Java Web Tier Framework Comparison

I found this old reference in my collection, not sure how much of this is still valid but thought of posting it here so it will not get loss.

Framework	Description	Pros	Cons	Reference Info	Licensing
GWT	Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language. You write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML	No JavaScript syntax errors - Use a reliable, strongly-typed language (Java) for development and debugging - No JavaScript programming at all! Can use complex Java on the client - Turned into JavaScript, but you still use String, array, Math class, ArrayList, HashMap, custom classes, etc. - Full IDE-based Java support for development/debugging (GWT builds Eclipse or MyEclipse projects automatically) Can send complex Java types to and from the server - Data gets serialized across network Standalone test environment - Can test within MyEclipse without installing a server Support by major company - From the company that helped to popularize Ajax in the first place. But project is free, open-source, and in no way tied to Google products or services. - Company won't go away like perhaps with AjaxTags	Big learning curve - Java developers can deploy with AjaxTags (or other JSP tag libraries that wrap Ajax functionality) in just a few minutes, whereas it takes much longer to get anything running with GWT. Cumbersome deployment - Clumsy and poorly documented process to deploy on a regular Java-based Web server. Nonstandard approach to integrate JavaScript - You never put direct JavaScript in your HTML. Instead, you use JSNI to wrap JavaScript in Java. Very powerful in the long run, but hard to get used to at first. Only for Java developers - Most Ajax environments do JavaScript on the client and have a choice for the server. GWT is based entirely around Java. Unusual approach - Fundamentally different strategy than all other Ajax environments makes evaluation and management buyoff harder Lack of Java 5 Support in current version GWT 1.4 It’s hard to attach GWT on top of existing code	http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/	Freeware
Struts 2	Apache Struts 2 is an elegant, extensible framework for creating enterprise-ready Java web applications. The framework is designed to streamline the full development cycle, from building, to deploying, to maintaining applications over time.	Simple architecture - easy to extend Tag Library is easy to customize with FreeMarker or Velocity Controller-based or page-based navigation	Documentation is poorly organized No feedback for missing properties or invalid OGNL expressions Googling results in Struts 1.x documentation	http://struts.apache.org/2.x/	Freeware
JSF	JavaServer Faces technology simplifies building user interfaces for JavaServer applications. Developers of various skill levels can quickly build web applications by: assembling reusable UI components in a page; connecting these components to an application data source; and wiring client-generated events to server-side event handlers.	Java EE Standard - lots of demand and jobs Fast and easy to develop with initially Lots of component libraries	Tag soup for JSPs Doesn't play well with REST or Security No single source for implementation	http://java.sun.com/javaee/javaserverfaces/	Freeware
Spring MVC	This framework is highly configurable via strategy interfaces, and accommodates multiple view technologies like JSP, Velocity, Tiles, iText, and POI. Note that a Spring middle tier can easily be combined with a web tier based on any other web MVC framework, like Struts, WebWork, or Tapestry.	Lifecyle for overriding binding, validation, etc. Integrates with many view options seamlessly: JSP/JSTL, Tiles, Velocity, FreeMarker, Excel, PDF Inversion of Control makes it easy to test	Configuration intensive - lots of XML Almost too flexible - no common parent Controller No built-in Ajax support	http://www.springframework.org/	Freeware
Stripes	Stripes is a presentation framework for building web applications using the latest Java technologies. The main driver behind Stripes is that web application development in Java is just too much work!	No XML - Convention over Configuration Good documentation (easy to learn) Enthusiastic community	Small Community Not as actively developed as other projects Hard-coded URLs in ActionBeans	http://www.stripesframework.org/display/stripes/Home	Freeware
Tapestry	Tapestry is an open-source framework for creating dynamic, robust, highly scalable web applications in Java. Tapestry complements and builds upon the standard Java Servlet API, and so it works in any servlet container or application server.	Very productive once you learn it Templates are HTML - great for designers Lots of innovation between releases	Documentation very conceptual, rather than pragmatic Steep learning curve Long release cycles - major upgrades every year	http://tapestry.apache.org/	Freeware
Flex	Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems.	Produces Flash UI Funded by Adobe Has a “poster child” in Picnik	Not Search Engine Friendly Doesn’t render HTML content well Doesn’t print well by default	http://flex.org/java/	Freeware
Grails	It's an open-source web application framework that leverages the Groovy language and complements Java Web development. You can use Grails as a standalone development environment that hides all configuration details or integrate your Java business logic. Grails aims to make development as simple as possible and hence should appeal to a wide range of developers not just those from the Java community.	Less LOC => awesome productivity Groovy is easy to learn for Java Developers Using Spring and Hibernate at its foundation	Not as performant as using the raw frameworks Can be hard to sell to stakeholders who like Java Virtually unknown outside of blogs	http://grails.org/	Freeware
Seam	JBoss Seam is a powerful new application framework for building next generation Web 2.0 applications by unifying and integrating technologies such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), Java Server Faces (JSF), Enterprise Java Beans (EJB3), Java Portlets and Business Process Management (BPM).	Full-Stack framework with CRUD Generation Conversations with jBPM Heavily Funded by JBoss/Red Hat	Works best on JBoss Application Server Designed for EJB 3	http://www.jboss.com/products/seam	Freeware
Wicket	With proper mark-up/logic separation, a POJO data model, and a refreshing lack of XML, Apache Wicket makes developing web-apps simple and enjoyable again. Swap the boilerplate, complex debugging and brittle code for powerful, reusable components written with plain Java and HTML.	Great for Java developers, not web developers Tight binding between pages and views Active community - support from the creators	HTML templates live next to Java code Need to have a good grasp of OO The Wicket Way - everything done in Java	http://wicket.apache.org/	Freeware
IT Mill Toolkit	IT Mill Toolkit enables developers to build high quality browser user interfaces with Java on server. It provides a library of ready to use high-quality user interface components and defines clean framework for creating your own components.The toolkit has been used in production since year 2001 and it is shown to be suitable for building demanding business applications.	Ease of use, re-usability, extensibility and meeting requirements of large enterprise application.		http://www.itmill.com/developers/	Community Edition available for free download and other featured versions include pricing. Refer : http://www.itmill.com/itmill-toolkit/licensing-and-pricing.htm

