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Can anyone recommend a simple Java web-app framework?
I want to know about web development with Java. It is very easy to work with PHP and Apache, but I need to use Java.
I have searched for Java web frameworks, but many of them are complex and difficult to configure. I need something as simple as PHP with Apache.
Tomcat and Jetty do not use the port 80, I have to keep a process to redirect connections to another port, and a transfer from a port to another port is inefficient. However, Apache uses port 80 naturally.
There are frameworks that use a complex directory structure with many configuration folders and files. Some of them use the concept of application for each folder. With Apache, it is very simple, because each page is a file in "/var/www/".
I do not know anything about servlet, JSP, JSF or Java Enterprise Edition. I prefer something that mix static HTML and dynamically-generated HTML in the same file, but if I have to call a Java function many times to output HTML string, it's ok.
I want to know a simple Java Web Framework. Something to listen the port 80, interpret the HTTP protocol and show the HTML that is generated by the Java code. The OS is Linux (Ubuntu) and I do not use IDE.
Thanks
You can run Tomcat/Jetty on port 80. Just edit the server.xml (for Tomcat). On Unix/Linux port numbers < 1024 are for privileged users so you would need to run tomcat as root.
Also, running Java web apps is a little bit different than using a LAMP (or a similar) stack. You do still need to understand the concept of a Web/Servlet container
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servlet_container
Familiarize yourself with the a typical structure for a WAR (Web Archive) file. This is no different than learning about how Apache works and familiarizing oneself with basic Apache configuration with working with a LAMP stack.
This is the bare minimum one should do when venturing into Java Web development.
Take a look at web4j http://www.web4j.com/ I have never used it but it looks simplistic enough for your needs and should get you started
Check out Play: http://www.playframework.org/
I've heard good things about it.
Based on your requirement, I think JSP is all you need. It should be relatively easy to learn and lets you mix dynamic content with static HTML, can be directly accesible just like PHP scripts(If placed in correct folder), and also lets you call Java functions.
Although it requires a bit of expertise, but you can also take a look at mod_jk here: http://diegobenna.blogspot.com/2011/01/connect-tomcat-7-with-apache2-modjk-and.html
It lets you run tomcat alongside Apache, so you have both Apache and Tomcat running side by side.
You will probably want to use Jetty to deploy your servlet. Since you don't use an IDE, if you use maven it's magical to be able to run mvn jetty:run and test your application (on any port). I also recommend maven as an easy way to generate WAR files. Jersey is a light-weight REST framework.
If you are not constrained to Java but rather are constrained to the JVM, I recommend looking at Scalatra for Scala.
Tomcat and Jetty may not use port 80 by default, but they are certainly capable of using port 80.
Related
I'm trying to build my own site where initially I will only host my profile and resume but will also build and publish some simple web applications that I can use as coding samples for jobs. The idea is people can see a demo of the apps and then see the code on github.
Can I do all this using only tomcat or should I use another server for this purpose?
I have heard that tomcat should only be used for java web applications but I've tried it locally and it seems to work...
You can totally do it all with tomcat.
Arguably, tomcat is not as efficient as apache or ngnix for serving static assets, 10% less so, and does not scale as well. There's a good article on the subject here:
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-3.2-doc/tomcat-apache-howto.html
This is not not going to be an issue for you with a small site. Go with what gets you up and running the fastest.
If you want, later you can show off your technical prowess by running tomcat behind a web server. You can tell folks at interviews the story.
I'll need to develop a Java service that is simple because:
It only communicates via a TCP socket, no HTTP.
It runs on a dedicated server (there are no other services except the basic SSH and such)
Should I make this a standalone service (maybe in something like Java Service Wrapper) or make it run in a container like Tomcat? What are the benefits and detriments of both?
If you aren't working with HTTP, you will have to build your own connectors for Tomcat. When I've written these types of applications, I've just written them as standard Java applications. On Windows machines, I use a service wrapper that allows them to be part of the Windows startup process. On non-windows machines, you just need to add a start up script.
