Java view technologies and frameworks are web-based software libraries that provide the user interface, or "view-layer", of Java web applications. Such application frameworks are used for defining web pages and handling the HTTP requests (clicks) generated by those web pages. As a sub-category of web frameworks, view-layer frameworks often overlap to varying degrees with web frameworks that provide other functionality for Java web applications.
Java view-layer frameworks often claim to support some or all of the model–view–controller design pattern.
| Action-based frameworks: | Apache Struts, Spring MVC |
|---|---|
| Component-based frameworks: | Apache Click, Apache Tapestry, Apache Wicket, Jakarta Faces |
| Web template systems: | Apache Tiles, SiteMesh, Thymeleaf |
The Servlet API is the foundation of almost all Java Web View technologies. Servlet provides the basic mechanism for writing Java classes for web applications. Servlets can respond to HTTP requests, create cookies and maintain sessions.
Jakarta EE, formerly Java Platform, Enterprise Edition and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), is a set of specifications, extending Java SE with specifications for enterprise features such as distributed computing and web services. Jakarta EE applications are run on reference runtimes, that can be microservices or application servers, which handle transactions, security, scalability, concurrency and management of the components it is deploying.
Jakarta Server Pages is a collection of technologies that helps software developers create dynamically generated web pages based on HTML, XML, SOAP, or other document types. Released in 1999 by Sun Microsystems, JSP is similar to PHP and ASP, but uses the Java programming language.
A Jakarta Servlet is a Java software component that extends the capabilities of a server. Although servlets can respond to many types of requests, they most commonly implement web containers for hosting web applications on web servers and thus qualify as a server-side servlet web API. Such web servlets are the Java counterpart to other dynamic web content technologies such as PHP and ASP.NET.
Jakarta Server Faces is a Java specification for building component-based user interfaces for web applications and was formalized as a standard through the Java Community Process being part of the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition. It is also an MVC web framework that simplifies construction of user interfaces (UI) for server-based applications by using reusable UI components in a page.
Apache Struts 1 is an open-source web application framework for developing Java EE web applications. It uses and extends the Java Servlet API to encourage developers to adopt a model–view–controller (MVC) architecture. It was originally created by Craig McClanahan and donated to the Apache Foundation in May 2000. Formerly located under the Apache Jakarta Project and known as Jakarta Struts, it became a top-level Apache project in 2005.
JSP Model 2 is a complex design pattern used in the design of Java Web applications which separates the display of content from the logic used to obtain and manipulate the content. Since Model 2 drives a separation between logic and display, it is usually associated with the model–view–controller (MVC) paradigm. While the exact form of the MVC "Model" was never specified by the Model 2 design, a number of publications recommend a formalized layer to contain MVC Model code. The Java BluePrints, for example, originally recommended using EJBs to encapsulate the MVC Model.
In computing, Oracle Application Development Framework, usually called Oracle ADF, provides a Java framework for building enterprise applications. It provides visual and declarative approaches to Java EE development. It supports rapid application development based on ready-to-use design patterns, metadata-driven and visual tools.
Apache Wicket, commonly referred to as Wicket, is a component-based web application framework for the Java programming language conceptually similar to JavaServer Faces and Tapestry. It was originally written by Jonathan Locke in April 2004. Version 1.0 was released in June 2005. It graduated into an Apache top-level project in June 2007.
Apache Tapestry is an open-source component-oriented Java web application framework conceptually similar to JavaServer Faces and Apache Wicket. Tapestry was created by Howard Lewis Ship, and was adopted by the Apache Software Foundation as a top-level project in 2006.
A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build and deploy web applications on the World Wide Web. Web frameworks aim to automate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development. For example, many web frameworks provide libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management, and they often promote code reuse. Although they often target development of dynamic web sites, they are also applicable to static websites.
The Jakarta Standard Tag Library is a component of the Java EE Web application development platform. It extends the JSP specification by adding a tag library of JSP tags for common tasks, such as XML data processing, conditional execution, database access, loops and internationalization.
The Spring Framework is an application framework and inversion of control container for the Java platform. The framework's core features can be used by any Java application, but there are extensions for building web applications on top of the Java EE platform. Although the framework does not impose any specific programming model, it has become popular in the Java community as an addition to the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) model. The Spring Framework is open source.
Apache MyFaces is an Apache Software Foundation project that creates and maintains an open-source JavaServer Faces implementation, along with several libraries of JSF components that can be deployed on the core implementation. The project is divided into several sub-projects:
RichFaces is an open source Ajax-enabled component library for JavaServer Faces, hosted by JBoss. It allows easy integration of Ajax capabilities into enterprise application development. It reached its end-of-life in June 2016.
In computing, Facelets is an open-source Web template system under the Apache license and the default view handler technology for Jakarta Server Faces. The language requires valid input XML documents to work. Facelets supports all of the JSF UI components and focuses completely on building the JSF component tree, reflecting the view for a JSF application.
Apache Click is a page and component oriented web application framework for the Java language and is built on top of the Java Servlet API.
ZK is an open-source Ajax Web application framework, written in Java, that enables creation of graphical user interfaces for Web applications with little required programming knowledge.
Thymeleaf is a Java XML/XHTML/HTML5 template engine that can work both in web (servlet-based) and non-web environments. It is better suited for serving XHTML/HTML5 at the view layer of MVC-based web applications, but it can process any XML file even in offline environments. It provides full Spring Framework integration.
Apache Attic is a project of Apache Software Foundation to provide processes to make it clear when an Apache project has reached its end-of-life. The Attic project was created in November 2008. Also the retired projects can be retained.