Performing Word Search

I finally found something I can't do with Google Search.  It is trying to solve look for words of a specific length, either start with end with etc.  Basically a word search.  We normally do that when we want to solve a puzzle but in this particular case, it was a homework assignment for my daughter. 

Luckily there are a few sites that provide solutions.

http://www.morewords.com/  To find a 5 character word which starts with a, you just search a----

http://www.onelook.com/  To find a 5 character word which starts with a, you just search a????.  However, with this site, you may need to click on common words and phases otherwise it will include a lot of other results which may contain -, ' etc.

Backing up Blogger Blog

I recently read about disappearing blogs in blogger so I searched for tools to backup my blogs. I found the following tools to backup to your local hard disk:

1. Blogger Backup
2. Web Grabber (for OS X)
3. HTTrack Website Copier

There is also a free service I found:

Blog BackupR

Puppet - Open Source Data Center Automation and Configuration Management

Puppet is an open source data center automation and configuration management framework. Puppet provides system administrators with a simplified platform that allows for consistent, transparent, and flexible systems management.

Puppet lets System Administrators spend less time on mundane tasks and instead focus on managing their infrastructure strategically.

The following is their website:

http://www.puppetlabs.com/puppet/introduction/

Portable Apps Suite

The following is a link to some portable applications that makes it easy for testing.

http://portableapps.com/suite

XML Editors

Found a pretty neat XML editor at http://www.exchangerxml.com/index.html but it is very confusing, it claims that there is a free version and a commercial version but I was unable to find the commercial version.  All the features indicated on the commercial is found in the version I downloaded but did not see a way to register.  This is a good editor since it also provides for XSLT editing.

Alternative ones without XSLT debugging capabilities are found in the following:

http://symbolclick.com/index.htm
http://free.editix.com/

Personally I still like XSLTMajic from Microsoft that was discontinued support severals years ago.  Managed to find the link.

Unix Utilities for Windows

The following are utilities ported from Unix into Windows:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils/

Unlike other ports, it provides Unix functionalities natively in Windows.  One of the tools touch is used to update the date of the file is useful for those encrypted containers like OFTE so that the backup utilities detect a change and will perform backup.

Xmind vs FreeMind

Mind mapping is a great way to organize my thoughts and I found FreeMind does a great job in doing that.  However, recently I came across Xmind.  I used the free version and found that it provides some features that were missing from FreeMind.

The following are the missing features:

Floating Topics/Floating Central Topic


This allows you to create multiple central centers.  As shown below:

Different Structures


Xmind allows you to shape your mind map into different structures (in addition to the standard map available in Freemind) such as:

• Fishbone.
• Spreadsheet
• Org Chart
• Logic Chart

This is great except, the nodes below will inherit the structure of the node below.  So I was not able to mix the different structures.

Different Shapes

It is nice to be able to change the different shapes of the nodes.   In additional to the standard Elipse, you can have:

• Rounded Rectangle
• Rectangle
• Diamond
• Call out
• Fish head
• Underline

Here are some examples:

Workbook

In Freemind, you can only have one worksheet while in Xmind, you are able to save multiple worksheet as a workbook.

This is useful if you want to separate multiple ideas in a file.

Outline View

There is an outline view that will allow you to view which nodes are at the same level.  

Negatives

There are a few complaints that I have of Xmind.  They are:

• Due to the additional features, the installer is substantially bigger.  Freemind is 7 Mbyte, Xmind is 50 Mbyte.
• It is also compared to Freemind.

Converting MP4 to MPEG/AVI

Recently, I started taking videos using my handphone (PDA Phone). Videos taken using the phone defaults to MP4 format. However, I faced a problem of not being able to use Windows MovieMaker to edit and join the videos together.

I downloaded a few free video editor programs but most of them do not support MP4 format either. Finally, I came across Pazera Free MP4 to AVI converter which allows you to convert to MPEG-1 - which can then be used in Windows Movie Maker.

