download URL : https://equinox.dev.java.net/framework-comparison/WebFrameworks.pdf
Comparing Web Frameworks:
Struts, Spring MVC, WebWork, Tapestry &
JSF
Matt Raible
www.raibledesigns.com
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Who is Matt Raible?
. Developing websites since 1994 (before Netscape 1.0)
- Developing in J2EE webapps since 1999
. Committer on several open source projects:Roller
Weblogger, XDoclet, Struts Menu, Display Tag, AppFuse
. J2EE 5.0 Expert Group Member
. Author: Spring Live (SourceBeat) and contributor to
Pro JSP (Apress)
!ww.raibledesigns.co" !ww.springlive.co"
Framework Experience
. Struts: used since June 2001 - same time 1.0 was
released.
. Spring MVC: used since January 2004 - before 1.0
was released.
. WebWork: used since July 2004.
. Tapestry: used since July 2004.
. JSF: used since July 2004 - both Sun’s RI and
MyFaces.
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Meet the Candidates
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Struts
. Pros:
. The “Standard” - lots of Struts jobs
. Lots of information and examples
. HTML tag library is one of the best
. Cons:
. ActionForms - they’re a pain
. Can’t unit test - StrutsTestCase only does integration
. Mailing list volume is overwhelming
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Spring MVC
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
. Pros:
. Lifecyle for overriding binding, validation, etc.
. Integrates with many view options seamlessly: JSP/JSTL,
Tiles, Velocity, FreeMarker, Excel, XSL, PDF
. Inversion of Control makes it easy to test
. Cons:
. Not many using it
. Requires writing lots of code in JSPs
. Almost too flexible - no common parent Controller
WebWork
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
. Pros:
. Simple architecture - easy to extend
. Tag Library is easy to customize - backed by Velocity
. Interceptors are pretty slick
. Cons:
. Documentation only recently written, few examples
. Client-side validation immature
Tapestry
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
. Pros:
. Very productive once you learn it
. Templates are HTML - great for designers
. Healthy and smart user community
. Cons:
. Documentation very conceptual, rather than pragmatic
. Steep learning curve - very few examples
. Impossible to test - page classes are abstract
JSF
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
. Pros:
. J2EE Standard - lots of demand and jobs
. Fast and easy to develop with
. Rich Navigation framework
. Cons:
. Tag soup for JSPs
. Immature technology - doesn’t come with everything
. No single source for implementation
Controllers and Views
. Struts: UserAction extends DispatchAction
. Spring MVC: UserFormController extends
SimpleFormController
. WebWork: UserAction extends ActionSupport
. Tapestry: UserForm extends BasePage
. JSF: UserForm
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
List Screens
. How easy is it to integrate a sortable/
pageable list of data?
. Struts, Spring MVC and WebWork can all
use Tag Libraries like the Display Tag
. Tapestry has a contrib:Table component
. JSF has a dataTable with no sorting - have
to write your own logic if you want it
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Bookmarking and URLs
. Using container-managed authentication (or other filterbased
security systems) allow users to bookmark pages.
They can click the bookmark, login and go directly to the
page.
. WebWork has namespaces - makes it easy
. Struts and Spring allow full URL control
. Tapestry has ugly URLs - difficult to segment the app for
different roles
. JSF does a POST for everything
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Validation
. Validation should be easy to configure, be robust on the
client side and either provide good out of the box messages
or allow you to easily customize them.
. Struts and Spring MVC use Commons Validator - a
mature solution
. WebWork uses OGNL for powerful expressions -
client-side support very new
. Tapestry has very robust validation - good messages
without need to customize
. JSF - ugly default messages, but easiest to configure
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Testability
. Struts - can use StrutsTestCase
. Spring and WebWork allow easy testing with
mocks (i.e. EasyMock, jMock, Spring Mocks)
. Tapestry is impossible to test because page classes
are abstract
. JSF page classes can be easily tested and actually
look a lot like WebWork actions
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Success Messages
. The duplicate-post problem, what is it?
