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.
Related
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.
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).
I am looking for feedback from experienced users on spring roo and appfuse. Which do you think does a better job reverse engineering database tables and generating a service layer, dao layer, and jpa entities?
If I am not mistaken, spring roo currently cannot reverse engineer a database.
Just a quick update to inform all users that stumble upon this thread now (or at least after today :)); With the new 1.1.0 release, Spring Roo now does support incremental database reverse engineering out of the box. See this release annoucement.
As a comment on the actual question: I don't think either of the two is way better than the other in the actual entity generation, but there is a big difference of course between AppFuse and Spring Roo aside from the entity generation. If you actually need DAO's, this is something that comes out-of-the-box in AppFuse and put partly in Spring Roo, but there is also a great addon for Spring Roo (Hades addon) that does a great job at this, maybe even better than AppFuse. Main reason to go for AppFuse, in my humble opinion, is if you require another Web Framework (ie Wicket. Tapestry or JSF) as front end then Spring MVC or GWT, as these are currently the only well supported Web Frameworks within Spring Roo (more coming though, like Flex etc.). Other reason you might go for AppFuse is if you want to use an IDE with full intellisense and code-completion support, but don't want to use Eclipse (you can use other IDE's, and build works perfectly well with Spring Roo, but due to the AspectJ files, which aren't recognized by Netbeans, other IDE's then Eclipse currently don't do code completion well for the Spring Roo generated/managed files).
But if you don't mind Eclipse (or better even the Spring Tools Suite) and do want to use GWT and/or Spring MVC, I'd recommend Spring Roo. Main reasons to go for Spring Roo is the, in my humble opinion, higher productivity, far better support, far higher momentum and activity, lower learning curve (for quick CRUD app generation) and of course the Rails like command shell from which you can quickly setup and configure your application.
Ps. Note that I haven't used AppFuse actively for over a year, so my knowledge of AppFuse is a bit rusty.
Roo is good to quickly put up stuff up (round-tripping is amazing)..but the lack of out-of-the-box provide for a services layer puts my needs in a bind. I know I can do #Services annotation and place code appropriately as mentioned in the documentation(too much work at startup). I wished Roo gave me a choice to have a services+dao layer...out-of-the-box.
That would (have made)/make Roo a killer app, imho
You are correct that you can't reverse engineer a database in Roo. There's an open JIRA item for this which you can vote up.
However, you could try using the Eclipse Hibernate tools to reverse engineer your database, then modify those objects to make them Roo Entities. That probably would involve a lot of manual work though.
For AppFuse, there's the AppFuse Maven plugin which can create the entire AppFuse project for you from an existing database. I'm not sure if it's currently working though, because the last person I mentioned it to said they couldn't get it working.
Depending on your requirements, you may also want to give the Grails framework a try. There's a tool called GRAG that can reverse engineer a Grails application from a database.
The ROO-435 issue is actually our most requested feature, so I'll be implementing that in Spring Roo within the next few weeks. In the meantime, Jason's suggestion of using the Eclipse Hibernate tools to create JPA annotated entities is an immediate solution that is fully Roo compatible.
I'm creating an online music store application (in Java) for signed and unsigned artist for my client.
I'm currently using Struts 1.3.10 (I was recommended Spring but Spring setup is sort of similar to Struts) for my Web application.
My Database is currently a MySQL 5 (or higher) and I'm using a DAO pattern to talk to it. There are limitations to using Struts and DAO's (e.g. Multiple File upload in Struts is not implemented the same way as multiple String parameters, and for DAO's, there lacks a Publish-Subscribe feature).
Is what I'm doing the best way forward or should I go straight Hibernate (or similar) and move out of Struts? What are the performance implications or technical issues that you've experienced with the same setup I have?
The client doesn't care how I do it as long as it is done.
You could also use both Struts and Hibernate. The key point of Hibernate is that you store whole objects, without having to worry about it. The performance of Hibernate is pretty good. It is easy to use for just storing objects and hard to understand when you want advanced things.
If you've got complete free-rein as to what you an write it in, and assuming that you want to use a Java platform, then do take a look at JBoss Seam and/or Grails too. Both can use Hibernate as the persistence engine and have RAD tools to allow quick construction of skeleton CRUD webapps. Seam is an especially rich framework offering all sorts of built-in features like arbitrary event-listeners, Ajax updates, file-uploads, etc. but takes a bit of getting your head around whereas Grails is easier to get started with.
Struts 1.3 is kind of old now (though still a good MVC framework) and the newer frameworks have better support for handling conversations (i.e. workflow across multiple requests) which Struts 1.x & Hibernate can make a little awkward at times, as well as AJAX features that you might want to implement at some point. Spring MVC which you mention is good too, but is a lighter-weight framework that the ones I mentioned before. Grails is now supported out of SpringSource too, so it should "have legs" so to speak.
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).