
Ask HN: Is Spring still a good framework for Java based web projects? - throwaway13000
I am looking for a Django like framework for java based web project. It is a standard CRUD web-app but I need the project to be in Java because existing libraries are all in Java.<p>Is Spring still a good option for this? Which Java framework has good templating support?
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SavageBeast
If By "Templating" you mean something similar to Smarty or Twig ( facilities
to render pages of HTML with conditionals and variables ) then Java is a fine
choice for this.

Spring is unnecessary - the Java templating mechanism is called JSP ( Java
Server Pages ) and its part of the standard Java package - no additional
framework is required.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaServer_Pages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaServer_Pages)

To do this you will need a runtime container like Apache Tomcat. (
[http://www.tutorialspoint.com/articles/run-your-first-jsp-
pr...](http://www.tutorialspoint.com/articles/run-your-first-jsp-program-in-
apache-tomcat-server))

If you're hell bent on running Spring ( its entirely not necessary ) you can
use Spring MVC which is part of Spring Framework.

Here's an example [https://www.mkyong.com/spring-mvc/spring-mvc-hello-world-
exa...](https://www.mkyong.com/spring-mvc/spring-mvc-hello-world-example/)

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throwaway13000
Thanks for the tip on JSP. I will look into it.

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spazbob
Check out thymeleaf.org - adds HTML templating to Spring MVC. I much prefer
the syntax over JSP personally. In addition, the docs are great and there are
plenty of resources online (baeldung in particular).

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mindcrime
To me, this is more of a religious war than anything that has an objective
answer, but I'll share my opinion for what it's worth.

Spring is fine, and I mostly use Spring Boot for API services. But for web
stuff, my personal preference is for Grails (which ultimately is still Spring
underneath, but with Groovy flavored goodness on top). At least for server-
rendered HTML. If you're building an SPA and using fancy JS frameworks where
most of the application lives in Javascript-land, then that might change the
picture.

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throwaway13000
Was not aware of Grails before. Will check it out.