Using a container (regardless which) buys you that all the details about starting, stopping, scaling, logging etc, which you have to do yourself otherwise, and it is always harder than you think (at least when you reach production).
Especially the scalability is something you need to consider already now. Later it will be much harder to change your mind.
So, if somebody already wrote most of what you need, then use that.
Tomcat doesn't sound like a good choice for me in your situation. AFAIK it's primarily made for Servlets and JSPs, and you have neither. You also don't need to deploy multiple applications on your app. server etc. (so no benefit from ".war").
If you need dependency injection, connection pooling, logging, network programming framework etc., there are a lot of good solutions out there and they don't need tomcat.
For example, in my case I went for a standalone app. that used Spring, Hibernate, Netty, Apache Commons DBCP, Log4j etc. These can be easily setup, and this way you have a lot more freedom.
Should you need a HTTP server, maybe embedding Jetty is another option. With this option too, you have more control over the app. and this can potentially simplify your implementation compared to using a tomcat container.
Tomcat doesn't really buy you much if you don't use HTTP.
However, I was forced to move a non-HTTP server to Tomcat for following reasons,
We need some simple web pages to display the status/stats of the server so I need a web server. Java 6 comes with a simple HTTP server but Tomcat is more robust.
Our operation tools are geared to run Tomcat only and standalone app just falls off radar in their monitoring system.
We use DBCP for database pooling and everyone seems more comfortable to use it under Tomcat.
The memory foot-print of Tomcat (a few MBs) is not an issue for us so we haven't seen any performance change since moved to Tomcat.
A container can save you from reinventing the wheel in terms of startup, monitoring, logging, configuration, deployment, etc. Also it makes your service more understandable to non-developers.
I wouldn't necessarily go for tomcat, check out glassfish and germonimo as they are more modular, and you can have just the bits the need, and exclude the http server.
We faced a similar decision a while back, and some parts of the system ended up being jsw based, and the others as .war files. The .war option is simpler (well more standard for sure) to build and configure.
I want to implement a Java HTTP server locally, I mean the server computer would be in my control. I'm expecting not more than 20 clients to send requests to it.
I was wondering how to go about it:
Should I use a J2EE servlet container, like Apache Tomcat?
Could I use J2SE classes and just build it using them?
Are there any existing alternatives?
What does your experience suggest?
There's a simple HTTP server embedded in the Sun 1.6 JRE. It's not JavaEE or servlet-compliant, it's very lightweight, but it might be good enough for your requirements. No need to download any 3rd party stuff if this is all you need.
The javadocs, rather bizarrely, are out on their own, here.
Embed Jetty in your application. Aside from performing quite well, it is delightfully easy to use and configure
You've got many options, not the least of which are Jetty, Grizzly, and TTiny.
I would strongly urge against writing your own web server, unless you've got time to kill and want to spend it writing things that are already available to you for free.
Seriously, reuse an existing solution. Why the hell are you even thinking rolling your own?
Now, 1. I don't understand your question as being about embedding a container. 2. You mentioned long polling several time. So I'd suggest to use GlassFish v3 / Grizzly (because there are many samples, e.g. have a look at the Dead Simple Comet Example on Glassfish v3 / Grizzly).
If you don't want to rely on the way a container implemented Comet support, use atmosphere and any of the container mentioned on the web site:
Atmosphere is a POJO based framework using Inversion of Control (IoC) to bring push/Comet to the masses! Finally a framework which can run on any Java based Web Server, including Google App Engine, Tomcat, Jetty, GlassFish, Weblogic, Grizzly, JBossWeb and JBoss, Resin, etc. without having to wait for Servlet 3.0 Async support or without the needs to learn how Comet support has been differently implemented by all those Containers.
If this is not a concern, just stick with the suggested option (GlassFish v3 / Grizzly).
For a concrete and recent comparison between Comet server implementation, checkout this awesome Comet Maturity comparison grid view (source: Comet Gazing: Maturity). It might help you to make your final choice... or not :)
I guess the biggest question is: why do you want to build this?
