Helping a beginner for java web application

Question

I have pretty big background of .net, and I've decided that i want to port one of my websites to Java. (now with the asp.net MVC craze, I've figured I'd better learn a more mature approach to MVC).

i've downloaded eclipse (easyeclipse distro to be exact, and am ready and willing to develop my first website in java).

i've programmed j2me application before, so i know the language and some of the framework.

can someone guide me? any advice?

Answer 1

Although I'm not very aware of "asp.net mvc" is all about, I would suggest you to take a look at Spring it may be interesting.

Probably is too complicated at the beginning but when you get the concept it turns out very easy to follow.

Spring has 5 core modules ( which I don't remember exactly ) but they were like:

• AOP
• ORM
• MVC
• Core
• ( some other I'm missing here )

The MVC part uses a lot of annotations to make life easier. There's a very big community around Spring.

Here's an introductory article about spring.

Answer 2

If you interested in web applications specifically, I would recommend using MyEclipse http://www.myeclipseide.com. Basically, this is a version of eclipse with all the web server integration and functionality built in. I've been using it for a few years and it's much easier to develop with than with plain vanilla eclipse. Depending on how much your going to use it, you have to decide whether the $55 annual subscription is worth it for you.

Answer 3

I'm a little confused. does spring framework actually a full blown framework? doesn't Java already have a framework? (by framework i mean all those misc libraries).

Answer 4

Java has a ton of frameworks you can choose from. The technology stack that I use for my Java development is either:

Spring for IoC. Hibernate for the data layer. Struts2 for the MVC framework. I have also swapped out spring and used Guice for the IoC.

Spring also has MVC, but I tend to like Struts2 better.

Answer 5

I'd recommend looking at Grails, it lets you become comfortable with all the java libraries and frameworks like Spring, SpringMVC, Hibernate, SiteMesh, and so on but gives you a much better DSL for web applications and much more concise code with the Groovy language (think of it as Java with dynamic typing, blocks, closures, and so on).

If you'd rather stick to pure Java I'd recommend looking at the Stripes framework and the following book:

http://pragprog.com/titles/fdstr/stripes