intricate, specifically due to
three reasons. On a broader perspective, the web technology landscape
has undergone a sea change; far more choice of technology; and changing
requirements for modern web applications. After an extensive research we
assorted the 10 best Java web development framework that we would like
to share with you.
1. Struts 2
Apache Struts 2 is an enterprise-ready web framework for Java
application. It has been designed to streamline the entire development
cycle starting from building to deploying. Struts 2 is a combined effort
of WebWork and Struts communities. Unlike conventional web
applications, it can create dynamic responses. Struts 2 comes with an
improved design with clean code for HTTP-independent framework
interfaces. Added interactivity and flexibility with AJAX tags gives the
look and feel just like standard Struts tags. It doesn’t use Action
forms, instead Struts 2 uses JavaBean to capture form input or put
properties directly on an Action class. POJO Actions enables class to
used as an action class with optional interface. Plugin APIs for the
framework include config browser, JasperReports, JavaServer Faces, Pell
Multipart, Plexus, sitegraph, sitemesh, tiles and Struts 1. The
framework essentially requires
Servlet API 2.4,
JSP API 2.0 and Java 5.
Struts 2 could be a great option for small teams looking to learn about the
open source tools they use. It’s not for armchair programmers looking for drag and drop development.
2. JSF
JavaServer Faces (JSF) is a java
web application
framework established the standard for development of server-side user
interfaces for Java EE application. The JSF APIs are designed to
leverage tools that would make we application development increasingly
easier. It uses a component based approach. JSF uses JavaServer Pages
JSP as its display technology, but it can also support other
technologies such as XUL and Facelets . The UI is saved on clients
request for new page and restored when the response is returned.
JSF has a set of API for representing user interface components and
manages their state, converting values, input validation and event
handling, defining page navigation and support for accessibility and
internationalization. It has two JavaServer Pages (
JSP)
custom tag libraries for expressing a JavaServer Faces interface within
a JSP page. Some of its key features include server-side event model,
state management,
JavaBeans with dependency injection
and Unified Expression Language for both JSP 2.0 and JSF 1.2. JSF 2.0
offers improved support for Ajax by allowing UI logic to run partly on
the client and not on the server.
For the latest, in the public draft for JEE6, Facelets would be
adopted as the official view technology for JSF 2.0. This would resolve
the life-cycle conflicts with
JSP that forced developers to go for workarounds.
Pros
- Java EE standard with lots of demand and jobs
- Initially was fast and easy to develop
- Loads of component libraries
Cons
- Tag soup for JSPs
- Lacks unified source for implementation
- Doesn’t support REST or Security well
3. Spring MVC
It is a layered Java/J2EE framework integrating a number of different
technologies and is applicable to wide range of projects. Spring is
based on code published in Expert One-on-One
J2EE
Design and Development. Spring clearly separates business, navigation
and presentation logic. It is a proven web mechanism constructed with a
clean web tier. Spring MVC allows users to use any object as a command
or form object – there is no need to implement a framework-specific
interface or base class. Spring’s features a highly flexible data
binding. MVC Model and VIew is based on the map interface that is highly
configurable, either via bean names, via a properties file, or via your
own ViewResolver implementation. Spring supports controller as an
optional command or form object. It has an extremely flexible view
resolution that can even write a view directly to the response.
It should be considered a strategic base platform for web application development.
4. Wicket
Apache Wicket is a lightweight component based
web application
framework for the Java programming language. Wicket is patterned after
stateful GUI frameworks. It features trees of components that use
listener delegates to react to HTTP requests against links and forms.
With XHTML for templates it separate presentation and business logic and
allows templates to be edited with conventional WYSIWYG design tools.
Within the framework each component is backed by its own model that
represents the state of the components. Wicket might be the best
framework for making use of your developers resources.
5. Stripes
The web framework offers a lot of complex data interactions. It
offers powerful type conversion, binding and validation. Stripes has
been designed to manage large, complex forms and maps them directly to
objects etc. Stripes requires zero external configuration beyond the
registration of one
servlet and one filter. Most
importantly, Stripes provides simple and effective solution to common
problems such as indexed properties, multi-event forms, localization and
use of domain objects in the web tier. It is a compact web development
framework with just few dependencies.