If it is for the purpose of personal development, I'd stick to whatever standard libraries come with your JDK and build it on top of that.
If on the other hand you have a particular application that needs a dedicated HTTP server I would try to take one of the open source servlet containers, like Jetty or Tomcat and build on those.
Perhaps look at the list of 26 open source web servers at http://java-source.net/open-source/web-servers.
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Networking/Webserver/WebServercode.html is actual code in a single file implementing a multi threaded webserver. For your requirements, such as they are, this should suffice.
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Networking/Webserver/ is an analysis of the code.
If you will write your own HttpServer you will have to implement all the methods of the HTTP protocol. Tomcat can be easily used locally.
Is it for practice, fun, to implement special requirements or why don't you just embed an existing solution?
Do you really want to build a HTTP server that deals with the protocol directly, or do you just want to write web apps? If all you care about is writing the web apps, then just use Tomcat, or Jetty, or Glassfish, or another server -- it will save you a ton of work.
If you really are interested in writing your own server from scratch, then the best way would be to just use Java SE, and not use any existing server technology.
Ad your 3) option: Try JBoss Netty.
http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/Netty/trunk/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/example/http/websocket
We have had a web application product for several years, and used Tomcat to deploy it under Windows as it registers itself as a Windows service so it starts and stops automatically.
We may now happen to need more Java EE facilities than is provided by Tomcat (we are very tempted by the Java EE 6 things in the container) so the question is which Open Source Java EE containers work well as Windows services. Since Glassfish is the only Java EE 6 implementation right now, it would be nice if it works well, but I'd like to hear experiences and not just what I can read from brochures. If not, what else do people use?
EDIT: This goes for web containers too, and not just Java EE containers. We will probably keep the necessary stack included until we find the right container and it gets Java EE 6 support.
EDIT: I want this to work as distributed. I'm not interested in manually hacking wrappers etc., but want the installation process to handle the creation and removal of the service.
EDIT 2012: It turned out that the Windows installer for Glassfish can install as a service (requires .NET). Component web site http://kenai.com/projects/winsw. Has proven very robust.
We use Tomcat as a service. We have also used JBoss as a service.
It is possible to run GlassFish as a service.
It is also worth noting that most of the commercial Java EE containers can also run as a service. In particular, I know that all of the following can be run as a service, since we have set them up in that way:
Netweaver
WebLogic
WebSphere
In fact I think you would be hard pressed to find a Java EE container that could not be run as a service, since you could always use the Java service wrapper to wrap any java program as a service.
Since it was mentioned in another answer that you might also be interested in web servers running as services, it is probably worth pointing out that the big two on Windows, IIS and Apache, can both be run as services.
Edit: Since you edited to ask specifically about Java EE containers that contain installers that install the windows service:
Tomcat
JBoss
Netweaver
WebLogic
WebSphere
There are probably others, but these are the only ones that I have used.
There is Platform Services Support in GlassFish v3 which can interact with Solaris/OpenSolaris SMF and Windows Services. To my knowledge, it just works.
I use Caucho's Resin under windows, it comes with its own service installer which works quite well for me.
We use JBoss and it runs perfect as a service, no problems so far. We even have loaded the servers with ssh acces so we can remotely restart the services if we want.
I've used Glassfish (Version 2 though) as a Windows service. While it does take some work to get things installed, once set up, it worked pretty well. We used it in a production environment, and our set up consisted of a two node cluster (so we had to set up a domain, and two nodes (on two different machines)).
If I recall correctly, my biggest challenge was trying to use sc, and figuring out its funky escape sequences.
Another thing to look at is Hudson. I've always been impressed with how it installs itself as a Windows service. You may want to have a look at how they do it. They use Winstone as their embded servlet engine though, which as far as I know, is not EE 6 compliant.
I want to write an application that runs entirely locally on one machine - there is no need for connection to the internet or to any external machines.
I was thinking that it would be a good idea to use a web browser as the platform for this application so that I would not have to mess around with lots of UI stuff - I could just knock together the web pages fairly quickly and take advantage of CSS to get consistent styles throughout the application.
