If we only need to graphically authorize a user,
view a few tables representation (from database),
ability to change data in the database visually
what tools to use to write such a web application that will run on Tomcat?
What framework allows to do that in the most straightforward, easy-to-manage and elegant way?
I would look at Spring Roo as the framework for building your app. It will allow you quick construction of most of the features you are looking for in several minutes. (or so they claim)
There are so many elegant web frameworks available to choose from...
A JSF solution is a one suggested by the Java EE standard - if you select JSF you'll have to be more verbose in the code, but you'll have the assistance of tools such as the Visual JSF designer in NetBeans. Using JSF2 is a much better idea, IMO.
I personally recommend you to have a look at Wicket - it's a great Java web framework, centered around ideas such as ellegance, simplicity and usability.
There are many more great frameworks out there, but this is a start.
You can also try Grails. It's Java + Groovy scripting + Spring Framework + GORM + Spring Security. Less boiler plate.
Tools: Spring Source Tool Suite (Eclipse based IDE).
Related
I'm looking for good java MVC web application development kit (or framework), with servlet engine, database persistence layer and viewer layer included and ready to go? One example is TDK (Turbine Development Kit), but it's kinda outdated, and their M.E.T.A. is very hard to work with (it uses maven 1.0).
Thanks,
David
There's AppFuse and Roo if you're looking for "make it go".
If you're not dead-set on Java, there's Grails (and JRuby on Rails).
Give a shot to AppFuse. It will leverage either Struts 2 or Spring MVC for you, with a nice persistence layer.
There are many good 'stacks' that you could use, some of which have already been mentioned.
They all have their own strengths & weaknesses, and you really need to select a stack that best fits your requirements.
The Spring/Roo, AppFuse & Seam are all great, but they do come with a certain amount of... errm... bloat.
You may find that picking and mixing technologies actually provides you with a lighter weight and more performant solution, so long as the technologies you choose integrate relatively seamlessly.
If you're looking to package a full execution environment including the servlet engine as part of your application, Jetty is a good choice, and you can easily integrate it into a Maven build environment.
You may also want to investigate using HyperSQL for your database, which will allow you to prototype using an SQL compliant database without having to worry about installing a full database manager such as MySQL or PostgreSQL.
I need support in order to speed up development process. I received a request to start developing a website with java technology. I usually develop in C# - ADO for Entities - ASP.NET MVC - MSSQL server - Visual Studio. Best of these choices were:
- C# Intellisense.
- ORM.
- Complete Security Management of Users, Roles.
- Separation of Concerns into MVC.
I was wondering if any can help me to determine best Java MVC Framework - DB - IDE based on these premises, Start a project with:
- Integrated security for users, roles
- MVC
To shed more light, to replicate same functionalities I can have each time I start a website using C# ASP.NET MVC 2 project. example http://nerddinnerbook.s3.amazonaws.com/Images/image020.png
First, let's discuss IDE, ORM, and security, and DB: In my opinion, the best Java IDE is IntelliJ IDEA. It's from the same folks who have developed Resharper for Visual Studio. It has the most powerful editor of all Java IDEs and has built-in support for many popular Java frameworks.
ORM: The most powerful ORM library in Java is Hibernate. Hibernate itself is an implementation of Java Persistence API (JPA) standard. EclipseLink is another implementation of JPA, but Hibernate is a better option IMO.
Security: Spring Security is probably the most powerful security (authentication and authorization) framework available in the Java world.
DB: If you are comfortable with SQL Server, then keep on using that. However don't use Microsoft's JDBC drivers. Instead use a driver from DataDirect: http://web.datadirect.com/products/jdbc/index.html. If you don't want to use SQL Server, MySQL is a great FOSS choice and Oracle, DB2, etc. are other options.
For the Web framework, there are several options:
Option 1: If you want a RAD style framework, choose Grails. Grails is similar to Ruby on Rails but uses JVM and a Java-like but dynamic language named Groovy. Grails' ORM API is called GORM, which is built on top of Hibernate, but is much easier to use. Grails also uses Spring Security for managing security.
Option 2: If you want an enterprise-grade framework, choose JBoss Seam + JavaServer Faces. JSF is a component-based MVC framework, and there are plenty of great JSF libraries available for use: RichFaces, OpenFaces, etc. Seam integrates JSF with EJB and together they make a great enterprise framework. However it has a steep learning curve.
Option 3: Use Spring + SpringMVC + JPA.
Option 4: Use Struts 2 .
Final remarks: If you are looking for an easy-to-learn MVC + ORM framework, use Struts 2 + JPA. If you are looking for a RAD and easy-to-use MVC + ORM framework, use Grails. If you are looking for a robust and enterprise-grade (but not-easy-to-learn) framework, use JBoss Seam.