6. Tapestry
It is an object oriented powerful, open-source, all-Java framework
for creating leading edge web applications in Java. The framework allows
implementation of applications according to the model-view-controller
design pattern. Tapestry offers an innovative web application
development concept in terms of objects, methods and properties instead
of URLs and query parameters. It adopts a modular approach to web
development by combining user interface components (objects) on the web
page and their corresponding
Java classes.
It could be a rescue for those looking to avoid scripting
environments such as JavaServer Pages or Velocity. It provides a
complete framework for creating extremely dynamic applications with
minimal amounts of coding. The web development framework focuses on
simplicity, ease of use, and relieves programmers from creating enormous
block codes.
For the latest Tapestry offers a new approach with an entirely new
code base, centered on Plain Old Java Objects, annotations and naming
conventions, and runtime bytecode enhancement.
7 . RIFE
This is a unique framework for web development and design with tools
and APIs to implement commonly used web features. It has been designed
for separating tasks during a development cycle, ensuring that each
developer or designer focuses on his own tasks. If needed the any work
can be effortlessly integrated with the work of the rest of the team.
RIFE’s has a number of independently usable toolkits, which can be
integrated to boost productivity. All the declaration and definitions in
RIFE is handled in one place in the code. This makes it easy for the
developers to reduce code replication, enforce consistency, and ease the
maintenance. This results in a loosely coupled and very robust system.
It combines the best of request based and component approach to offer
consistent component based object model. RIFE’s design provides the
best of request-based and component-based approaches and blends them
together in a consistent component object model. The web engine provides
a solution that values maintainability without compromising on
productivity. Through a centralized site structure, an application can
be split up into easily reusable binary modules that can be seamlessly
integrated into other projects. There is a wide scope for incremental
improvements with little or no risk of unwanted anomalies in the system.
8. Seam
It’s a powerful
open source web application
framework developed by JBoss. Seam offers a perfect platform for
building rich Internet applications in Java. It is a unified full-stack
solution that integrates technologies such as Ajax, JavaServer Faces
(JSF), Java Persistence (JPA), Enterprise Java Beans (
EJB
3.0) and Business Process Management (BPM) into tooling. Seam also
expands the concept of contexts. All the Seam component are enclosed
within a context. The default Seam context is conversation which can
span multiple pages and usually spans the whole business flow, from
start to finish. All the actions in a session context is captured until
the user logs out or closes the browser. WYSIWYG development in Seam is
facilitated through the use of JBoss Tools.
Seam overcomes design issues by eliminating both eliminate complexity
at both architecture and API levels. It enables developers to assemble
complex web applications using simple annotated Java classes, a rich set
of UI components, and XML in parts. Above all, it offers outstanding
support for conversations and declarative state management that can
introduce a more sophisticated user experience. At the same time it
eliminates the common bugs found in traditional web applications.
Exceptionally, Seam features a PDF document creator, e-mailing, graph creation and creation of Microsoft Excel worksheets.
9. Google Web Toolkit (GWT)
GWT is a Java software development framework that allows web
developers to build and maintain complex Javascript front-end
applications in Java. The web development framework makes it easy for
developers to write AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail. Other
than a few native libraries, everything is Java source that can be built
on any supported platform with the included GWT Ant build files. GWT
focuses on reusable, efficient solutions for asynchronous remote
procedure calls, Internationalization, history management, bookmarking
and cross-browser portability. It allows developers to develop and debug
AJAX applications in the Java language with any Java development tools
of their choice. However, due to lack of modularity in JavaScript,
sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components becomes a hassle.
10 . OpenXava
It is a web development framework for creating Ajax Enterprise
applications with Java. OpenXava has been designed by Java developers
looking for a productive
Java Enterprise applications.
In OpenXava developers have to provide only the JPA classes to obtain a
full featured application ready for production. It requires no code
generation. It allows rapid and easy generation of CRUD modules and
report generation. It also allows the flexibility to develop complex
real life business applications as customer relationship, invoicing,
accounting packages, warehouse management, etc. It The web framework
offers full Ajax support and can be used on application server (Tomcat,
JBoss, WebSphere, etc).
It is a faster framework than Ruby On Rails, Spring MVC, or any other MVC framework.