Java web development framework with controls

Question

Hi,

First of all, I am a .NET/C# developer who does mostly web dev (so obviously use a lot of ASP.NET, C# and Sql Server). I'm also open to other languages and don't knock them. :)

I want to learn Java because it will benefit my career, as when I reach the senior dev level, I am expected to understand another framework outside my first choice skill (.NET - began with that).

As Flex/Java integration is problematic for me (but I'm working on solving that), I am looking for a Java web development tool/framework. RoR is out of the question for reasons which are out of the scope of this thread.

I was impressed with this (on paper): http://rifers.org/integration

However, I need widgets like accordions, tabs, etc. What is my best bet? Also, I tried Icefaces but the widgets never appear on the page when I drag them on. Because of this, I deleted it but I haven't given the framework a fair go so will probably set it up again.

Because this is a commercial project for someone, I don't want to get bogged down into a whole load of configuration, which is a problem when getting Flex to talk to my Java classes. Because of this, I need a visual environment (drag and drop).

Thanks

Answer 1

Seam is your best bet, here.

Overview from the link: (Your concerns are in bold)

• Seam is a powerful open source development platform for building RIAs in Java
• Seam integrates technologies such as AJAX, JSF, JPA, EJB 3.0 and BPM into a unified full-stack solution, complete with sophisticated tooling
• Seam has been designed from the ground up to eliminate complexity
• Seam enables developers to assemble complex web applications with simple annotated plain Java classes, a rich set of UI components, and very little XML

Answer 2

Since you are coming from a .NET world I recommend that you invest in an Rich Application Framework that you could use both for .NET and Java. For example you could create the controls with jQuery and its UI plug-in. Then you would only need basic Servlet/JSP programming.

Having done both .NET and Java, I would say that Java isn't so easy to set up. You need to learn a lot of things (basic J2EE, MVC framework, RIA framework). A usual set up would be Struts (MVC) + Spring (Dependency Injection) + GWT (RIA) + Hibernate (ORM). You need a lot of time to master all these. A single framework can't cover all your needs.

That's why I suggest jQuery or another javascript framework (like Dojo). If you really can't do without drag and drop, then Netbeans can be configured to use Dojo components in the toolbox.

Answer 3

Assuming I understood correctly what you want, here's my number one recommendation: Apache Wicket. It's a web application framework which provides all the bells and whistles you want as long as you know how to implement them (and that's not that hard at all).

I'm of course biased with my opinion since I get paid for coding using Wicket but as far as I know, all you really need is Spring + Wicket (+ Hibernate) and you have all the easy-to-use tools to develop any kind of web applications. Wicket's community can help you around a lot and feel free to ask from me if you have anything specific you'd like to know about Wicket, I'd be happy to answer more thoroughly if needed.

To see what kind of components come with Wicket as is you should check their component reference page and if you think something's missing, there's WicketStuff components which provide rather nice extensions for Wicket itself.

Answer 4

Thanks for the advice guys.

Jquery integration with netbeans and one of the above frameworks (got to decide which one to use) would be my best bet, it seems.