Creating eLearning using Screen recording

Recently, we hired some new engineers in our team and wanted to train them. However, the challenge was to record the session so that it can be used to train subsequent engineers since they won't be reporting at the same time.

I found the following software to be perfect for the job. It is called CamStudio.


CamStudio - Free Streaming Video Desktop Recording Software

The above tool is very basic, and does not have editing capability but I think it is just right for my needs.

Free DVD Burner software

I am currently working on a HP Compaq notebook which comes with a DVD drive and is running on Windows XP. However, the software that comes with the computer does not seem to work.

I know Windows XP itself is able to burn data to disk however, when I tried to do that apparently it only knows how to burn on CD only and not DVD. Which got me searching - since I wanted to stay legal but did not want to pay any money.

I came across the following article which refers to some very nice DVD burning freeware together with a review. Basically it recommended two software after reviewing a few:

• infrarecorder from sourceforge which was pretty need because it has a distribution where you just unzip and use - no installation required.
• imgburn which has some very nice reviews on a few other sites I visited.
  

Captcha

Captcha are images that are used to deter automated registration and is a way to check to see if it is a person or a program submitting the comment/registration.

It is not really necessary to perform the programming yourself since there are a lot of free tools/components that you can use.

Some of my favorites are:

1. CodeProject
2. Free Captcha - but not sure how it will impact the performance since it needs to talk to the provider.

One thing to be aware is how the captcha images appear. The following website shows some of those to avoid.

Other things to be aware of captcha are:

1. There are now more sophisticated tools to defeat the captchas.
   
2. More and more users are getting upset and turn off by captchas so it may cause you to lose your main customers.
   

Free Charting Libraries

When writing program, we have an option to either write everything ourselves or to use/leverage on utilities/libraries that are already written. This is especially true when it comes to charting.

When using asp classic, you can use the mschart control that comes with MS Office. However, that requires that you install MS Office on your webserver. Also, I found the library quite difficult to work with.

The following are some popular opensource/freeware libraries you can use:

For Java, you can use jfreechart.
For .Net, you can use zedgraph. I saw a good article on this on this web page, which is in fact how I found this library.

Alternatively, you can use paid software, our previous software was chartfx and then we started working on Netchart.

Netchart is good in that it can be used for different platforms because it uses webservices and provides libraries for java, asp etc. Only thing it is requires a server to serve the webservices.

Some additional libraries that I found are:

Open Flash Chart
Fusion Chart Free A good sample code on how to use Fusion Chart Free using .net is found here.
Some additional java script charting components are found here.

Log Parser

After starting to use the new log feature in Framework 2.x, how do you analyze the log file. There is a free tool provided by Microsoft to do just that. That tool can be obtained from here. However, it can be quite challenging since it is a line command utility. Also in order for it to work, you need to make sure you use , as the delimiter so that it can treat your log file as a CSV file.

Luckily somebody else had taken an initiative to make it better by coming up with a GUI interface called Visual LogParser, unfortunately, I found this to be lacking. It did not allow some of the options.

You can read more about the features of LogParser from Microsoft, or from another blogger here who has also linked some other resources.

Portable Workspace

I am used to certain type of tools for my programming such as Visual Studio, Netbeans, Context etc. However, it is sometimes quite cumbersome to carry the desktop, notebook every where. With the new breed of portable storage devices like thumb drive and Free Agent, it is possible to carry your programming environment with you.

Ceedo comes with Free Agent. However, the type of applications you can install on it is limited - for example, it is not possible to install Visual Studio on it. A much better option is to use MojoPac. Of course certain software like Antivirus, or softwares that tie directly to the hardware still cannot be installed but it is still a much better option than Ceedo (comes with FreeAgent) or U3 (comes with selected ThumbDrives). Problem with MojoPac, is that it only works with Windows XP. Now that Microsoft is going to stop selling XP, this may not be an option anymore.

Other options like VMWare is more troublesome, you are required to purchase additional Windows License to operate.

However, it raises a problem, what happens if you lose or somebody steals your portable hard disk? The solution is to encrypt the data. One is to use the encryption that comes with Free Agent but it is all or nothing. There are alternatives. Two such alternatives are

• TrueCrypt.
• FreeOTFE

The benefit is using either one of the above, is you create a file that contains your virtual volume. That makes it easy for you to specify the size of the volume and to back it up - just copy the file. FreeOTFE also comes with a PDA version, so you can create a virtual secured volume on your PDA to store your accounts/password.

Both software uses very high encryption. Check it out.

Blog Utilities

When I first started this blog. The first thing I started to do was to find a good site to host the blog for free. There was a few available but I found blogger to be the one with the most lenient, which is why I chose it.

Then I started placing images but found that Google placed a 1 Gbyte limit. Then after discussing with colleagues of mine, I was told that there is a lot of things that can be done with the blog.

You can at chats into your blog using cbox, see the side of this blog. Then you can also keep track of your blog statistics using tools from this site. It is also nice to see where your visitors are coming from using tools from this site. Another site providing live feed of the traffic into your blog is here.

Finally, there are a lot of widgets you can add to your blog, which has been collected here.