. Easiest way to solve: redirect after POST
. Struts is the only framework that allows success
messages to live through a redirect
. Spring and WebWork require custom solutions
. Tapestry requires you to throw an Exception to redirect
. JSF requires a custom solution, i18n messages difficult to
get in page beans
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Spring Integration
. All frameworks have integration with Spring
. Struts: ContextLoaderPlugin and Base classes
. WebWork: SpringObjectFactory
. Tapestry: override base engine, grab from servlet
context, put into global map
. JSF: DelegateVariableResolver or JSF-Spring Library
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Internationalization
. JSTL’s <fmt:message> tag makes it easy
. No standard for getting i18n messages in
controller classes
. Struts, Spring and JSF encourage one
ResourceBundle per locale
. WebWork and Tapestry advocate separate
files for each page/action
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Page Decoration
. Used Tiles since it first came out in 2001
. SiteMesh is much easier to setup and use
. Tiles can be used in Struts, Spring and JSF
. Requires configuration for each page
. SiteMesh can be used with all frameworks
. Requires very little maintenance after
setup
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Tools
. Struts has a lot of IDE support and even has
frameworks built on top of it (i.e. Beehive’s
PageFlow)
. Spring has Spring IDE - only does XML validation,
not a UI/web tool
. WebWork has none
. Tapestry has Spindle - great for coders
. JSF has many, all cost money and hook into
proprietary app servers
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Business/Marketing
. Struts is still in high-demand and widely-used
. Spring is getting more press, but mostly due to the
framework’s other features
. WebWork is gaining ground, but pretty scarce on
job boards
. Tapestry is even more scarce - needs more
marketing
. JSF is quickly becoming popular
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Dice Job Count
October 15, 2004
0
375
750
1,125
1,500
Struts
Spring Framework
WebWork
Tapestry
JSF
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
My Opinion
. Struts is fast to develop with because most problems have
been solved. HTML tag library the best of the bunch.
. Spring is nice, but lack of form tags drops it down a notch
or two. JSP 2.0 tag files exist in issue tracker.
. I like WebWork a lot, but lack of of good client-side
validation support is a killer.
. Tapestry - I haven’t finished the learning curve.
. JSF - needs to listen to developers to see what they want
instead of tools vendors.
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Which would I choose?
. Quick and dirty project?
. Struts because I know it best
. Massive enterprise project?
. Tapestry for its reusable components
. If I got a job as an open source developer?
. WebWork because using it requires you
to dig into the frameworks
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Resources
. Download sample apps for this presentation
. http://equinox.dev.java.net/framework-comparison
. Struts - http://struts.apache.org
. StrutsTestCase: http://strutstestcase.sf.net
. Spring MVC - http://www.springframework.org
. Spring IDE: http://www.springframework.org/spring-ide/eclipse
. WebWork - http://opensymphony.org/webwork
. Eclipse Plugin: http://sf.net/projects/eclipsework
. IDEA Plugin: http://wiki.opensymphony.com/display/WW/IDEA+Plugin
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Resources, cont.
. Tapestry - http://jakarta.apache.org/tapestry
. Spindle: http://spindle.sourceforge.net
. JSF - http://java.sun.com/j2ee/javaserverfaces and http://
myfaces.org
. Java Studio Creator: http://sun.com/software/products/jscreator
. MyEclipse: http://myeclipseide.com
. IDEA: http://www.jetbrains.com/idea
. SiteMesh: http://opensymphony.com/sitemesh
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Resources, cont.
. Testing Frameworks
. JUnit: http://junit.org
. EasyMock: http://easymock.org
. jMock: http://jmock.org
. jWebUnit: http://jwebunit.sourceforge.net
. Canoo WebTest: http://webtest.canoo.com
. XDoclet - http://xdoclet.sourceforge.net
. AppFuse - http://appfuse.dev.java.net
!ww.raibledesigns.co"
Books
. Struts in Action, Ted Husted and Team
. Struts Live, Rick Hightower and Jonathan Lehr
. Spring Live, Matt Raible
. Spring in Action, Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach
. Professional Java Development with Spring, Rod
Johnson, Juergen Hoeller and Team
Books, cont.
. WebWork in Action, Patrick Lightbody and Team
. Tapestry in Action, Howard Lewis Ship
. Core JSF, David Geary and Cay Horstmann
. JSF in Action, Kito Mann
The End
...or is it just the beginning...
!ww.raibledesigns.co"