The document provides a comparison of various Java web frameworks, including Grails, GWT, Ruby on Rails, Spring MVC, Vaadin, Tapestry and Wicket. It discusses the challenges in choosing a web framework, outlines various comparison points, presents the results of framework ratings in matrix and weighted forms, and provides analysis on the state of the frameworks in 2010 based on conferences and community metrics.

1. COMPARING JVM WEB
FRAMEWORKS
Matt Raible
http://raibledesigns.com
Photos by Trish -
Photos by Trish McGinity - http://mcginityphoto.com http://mcginityphoto.com

2. Introductions
‣ Your experience with
web development?
‣ Your experience with
Java EE development?
‣ What do you want to get
from this session?
‣ Experience with Grails,
GWT, Rails, Spring MVC,
Wicket, Tapestry or
Play?
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3. Who is Matt Raible?
Father, Skier, Cyclist
Web Framework Connoisseur
Founder of AppFuse
Blogger on raibledesigns.com
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4. Session Agenda
‣ The Problem with Web Frameworks
‣ The Candidates
‣ Comparison Points
‣ The Matrix
‣ Conclusion
‣ Q and A
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5. The Problem
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6. The Real Problem
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7. The Real Problem
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8. The Real Problem
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9. How do you choose?
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10. Eliminate, Don’t Include
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13. Craig McClanahan on Rails
... while I'd *love* to see life made simpler for Java web
developers, and a lot of the things happening in Struts2 are
going that way -- it won't be me doing it.
I've gone over to the dark side :-) and much prefer to
develop in Rails -- for the conciseness mentioned above,
but also because I don't ever have to do a "build" or
"deploy" step during my development cycle any more. But
you guys and gals need to be reminded that *this* is the kind
of thing you are competing against if you expect to attract
Rails developers ... or to avoid even more "previously Java
web developer" defectors like me :-).
-- Craig McClanahan, 10/23/2007
http://markmail.org/thread/qfb5sekad33eobh2
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14. James Gosling on JSF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ei-rbULWoA#t=47m
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15. 2010: Comparison Points
‣ Developer Productivity
‣ Developer Perception
‣ Learning Curve
‣ Project Health
‣ Developer Availability
‣ Job Trends
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16. 2010: Comparison Points
‣ Templating
‣ Components
‣ Ajax
‣ Plugins or Add-Ons
‣ Scalability
‣ Testing Support
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17. 2010: Comparison Points
‣ i18n and l10n
‣ Validation
‣ Multi-language Support (Groovy / Scala)
‣ Quality of Documentation/Tutorials
‣ Books Published
‣ REST Support (client and server)
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18. 2010: Comparison Points
‣ Mobile / iPhone Support
‣ Degree of Risk
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19. Comparison Matrix
http://bit.ly/jvm-frameworks-matrix
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20. Matrix Results
18
17.5 17 17 17
15.5 15 15
13.5 14.5 14 14
13.513.5
11.5
9
4.5
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21. Matrix Results
‣ Grails (17.5)
‣ GWT (17)
‣ Ruby on Rails (17)
‣ Spring MVC (17)
‣ Vaadin (15.5)
‣ Tapestry and Wicket (15)
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22. Weighted Matrix
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23. Weighted Results
‣ Grails (90)
‣ Spring MVC (85)
‣ Ruby on Rails (82.5)
‣ Vaadin (82.5)
‣ Play (82.5)
‣ GWT (80)
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24. Fighting for 5th
‣ Top at Devoxx 2010
- GWT
- Rails
- Spring MVC
- Grails
- Wicket / Struts 2
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25. Fighting for 5th
‣ Top at Rich Web Experience 2010
- Grails
- GWT
- Rails
- Spring MVC
- Tapestry / Vaadin
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26. Fighting for 5th
‣ Top at TheServerSide Java Symposium 2010
- Grails
- GWT
- Rails
- Spring MVC
- Vaadin
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27. Ratings Logic
‣ Developer Productivity
‣ Developer Perception
‣ Learning Curve
‣ Project Health
‣ Developer Availability
‣ Job Trends
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28. Ratings Logic
‣ Templating
‣ Components
‣ Ajax
‣ Plugins or Add-Ons
‣ Scalability
‣ Testing Support
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29. Ratings Logic
‣ i18n and l10n
‣ Validation
‣ Multi-language Support (Groovy / Scala)
‣ Quality of Documentation/Tutorials
‣ Books Published
‣ REST Support (client and server)
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30. Ratings Logic
‣ Mobile / iPhone Support
‣ Degree of Risk
http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/
how_i_calculated_ratings_for
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31. David Pollack’s Lift Ratings
‣ Developer Productivity: Lift gets a 11, Rails gets a
5, most Java-based frameworks get a 1 or less.
‣ Developer Perception: Every web framework gets
a 1.
‣ Learning Curve: Lift gets a 2.
‣ Job Trends, yep, it's zero.
* Matt's scale is 0-1 and my ratings are on Matt's
scale, except mine goes to 11.
http://lift.la/my-take-on-matt-raibles-spreadsheet
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32. Peter Thomas’s Perfbench
‣ Seam / JSF vs. Wicket Performance Comparison
- January 2009: Seam 2.1.1 and Wicket 1.3.5
- Average page response time in milliseconds
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33. Peter Thomas’s Perfbench
‣ On the Seam / JSF side, the 20 sessions each
take up about 800 KB adding up to around 16
MB total. On the Wicket side the 20 sessions
add up to around 1.5 MB.
‣ + Lots of banter between Peter and Seam
developers @ http://bit.ly/3X50Gc
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34. Peter Thomas’s Perfbench
‣ Peter’s Observations:
- Grails was far more productive than Tapestry 5.