Not only Spring MVC but the whole Spring eco system will get you up and running with the least surprises. You can also download the Spring Tool Suite (a preconfigured eclipse version tailored for Spring) to get an integrated development environmanet which knows about all spring stuff.
But Spring - Spring MVC - Hibernate - Spring Security and STS seems to cover your needs and will provide a sound basis to do the project without too many bad surprises. This leaves you to focus on the customer and the jump to Java.
Afterward you might consider different options in the Java space, as there are plenty of other frameworks available with their strong points. But in the short run it is better to limit the number of moving parts
The standard, most common framework/orm setup is spring/hibernate. Both of these tools have unfortunately been grown to ridiculous extremes over the years, so they may seem daunting in size, but a simple setup with each is much easier than it may seem from looking at all of the options on their respective sites.
Best suggestion would be to follow a step-by-step to get a basic spring/hibernate setup going and just expand off of that. At one point I had a prototype project like this I'd use to generate a "starter-set" to bootstrap projects.
BTW, I'd also suggest a simple ant build script. Some people may suggest maven, but it's enormous and very (imo overly) complex, and you're going to have enough new tools to wrap your head around to want to avoid having to learn another large command set.
Welcome to the Java world. The best thing (and in some cases also the worst thing) about the Java domain is that you can create your own stack based on your requirements. You're not necessarily bound to a single vendor as is commonly the case in the .NET domain.
Since it seems you're in a greenfield situation you can:
Adopt the webdevelopment stack of a large commercial vendor like Sun/Oracle (JSF/EJB3 + NetBeans/JDeveloper + Glassfish/Weblogic + MySQL/Oracle) or IBM
Adopt the webdevelopment stack of a smaller open source vendor like JBoss, SpringSource.
Take a look at JBoss Seam and SpringSource Grails and Roo (the latter two are based on the frequently mentioned Spring/Hibernate frameworks)
Mix and match your own stack based on the above and your requirements. Although this requires deep knowledge of the various technologies, frameworks, tools available.
You have lots of options as you can see. Now since your interested in a productivity focused stack - and I suspect an opensource one - and you have no legacy I recommend either Grails or Roo. In which Roo is probably the most accessible one since you don't have to learn Groovy. If you don't like the generation tooling I advice you the stick to the Spring stack and just adopt Spring/JPA/etc.
As for IDE, the only Java IDEs worth their salt IMHO are Eclipse and Netbeans, especially since both of them are free. Use Eclipse for extensibility and ease-of-use, use Netbeans if you need to rapidly develop a GUI.
I am embarking on a new RIA project with Java on the backend. I'm the only developer, and the app is a line-of-business application. My current stack looks like this:
MySQL || Spring(JdbcTemplate for data access) || BlazeDS (remoting) || Flex(Cairngorm)
My question is: what changes can I make to improve productivity? Manually coding SQL, server-side entity objects, client-side value objects and all the Cairngorm stuff is obviously a drag, but I'm not sure what higher-level frameworks to introduce.
What Flex/Java stack has served you well?
Manually coding SQL
Hibernate is an option to cut this out.
One thing that may be of interest is Grails with the available Flex Plugin. It's built on Spring, Hibernate and BlazeDS, so it's all there for you. It was unbelieveably easy to get it remoting stored objects and responding to AMF calls. I was using this and then moved over to a RESTful E4X implementation as I found it a lot easier to debug and tweak as I could inspect the server output in a browser and have tighter control over exactly what I returned to my Flex app (lazy loading problems in collections using BlazeDS were a headache at times).
Here is a quick tutorial showing how easy the whole Grails + Flex Plugin stack is: BlazeDS in Grails
I would seriously reconsider using Cairngorm. In my opinion it's a pretty bloated framework that introduces a lot of abstraction you'll never use. Check out:
http://code.google.com/p/swizframework
http://www.spicefactory.org
Both introduce the concept of dependency-injection into your Flex app.
Also +1 for Hibernate. I would use the standard JPA annotations on a Java class and extend that with Hibernate Annotations as you find you need additional functionality.
Check out springsource.org's new Spring BlazeDS Integration Project
Spring BlazeDS Integration is a new
addition to the Spring portfolio, and
a component of the complete Spring Web
stack. This project's purpose is to
make it easier to build Spring-powered
Rich Internet Applications using Adobe
Flex as the front-end client. It aims
to achieve this purpose by providing
first-class support for using the open
source Adobe BlazeDS project and its
powerful remoting and messaging
facilities in combination with the
familiar Spring programming model.
