The most popular Java frameworks today are "tags libraries", rely on JSP, or are designed with EJBs in mind.
I don't see much benefit using a tag library when you already know HTML. I have a large experience of development with Oracle Web Application Server. I always found their tag library silly.
In general, JSP is just not my thing. Not only I have more control over the end result using pure servlets, but I am much more comfortable maintaining Java code than maintaining JSP/HTML files.
JSP is quite limiting too. How do you create a database-driven search engine for your web site when the structure of your content is stored in JSP files ? I prefer to store all the information (including the web site content structure) in the database, with everything else, so that I don't have to worry about 500 files. Once the application is deployed, I only worry about the database.
For a regular web application, there is no reason to go the EJB way. Not only EJBs are quite complex to code, but it has performance issues and adds a layer of complexity to the hosting. An overkill for my needs.
I didn't find any 3-tier java web framework meeting my criteria. Maybe you will find that my requirements were misguided but I am quite happy with the end result. An example of web site using my framework is available at: http://www.corendal.com/arttoulouse/home/
Note: I have published my framework online, under GPL license at http://sourceforge.net/projects/corendalfm/
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The most popular Java frameworks today are "tags libraries", rely on JSP, or are designed with EJBs in mind.
I don't see much benefit using a tag library when you already know HTML. I have a large experience of development with Oracle Web Application Server. I always found their tag library silly.
In general, JSP is just not my thing. Not only I have more control over the end result using pure servlets, but I am much more comfortable maintaining Java code than maintaining JSP/HTML files.
JSP is quite limiting too. How do you create a database-driven search engine for your web site when the structure of your content is stored in JSP files ? I prefer to store all the information (including the web site content structure) in the database, with everything else, so that I don't have to worry about 500 files. Once the application is deployed, I only worry about the database.
For a regular web application, there is no reason to go the EJB way. Not only EJBs are quite complex to code, but it has performance issues and adds a layer of complexity to the hosting. An overkill for my needs.
I didn't find any 3-tier java web framework meeting my criteria. Maybe you will find that my requirements were misguided but I am quite happy with the end result. An example of web site using my framework is available at: http://www.corendal.com/arttoulouse/home/
Note: I have published my framework online, under GPL license at http://sourceforge.net/projects/corendalfm/