- Grails still has some ways to go in terms of
performance.
- Overall, Wicket is fastest, with Tapestry coming a
close second.
- Wicket takes up the least amount of heap.
- Session usage of the Seam + JSF combination is
significantly higher compared to the rest.
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35. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
http://www.parleys.com/d/2942
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36. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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37. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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38. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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39. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
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40. World Wide Wait - Devoxx
HybridJava beats JSF, Wicket
and Spring MVC by perfomance.
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41. HybridJava - Really?
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42. Pros and Cons
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43. Grails
‣ Pros
- Easy dynamic language transition for Java Developers
- Groovy
- Plugins for all types of applications
‣ Cons
- Groovy learning targets Java Developers
- Stack traces are horrendous
- Knowledge of underlying frameworks not required,
but helpful
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44. GWT
‣ Pros
- Write Java => Produces Optimized JavaScript
- Easy to learn and develop with standard Java Tools
- Vibrant Community
‣ Cons
- You have to know Java
- Slow to compile, difficult to test
- More like a JSP Tag Library than a web framework
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45. Ruby on Rails
‣ Pros
- Easy to learn and understand for Web Developers
- Lots and lots of documentation
- Passionate Community
‣ Cons
- Slightly less performant by default
- Dynamic language means more tests
- Development Tools and Debugging
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46. Spring MVC
‣ Pros
- Easy Configuration with Annotations and Conventions
- Integrates with many view options seamlessly: JSP/
JSTL, Tiles, FreeMarker, Excel, PDF, JSON
- Excellent REST Support
‣ Cons
- Instant reload not built-in, need JRebel or Spring Roo
- No open development process, need to be
SpringSource
- Ajax requires 3rd-party library (can be a good thing!)
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47. Vaadin
‣ Pros
- Uses GWT API for developing view
- Vibrant Community and company backing
- Excellent Themes and Layouts support
‣ Cons
- Large memory footprint, state stored in session
- Sketchy (?) because backed by a commercial
organization
- Joonas keeps telling me my cons are wrong
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48. Wicket
‣ Pros
- Great for Java Developers
- Tight binding between pages and views
- Active community - support from creators
‣ Cons
- No Jobs or Developers
- Stateful by default
- HTML Templates live next to Java code by default
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49. Tapestry
‣ Pros
- Live Class Reloading
- Development emphasis on performance and
scalability
- Excellent Exception Reporting
‣ Cons
- No Jobs
- Prototype baked in for JS Library
- Annotations vs. Conventions
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50. Pretty Graphs
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51. LOC in AppFuse Light
JSF Spring Stripes Struts 2 Tapestry 5 Wicket
5000
3750
2500
1250
0
JavaScript XML CSS Java
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52. Jobs on Dice (World)
700
525
350
175
0
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53. LinkedIn Skills (World)
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
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54. Pretty Graphs
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55. Pretty Graphs
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56. Pretty Graphs
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57. Pretty Graphs
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58. Pretty Graphs
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59. Pretty Graphs
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60. Pretty Graphs
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61. Pretty Graphs
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62. Pretty Graphs
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63. Mailing List Traffic
Wicket 1841
GWT 1753
Grails 1635
Rails 1604
Tapestry 1538
Play 1451
0 475 950 1425 1900
* Spring MVC and Vaadin use Forums, which don’t provide this data.
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64. Books on Amazon
Rails
Spring MVC
GWT
Grails
Wicket
Tapestry 5
Vaadin
0 75 150 225 300
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65. 2011 Releases
As of August 24, 2011
0 4 8 12 16
Grails
GWT
Rails
Spring MVC
Vaadin
Tapestry
Wicket
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66. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (August 24, 2011)
50,000
37,500
25,000
12,500
Grails 0
Rails
Vaadin
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67. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (August 24, 2011)
10,000
7,500
5,000
2,500
Spring 0
JSF
GWT
Grails
Wicket
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68. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (August 24, 2011)
200000
150000
100000
50000
Java 0
Scala
Groovy
Clojure
JRuby
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69. StackOverflow
Tagged Questions (August 24, 2011)
6000
4500
3000
1500
Scala 0
Groovy
Clojure
JRuby
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70. Framework Popularity
Source: ZeroTurnaround's Java EE Productivity Report 2010
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71. What we need is...
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72. Innovators
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73. Modern Principles
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74. Web Developers
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75. Java Developers
“Java remains – in spite of the fragmented
programming language landscape – a
viable, growing language.”
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2012/02/08/language-rankings-2-2012/
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76. The Modern Web Developer
‣ ... embraces JavaScript
‣ ... is learning mobile frameworks
- jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, PhoneGap or Native
‣ ... is using HTML5 and CSS3
‣ ... is developing REST APIs with the stateless
framework that best supports their language
‣ IE6 is dead, IE7 isn’t far behind...
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77. You have to decide...
Are you a web developer?
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78. You have to decide...
Or are you a services developer?
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79. Client-Side MVC
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80. Developer Productivity
http://zeroturnaround.com/blog/
developer-productivity-report-part-1-developer-timesheet/
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81. Developer Productivity
http://zeroturnaround.com/blog/
developer-productivity-report-part-3-developer-efficiency/
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82. There is no “best” framework
Just lots of awesome choices...
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83. Don’t listen to me!
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84. Choose your own!
‣ Prioritize a list of features that are important to
your application.
‣ Pick 3-4 frameworks and do a 1-week spike with
each, developing the same application.
‣ Document and rank each framework against your
list of features.
‣ Calculate and choose!
‣ ... Or just pick one and get to work...
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85. But don’t forget...
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86. Questions?
‣ Contact
- http://raibledesigns.com
- @mraible
‣ Download
- http://slideshare.net/mraible
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