As alternative to hand-coding sql, aside from hibernate, you might wanna consider JPA/Toplink. And since you are already from a Spring camp, check out Spring ActionScript (formerly known as Prana), it's an IOC framework for Flex. It solves many inherent problems in Cairngorm. Also a good IDE that supports Flex/Actionscript like IntelliJ IDEA 8.
Whats missing between Flex and BlazeDS is, it doesnt have any sort of landing page where you have a listing of all the available services by just typing a url on the browser (similar to webservice endpoint).
You can try GraniteDS. It's an alternative to BlazeDS, with an actionScript generator, Spring integration (an Spring security), and if you use an JPA implementation, help you with the Lazy Initialization (in a transparent way).
I have pretty big background of .net, and I've decided that i want to port one of my websites to Java. (now with the asp.net MVC craze, I've figured I'd better learn a more mature approach to MVC).
i've downloaded eclipse (easyeclipse distro to be exact, and am ready and willing to develop my first website in java).
i've programmed j2me application before, so i know the language and some of the framework.
can someone guide me? any advice?
Although I'm not very aware of "asp.net mvc" is all about, I would suggest you to take a look at Spring it may be interesting.
Probably is too complicated at the beginning but when you get the concept it turns out very easy to follow.
Spring has 5 core modules ( which I don't remember exactly ) but they were like:
AOP
ORM
MVC
Core
( some other I'm missing here )
The MVC part uses a lot of annotations to make life easier. There's a very big community around Spring.
Here's an introductory article about spring.
Java has a ton of frameworks you can choose from. The technology stack that I use for my Java development is either:
Spring for IoC.
Hibernate for the data layer.
Struts2 for the MVC framework.
I have also swapped out spring and used Guice for the IoC.
Spring also has MVC, but I tend to like Struts2 better.
I'd recommend looking at Grails, it lets you become comfortable with all the java libraries and frameworks like Spring, SpringMVC, Hibernate, SiteMesh, and so on but gives you a much better DSL for web applications and much more concise code with the Groovy language (think of it as Java with dynamic typing, blocks, closures, and so on).
If you'd rather stick to pure Java I'd recommend looking at the Stripes framework and the following book:
http://pragprog.com/titles/fdstr/stripes
If you interested in web applications specifically, I would recommend using MyEclipse http://www.myeclipseide.com. Basically, this is a version of eclipse with all the web server integration and functionality built in. I've been using it for a few years and it's much easier to develop with than with plain vanilla eclipse. Depending on how much your going to use it, you have to decide whether the $55 annual subscription is worth it for you.
I'm a little confused. does spring framework actually a full blown framework? doesn't Java already have a framework? (by framework i mean all those misc libraries).
Do you know of any tool that would do like Ruby on Rails' Scaffolding (create simple CRUD pages for any particular class to allow quickly populating a database with dummy data), only which used Java classes with Hibernate for database access, and JSP/JSF for the pages?
It is a drag when you are programming one part of an application, but need data that can only be added with another part that is not ready yet, or very cumbersomely by directly inserting it into the DB.
Grails is a very nice Rails-like framework built on top of Spring MVC. For persistence, they use GORM, which is basically an ActiveRecord-like framework built on top of Hibernate. Pretty slick.
If you already have Hibernate entities, they can actually be used immediately in Grails with no additional work.
You can try Telosys Tools, an Eclipse plugin for
code generation (scaffolding) working from an existing database
with customizable Velocity templates.
It's very simple and easy to use.
The tutorial for code generation with Spring MVC and Spring Data is here : https://sites.google.com/site/telosystutorial/
See also : http://tools.telosys.org/
Eclipse Marketplace : http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/telosys-tools
I'm a little late on this one but it popped up in the "Related" links →
JBoss Seam and it's Seam Gen tasks are exactly what you are looking for (Hibernate + JSF). You can generate an entire web app from a Hibernate fronted database in seconds.
you can use grails. Grails tries to be Groovy on Rails -- uses Rails behind the scene for scaffolding, etc. Since you can pretty much write full scale java code in a groovy class, you can have the CAKE and EAT IT too.
Grails is somewhat different from Rails, even though it was based on Rails and has a similar feel. Grails uses spring to help wire your services together. The environment is not only dynamic (with Groovy) but also allows you to use Java (static environment) as well. It is really cool, especially if you're coming from a java environment. The Grails folks took the Rails idea and expanded it using the Domain Driven Model. Rails is still data model centric where you have to deal a lot with the database to create your objects (which is called a model), where as Grails allows you to design applications using the true domain object model where you deal with objects from the domain class' perspective instead of the database.
There is a good tutorial here on how to do this in Netbeans. I've used this wizard before with good results. Out of the box you can select which persistance framework to use and the JSF pages it produces are quite nice and clean.
Spring + AspectJ + Hibernate + CLI = Spring Roo RAD framework.
Give it a try.