What's the most minimal Java web MVC framework? [closed]

Question

I'm looking for a Java web framework that requires the most minimal amount of configuration for a very small app. Spring & Struts are definitely overkill here. This is an app that could be written without any framework at all but I would prefer to use a minimal MVC framework if I can find one.

Eclipse

Answer 1

Stripes and ZTemplates are supposed to be pretty light.

Resonance

+1. Stripes has the added benefit of being one of the easiest web frameworks to get up and productive quickly. – Taveda

Stripes provides essentially the same functionality as Struts2 + conventions plug in. So I'll agree that it should be easier to get up and running but it is a pretty trivial lead. – Bumbling

Answer 2

Checkout spark. Its as mimimalistic as it can get.

Mossy

Answer 3

Take a look on Apache Wicket.

Greataunt

Because it's minimal or because you just like it? – Eclipse

Because it is pretty simple to start developing web applications with Wicket and it requires a small amount of configuration to get it working. That's why I like it. – Greataunt

Answer 4

grails requires a minimal amount of config since most of it has sane defaults.

Breskin

"sane defaults"? What does that mean? – Eclipse

I personally prefer the frameworks with insane defaults. ;) More seriously, I think he just meant that it doesn't require a lot of configuration (as the default configuration will work ok for most cases). – Resonance

More than that - it uses the "convention over configuration" approach of Rails, which means that e.g. taglibs are incredibly easy to use - just have a class whose name ends with -Taglib in a specific folder, define a closure field in it, and that field's name can now, without any configuration, be used as a tag in your JSP equivalent. – Youngster

Of course, grails is not lightweight by any stretch of imagination - it uses Spring and a number of other frameworks in the background, but it (quite successfully) tries to take away the pain and the overhead of using them in the way described above. – Youngster

i should have said "convention over configuration" instead of "sane defaults" :( – Breskin

Answer 5

I'd say that spring webmvc is pretty minimalistic and IMHO it's far from overkill. You don't have to include the whole spring Framework to do your things. To start a webmvc webapp you need ~3-4 jars IIRC. Don't underestimate the advantages of DI in regard of internal structure and testability.

I'd go for Spring WebMVC + JSP maybe combined with sitemesh. Later when you realize that you have more complicated stuff to do you could add Spring-Webflow and so on.

Selfassertion

Answer 6

The most minimal way to do a Java web app would be to use JSPs to display your content and Just plain Java in the back end.

This would require almost no configuration.

The only requirements for that is the J2SE and Tomcat for hosting.

Thiouracil

That's not a framework. As I said, I specifically want to use an MVC framework. – Eclipse

Well, sorry. You also asked for minimal. All MVC frameworks come with a little bit of baggage. – Thiouracil

Answer 7

The lightest Java framework would be servlet + JSP. Try to use the latest released standards - Servlet 2.5 and JSP 2.1. Tomcat provides all you need:

1. servlet container;
2. JSPs (optional);
3. Java runtime;
4. web server to serve HTMLs.

Arte

That's not a framework. I specifically want to use an MVC framework. – Eclipse

Combining several technologies together by following common practices constitutes a framework, and as such it may attain minimal value... – Arte

This one's still going :) web4j.com – Percolation

Answer 8

try appfuce.com. this gives you full functional mvc webapplication based on your preference(struts2, spring or JSF). and it has sample login system implemented so that you will learn the core features of technologies involved

Attack

Answer 9

check out (µ)Micro and see if it is light enough :)

HTH - florin

Knudsen