However I want to interact with a MYSQL database on the machine in question. With this in mind I was thinking that I could somehow use Java to process the information that the user inputs from the application and communicate it to the database via JDBC.
I know that I could use an applet to do this but the downside to that is that I would like the user to be able to save files to the local machine - and I have read that applets run in a sandbox which prevents them from gaining any access to the local machine.
I also know that I could use PHP but I would like to take advantage of object oriented design which Java is perfect for.
Does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions or links to tutorials/webpages which could help me to decide how best to go about this.
Any thoughts are very much appreciated..
I know you said you don't want to mess around with GUI stuff in java, but have you looked in to java web start? It does almost exactly what you need; a user clicks a link through a web browser and your application is deployed on their machine, it even checks to make sure the right JVM is used. Because it is a full application and not an applet, your app won't be sandboxed, and you don't have any access restrictions in your program (other than the normal java stuff..), and for example, it would be easy to do what you mentioned and talk to a mySQL DB. The only downside, is what I mentioned earlier, is that you would have to design a UI in java.
Web Start Wikipedia Page
Sun FAQ on Web Start
Grails may be a useful starting point. It'll provide you with a web server solution that's standalone, and it'll look after the JDBC requirements and the CRUD (create-read-update-delete) capability via dynamically generated web pages. It should take minimal effort to put together an app providing your database interfacing via web pages.
(fyi. Grails is the Java equivalent of Rails)
If you feel comfortable with Java EE-based web development, you could probably just bundle your application with Tomcat or Jetty.
If you do not want to run standalone servlet container just for one application, you can also embed Jetty into a runnable Java application (see documentation here).
Either way you can leverage existing Java EE frameworks (Spring JDBC, Hibernate, all those web frameworks) for abstracting away technical complexities, although with embedded Jetty, you'd probably need to write some kind of integration layer for the web application framework of your choice.
I think you should give Restlet, a lightweight rest framework a try. The tutorial shows you how to start a local webserver, and by that deliver a "Hello World" through the browser within minutes (no joke!), and there's plenty of extensions for any kind of need.
In combination with Java Web Start by which you can deploy and start the application to the local host this should be what you need.
as someone suggested already you can use embbeded jetty server on your application and just let your user to start it using somekind of shell script or batch script. You only need to make your layour directory complaint with a Java Web Application and your on it. ie:
MyApplication
app/
WEB-INF/
lib/
classes/
web.xml
start.bat |
start.cmd - depends on your client OS
start.sh |
Then you should only need to take care of launching Jetty in your start.[bat|cmd|sh] with your app as your webaplication context and your done!
Using JDBC doesn't mean that you have to write an applet, you can use JDBC in any kind of application: a desktop application, a web application, EJBs, MDBs, etc.
You want to use a browser and Java on the server side? Then go for it and use Servlets / JSPs. Consider maybe using an presentation framework (Wicket, Struts2, Spring MVC,...), Hibernate for data access and Spring for other facilities and wiring. Grails is a good idea too.
BTW, I'm not a PHP specialist but PHP has object-oriented capabilities (introduced in PHP4 , enhanced in PHP5) so you won't sacrifice everything if you choose PHP.
So it really depends of what you want to do. If you want to write some Java (webapp or desktop app): choose Java. If you want to put quickly a few web pages in place and have an apache server, choose PHP. If you look for really high productivity, go for RoR or Grails.
You can try GWT + Google Gears
GWT is a GUI toolkit similar to Swing for the browser. Google Gears is a browser side database. Your app is completely in Javascript in a single HTML file and cross-browser compatible.
GWT app can make Server calls and Gears can sync up with a Server database. So you need not restrict your app data completely to the local desktop.
If you're interested in some experimentation, like new stuff and would like to reuse the plethora of Java libs (including JDBC) then you might be interested in the lift web framework, which is Scala-based.
If you want to do it as an applet you can. Sign the applet and give it permissions to the local network (to connect to the MYSQL server that way)... that should be possible. Here is a tutorial on it.