What is the best view layer for Spring 3 ?

Question

I'm investigating presentation layers to be used with spring in our new project. I'm coming from PHP+Prado and want to move to something what is as simple as Prado and more powerfull than PHP.

I like Spring 3 and Spring MVC. It's very simple to learn and start working with. But I'm looking for "view framework" better than simple jsp. I need simple components as Datagrids, Lists, Trees drag-and-drop supported. I've created SpringMVC+Spring Web Flow 2 + Spring Faces + JSF configuration but it's very complicated to create simple things there. I need something simpler.

Do You have any ideas ?

Answer 1

If you want those sort of rich controls, then some kind of JSF framework is the way to go. The standard JSF framework is rather poorly designed and inelegant, though.

You should have a look at JBoss Seam as an alternative. It's a top-to-bottom web framework that uses EJB3 and JSF, and it's pretty well integrated, making JSF a lot easier than it would otherwise be.

It's not Spring-based, though, so if your heart is set on Spring, then you need to look at other JSF implementations such as RichFaces.

Spring WebFlow probably isn't necessary for you at all, so I;d ignore that unless you have a good reason.

Answer 2

In Java EE there are currently only 2 view technologies: JSP and Facelets. JSP is old and about to retire. Facelets is newer and better and designed with JSF in mind so that they both fits smoothly in each other.

But Spring MVC and JSF are in fact competitors. They both have roughly the same goals and purposes. You should use the one or the other and not mix up them. Mixing two or more MVC frameworks in one page ain't going to work flawlessly. You can however use Spring as DI and/or Security framework in combination with JSF as MVC framework. Spring offers much more than only MVC.

Components like Datagrids, Lists, Trees drag-and-drop supported are not all available in the basic JSF implementation. For that you'll need a more enhanced (and skinned and ajaxical) component library, such as RichFaces, IceFaces, Trinidad, etc. I suggest to take a look at RichFaces, here is a live demo of the components available.

Answer 3

A "View framework", have a look at Dojo, http://dojocampus.org/explorer/ since it's just html/css/javscript you can add that to any server technique

Answer 4

Jboss Seam offers all that you want. It works with Spring, but provides lot of inbuilt features by itself.

Answer 5

A very powerful and light-weigth MVC action based framework is Stripes, give it a try!

Answer 6

I've used Jboss Seam + Richfaces for the last 3 years and find them both useful, but if I were you I'd also check out the Play Framework. It has Spring support and combined with jQuery UI or ExtJS you would get a very simple but highly effective environment. Certainly one reminiscent of developing in PHP from a speed point of view.