What Is The Best Java Web Framework
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But on its own, Java can only do so much to empower your developers. To help them get the most out of this language (so they can build better and faster), you need to make sure they have the necessary frameworks to help them get the job done right.
Spring is one of the most widely-used Java frameworks primarily for the development of web applications. Spring supports such things as application events and listeners, externalized configuration, YAML, and type-safe configuration.
But why should your developers make use of Spring? For starters, Spring is the single most popular framework for building Java-based web applications. Spring is also capable of exposing RESTful services, includes Spring Security (which adds both authentication and authorization features), and is capable of establishing JDBC connections.
Grails was developed to provide a solid web framework for Java, reuse existing Java technologies under a single interface, offer a consistent development framework, and include plenty of documentation.
Vaadin comes with over 45 UI components to make it even easier for you to build quickly and reliably. This framework also includes the Vaadin Collaboration Engine, so your developers can integrate collaboration features into your web applications.
Another lightweight Java framework, Blade is used extensively for full-stack web app development. Blade is a templating engine that is part of the broader Laravel framework, which is used to create complex web-based applications in Java.
Blade is a very user-friendly MVC framework and works on a modular basis, so you can cut your applications into modules (which is very helpful for debugging). Blade includes plug-in support and works with JSON configuration files.
Another framework from the Apache Foundation, Apache Wicket has the goal of bringing the web into the modern Java era. The latest release of Apache Wicket was built on top of Java 11, so it is capable of keeping up to date with the continued evolution of Java.
The proper framework empowers developers to create reliable and robust applications without needing to write and perfect every line of code. Furthermore, many developers use Java testing frameworks to ensure consistent and reliable test results.
Its modularity allows developers to take advantage of its tools for every step of their project. Additionally, Spring interacts seamlessly with countless security tools and features. Therefore, the framework enables developers to create and integrate features like login validation and user authentication, ensuring optimal security for the app and user data.
Hibernate is an Object Relational Mapping (ORM) framework that helps developers work with data responsibly and safely. This framework creates reliable relational databases to prevent vulnerabilities associated with mishandled data. Developers appreciate its ability to perform powerful data manipulation without substantial amounts of code.
Like GWT, Hibernate is an open-source project with appreciable community support. It is best suited to projects that rely heavily on data manipulation and dense, complex databases. Many large companies use Hibernate for its adeptness at handling data-intensive workloads.
One such tool is Struts, a model-view-controller (MVC) framework for creating robust web applications. Struts is one of many popular frameworks for developing web applications in Java. However, this framework sets itself apart by prioritizing convenience and including a growing plug-in library.
Struts excels as a complementary tool to other frameworks due to its flexibility and extensibility. This makes Struts a productive addition to a variety of web development scenarios. Its versatility enables developers to use it for anything from simple portfolio websites to feature-rich applications requiring highly secure user validation and information security measures.
Play is an open-source web app development framework that prioritizes ease of use. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0, it requires very little overhead and is extremely lightweight. Furthermore, developers only need a web browser and a text editor to begin developing. Play integrates seamlessly with various plug-ins and NoSQL databases, making it a superior option for mobile development.
JavaServer Faces (JSF) is a JavaServer framework for building modern user interfaces (UIs) simply. With JSF, developers can build web applications with multi-use UI components that they can easily connect to data and client events.
Additionally, JSF has massive community support and is integrated into parts of the main Java language. Therefore, this framework presents a superior option for developers who want to create complex applications without having to fully code and integrate a front-end workflow.
A framework for creating web applications with Java, Vaadin distinguishes itself by focusing on high-quality user experience (UX) features without the massive coding overhead. Vaadin aims to bring Java web applications in line with the best JavaScript web applications.
Wicket is similar to Struts, Vaadin, and GWT in its focus on modern, Java-based web applications. It is an open-source framework built on top of Java 11 and aims to help developers keep their code completely up to date.
These frameworks enable developers of all skill and experience levels to enhance their use of Java in building applications. Choosing from the growing number of frameworks can feel overwhelming. Nonetheless, integrating the right ones into your arsenal can help you achieve a more efficient, functional, and user-friendly result.
Java frameworks are software libraries created to make building Java applications easier and faster. They consist of pre-written Java code, classes, templates, components, and other structures that you can use as a basis for your application.
The best Java frameworks are well-tested and enforce the use of coding best practices. They let you focus on the business logic of your apps instead of writing basic functionality such as making database connections or handling exceptions.
They also provide a software architecture that helps you create a well-structured application. As these frameworks are in active development, you can make sure that your Java code is regularly updated and properly tested.
Spring is the most well-known and popular Java framework out there, with a huge ecosystem and an active community around it. It allows you to build enterprise-level Java applications, web services, and microservices.
Spring started out as a dependency injection tool, but over the years has developed into a full-scale application framework. It provides an all-inclusive programming and configuration model that comes with support for generic tasks such as establishing database connections and handling exceptions. Besides Java, you can also use the framework with the Kotlin and Groovy programming languages, both of which run on the Java Virtual Machine.
The Spring framework utilizes the inversion of control (IoC) software design principle, where the framework controls the custom-written code (as opposed to traditional programming where the custom code calls into other libraries that handle generic tasks). As a result, you can create loosely coupled modules for your Spring applications.
It follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) software design pattern and has a plugin-based architecture. Plugins make it possible to extend the framework to fit different project needs. Struts plugins are basic JAR packages, so they are portable and you can also add them to the classpath of your app. Some plugins are bundled with the framework (JSON plugin, REST plugin, Config Browser plugin, etc.), while you can add others from third-party sources.
However, if you want to create server-side components that can render on the frontend, Struts may not be the best choice for that. Instead, you should look into a framework that has a different architecture such as Tapestry or Wicket (see both below).
Hibernate provides you with a framework that overcomes the mismatch problems of the Java programming language. It aims to achieve persistence, meaning that the data created/used by the application should outlive the process that generated it.
Wicket is a component-based web application framework similar to Jakarta Faces and Tapestry (see later in the article). It allows you to write elegant, user-friendly apps using pure HTML and Java code. The framework is maintained by the Apache Software Foundation similar to Struts and Tapestry.
As Wicket is a component-based framework, apps are made up of reusable pages and components such as images, buttons, links, forms, and others. It uses the POJO data model, so Wicket components are ordinary Java objects. As components are bundled as reusable packages, you can add custom CSS and JavaScript to them.
Blade is a lightweight and high-performance Java framework that allows you to build fast web applications efficiently. The creators aim for users to understand the whole framework in a single day. To achieve this, Blade focuses on simplicity and elegance.
The Blade framework follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) software design pattern. It has an easy-to-understand design, not depending on any third-party libraries or introducing too many layers. Blade is based on Java 8, and the Netty web server and template engine are built into the framework. It has a minimal footprint; the source code is less than 500 kb in total.
The Dropwizard framework pulls together several well-established Java libraries to provide you with a fast and distraction-free development platform. It comes with an embedded Jetty server, Google Guava, Logback, Hibernate Validator, Joda Time, and many other popular Java libraries. Dropwizard also contains Jersey which you can use to build RESTful web services and Jackson for processing JSON. You can think of Dropwizard as a separate ecosystem that contains all the dependencies mentioned above, bundled into a single package.
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