I wanted to better appreciate the design choices that go with choosing Spring over Struts2 or the other way around. If you have used any of these Java frameworks please share your thought on them.
I've used Spring but not Spring MVC so I can't comment on their web framework. I have used WebWork which became Struts 2. I think Java web development is complicated and tedious under the best of circumstances, but as far as Java web frameworks are concerned WebWork/Struts2 is decent.
You're going to have lots of files. You're going to have at least several hundred lines of XML even for a small application. This is par for the course in the Java world. The upside is that the documentation available is generally very good and it's also very easy to navigate your way around the application. Another plus is that Struts is kind of the de facto standard framework for many Java developers so it's easy to find help.
You might also want to check out Stripes if you like Struts2. I like to think of it as a better Struts2. It follows more of a convention over configuration model while still being at least as flexible as Struts2. The result is less code, faster development and no XML. It also has the benefit of being so similar to Struts that any developer familiar with one can quickly pick up the other.
Wicket is interesting too and probably worth a look. There was also a framework called RIFE that looked like it had potential, but the documentation was absolutely atrocious when I looked at it about a year ago.
I've done things in Spring but not the MVC parts. The problem is that configuration is in XML and untyped. So that means your bugs will show up runtime. This, combined with the long make-edit-build-deploy cycles for most Java code severely hampers you. Guice is much better as the injection is being typed and many bugs can be removed early on. On the other hand, you then need to search for a Web framework.
You're going to have lots of files. You're going to have at least several hundred lines of XML even for a small application. This is par for the course in the Java world. The upside is that the documentation available is generally very good and it's also very easy to navigate your way around the application. Another plus is that Struts is kind of the de facto standard framework for many Java developers so it's easy to find help.
You might also want to check out Stripes if you like Struts2. I like to think of it as a better Struts2. It follows more of a convention over configuration model while still being at least as flexible as Struts2. The result is less code, faster development and no XML. It also has the benefit of being so similar to Struts that any developer familiar with one can quickly pick up the other.
Wicket is interesting too and probably worth a look. There was also a framework called RIFE that looked like it had potential, but the documentation was absolutely atrocious when I looked at it about a year ago.