Hi,
Recently I have done some research on J2EE Web frameworks usability and features to decide the framework to be used for one of my new projects.
I consider Struts 1, Struts2, JSF and Spring MVC. After spending some hours on going through each of the frameworks features and some more hours to do a simple application(Proof Of Concept).
In this process i was excited looking at some of the features, become a fan of one of the frameworks, felt home sick to leave my all time favourite framework and irritated with some of the frameworks.
Struts1:
This is my all time favourite web framework.Still I love this technology because of its simplicity.Today every new j2ee web framework starts promoting their framework by comparing with Struts because the Struts was adopted by the Java developer community as a default web framework for developing web applications. Now i am feeling sick to leave this struts framework as i fall in love with some other framework on which todays Architects/Developers are Springing.
SpringMVC:
SpringMVC, which is an MVC based web framework with the full support of all the Spring features(IOC/DI, AOP etc..).I really enjoyed learning the SpringMVC because of its simplicity, the number of view technology choices its offering, the different types of controllers each with a dedicated purpose, different ways of URL mappings to controllers and so many other features.
Struts2:
The only reason that force me to study Struts2 is the number of UI controls its offering for build Web pages. I appreciate the Struts2 authors as they tried and build a web application framework with several architectural improvements. But to be said frankly i feel difficult in understanding the Struts2 concepts because of their complex nature.
JSF:
The JSF is Standard Web Framework for developing J2EE Web Applications. Unlike other frameworks which are action oriented, JSF is a Component Oriented framework which brings Swing like programming to the web development. JSF provides rich set of UI controls. Apart from this I didn't find any new features that are not provided by other frameworks. But i feel very much difficulty in learning and writing a simple POC with JSF. JSF guys claiming that JSF is a render independant technology. That is we can build UIs that can be rendered by Web Browser or by a Mobile. But when it is sure that the application will be run on web browsers only, then why should one take care about JSFs render independent feature and its complexity.
Finally i decided to go with SpringMVC.
I was going through your post ... and one comment here on JSF. as u mentioned, when we are going to use JSF for web only then why do we need to use this as configuring and working on JSF is very complex. In my past experience we have gone through the req where we need an application which might run on browser as well as on mobile. So there JSF has helped us a lot.
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