A framework allows you to focus more on the business part of the code by building the functionality itself. Frameworks save time and money for businesses. They automate a lot of tasks and make the whole process efficient. They remove the manual overhead of writing basic code. They also give the developer basic security and efficiency tools to optimize their applications.
Most developers today use frameworks to make their lives easier. But choosing a framework can be hectic. Furthermore, to understand the full functionality of the framework, you need an expert who understands Java frameworks and has the appropriate industry experience to use it. Fortunately, we’ve listed the 5 Java frameworks you should be using in 2020.
1. Hibernate
Hibernate is one of the most popular object-relational frameworks. It is famous for its database mapping capabilities. It’s open-source and applies OOPS concepts on relations databases. Though it has many API’s that developers need to learn, and it doesn’t allow multiple inserts, it’s still one of the most used frameworks for Java coding.
Important Features:
- It directly maps Java classes and connects to the database with its own language called Hibernate Query Language (HQL). Through this, developers can implement concepts like polymorphism and inheritance.
- Hibernate doesn’t need rewriting of old queries when using a new database. Migration is easy and quick.
- Hibernate also performs functions like establishing a connection to the database, CRUD tasks, etc.
2. Grails
Grail is a web application framework written in the Groovy language. It’s open-source and is based on the MVC framework. It works perfectly with JDE, Spring and Hibernate, and more. Though it works with Groovy, the language is similar to Java. Sometimes it has performance issues in a multithreaded environment.
Important Features:
- Grails is built on top of Spring Boot, a framework that has time-saving development features
- Grails can easily integrate JVM, JDK, and Java EE containers.
- Developers can use IDE such as IntelliJ and Netbeans
- Grails allows RESTful APIs.
- It has markup, JSP, and JSON views so that developers can generate HTML and XML files.
- Grails can be integrated with GORM (Grails Object Relational Mapping)
3. Play
Play is an open-source MVC pattern framework for Java and scala built on the Akka framework. It is known for being lightweight, RESTful by default, and for its hot refresh workflow. It has a very steep learning curve: you need to go through extensive documentation to understand and write code. Most novice coders don’t feel comfortable with it.
Important Features:
- It has built-in database functionality libraries for easy web application development.
- Play allows for a rapid development cycle for lightweight mobile applications. Play is also easily scalable.
- It is NoSQL compatible and has Big data functionality.
- It has easy error debugging at runtime due to the use of statically typed language.
- The play framework has a very active online community that creates a lot of plugins accessible via play.plugin method.
4. GWT
GWT stands for Google Web Toolkit. It’s an open-source google product that converts Java code into browser-friendly Javascript code. This conversion helps in cross-browser testing. GWT creates high performing, complex coded applications. In GWT, you can implement basic Java code through widgets. You just need the business logic for the most part.
GWT does have some problems, such as the Java to Javascript compilation is slow. You might have to write 3-5 times more code than using other libraries. If you are accustomed to using Javascript functionality, you might feel Java is slow compared to that.
Important Features:
- GWT is licensed under Apache version 2.0.
- This framework can create Rich Internet Applications(RIA).
- It has three main components, Java to JavaScript compiler, JRE emulation library, and GWT library.
- GWT allows developers to write client-side Java code and deploy, connecting back-end and front end easily.
- It can integrate with Maven and Junit.
- GWT has integrated debugging abilities. It can also use standard Java code analyzers.
5. Vaadin
Vaadin is an open-source framework that focuses more on Java and leaves the rest of the interface components like HTML, CSS, or JS. The user can focus on the business logic, and the framework provides tools and components to create a good looking and attractive UI design.
This framework focuses more on the presentation layer. It is divided into two components: a Java framework called Vaadin Flow (which allows coding and routing) and UI components in the user browser. Vaadin does have some problems. It requires a lot of memory on the server-side for storage, and sometimes it becomes difficult to scale a solution.
Important Features :
- Vaadin has Spring and Java EE integration support.
- The UI part of the framework runs on the server-side itself.
- The framework has support for deep linking and feedback buttons.
- It has the ability to code both through Java and templates.
- Vaadin offers excellent data visualization. This framework allows for data binding through forms and tables.
- Vaadin has keyboard navigation and screen user support.
Conclusion
There are so many Java frameworks that allow you to code in a better way. Most of the frameworks have extensive documentation available online that you can go through in case of doubts. You can also use the older Java frameworks if they better suit your requirements.
Ultimately, it’s you who has to decide to use the best framework based on your business requirements, budget, and scaling needs. All of them have their positives and negative points. The more knowledge you have about the options available, the better your decisions would be.