So I'm about to learn Spring MVC. But what I don't understand is why should I use Spring MVC if I can implement the MVC pattern using a single servlet conroller and JSPs? What advantages does Spring MVC provide over simple java MVC pattern?
Actually yes, you can do it. Question is if you should do it. Spring MVC gives you better organization of your code.
Pure MVC Frameworks like Spring MVC are obsolete today. When combined with templating engines like Thymeleaf, it lacks functionality and developers usually reinvent JSF. For single-page apps based on some popular JS frameworks that need REST backend, JAX-RS is way cleaner and better than Spring MVC REST.
So no, today you don't need Spring MVC and can stick with pure Java EE. For simple, toy-like applications where servlets are enough, you don't really need it but it may be better to use it. For anything serious, MVC is outdated and Spring has nothing to offer.
Edit 2017: Spring offers JAX-RS integration. However, it has several pitfalls, for example Spring won't automatically register classes annotated with #Path for you. Details can be found in Dzone Article
The best way to realize that it's better to play with these technologies for yourself, if you want to try spring MVC I recommend you start with spring boot because you can create projects with more agility without configuring xml files
Spring Boot
Some Features
Create stand-alone Spring applications
Embed Tomcat, Jetty or Undertow directly (no need to deploy WAR files)
Provide opinionated 'starter' POMs to simplify your Maven configuration
Automatically configure Spring whenever possible
Provide production-ready features such as metrics, health checks and
externalized configuration
Absolutely no code generation and no requirement for XML configuration
One of the ideas applied in Spring (not invented by Spring) is
Do not reinvent a wheel.
Having a single controller is not a good idea I'd say - breaking separation of concerns principle.
You can learn more about MVC from Spring documentation.
Related
Can anyone clarify what are the differences between Spring Framework, Spring ROO, and Spring MVC ? I am really puzzled by these similar terms and cannot mangage find an answer.
It's really easy:
Spring Roo is a DEVELOPMENT-TIME tool, similar to Eclipse, IntelliJ, etc.
Spring Framework is a RUN-TIME framework.
Applications generated with Spring Roo at development time use Spring Framework at run time.
Hope this helps.
I do not want to be rude, but also from SO tags we know:
spring
The Spring Framework is an open source framework for application development on the Java platform. At its core is rich support for component based architectures, and it currently has over a dozen highly integrated modules.
https://stackoverflow.com/tags/spring/info
spring-mvc
Based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, Spring MVC helps you build web-based applications that are flexible and decoupled from the underlying view technologies.
https://stackoverflow.com/tags/spring-mvc/info
spring-roo
Spring Roo is a lightweight tool aimed at developer productivity. Via an intuitive command line interface it supports operations such as Java web project creation, persistence configuration and view scaffolding. Roo creates a Java web project that uses the Spring framework, and leverage some best ...
https://stackoverflow.com/tags/spring-roo/info
My own brief description would be: Spring framework is the framework providing some functionalities for example dependency injection. Spring MVC is for creating web projects as you mentioned already. Finally Spring Roo is a tool, that helps you increase productivity, I'd say that instead of manual configuration changes you are using this tool.
Hopefully, this was not too brief...
I know this is not a programmatic questions.
I am a n00b to this area coming from Java EE background and could not find the difference between the two online (may be I am not a good surfer)
Could someone please share the info?
Spring is a framework alternative to Java EE with three parts:
Dependency injection
Aspect oriented programming.
Libraries for web MVC, persistence, messaging, etc.
Spring MVC is for web MVC. It's one of the many libraries built into Spring. You can use other alternatives (e.g. Struts, SEAM, etc.) if you wish and still use Spring.
spring is enterprise framework designed to solve all your problems for enterprise applications. At present they call it as Spring IO, which can be found at spring.io website.
However, Spring MVC is a framework part of the whole stack available to solve the enterprise solutions. This is framework for writing web applications.
I am new to Spring. Just having basic understanding of it.
I am curious to know, can we use Spring MVC Framework and other components of Spring framework (like AOP) together?
Thanks!
Briefly yes.
quote
Spring could potentially be a one-stop shop for all your enterprise applications, however, Spring is modular, allowing you to pick and choose which modules are applicable to you, without having to bring in the rest. You can read details about modules available in Spring Framework.Here
I know java well, and have some experience in EclipseLink, Hibernate, JSF, Grails and some other stuff. but now I wanna learn Spring MVC for web apps and maybe for the sites. and should I learn Spring Framework before begin Spring MVC, or not?
In short, yes. Spring MVC borrows a lot of concepts like dependency injection from Spring, so you need to burn these concepts in before learning Spring MVC. For example, just create a simple Java project, create a few beans, understand the concepts of how a container / injection / wiring work, and then move on to implementing them in Spring MVC.
The most obvious benifit is you can integrate Spring with other web frameworks that you might already be familiar with. That way you get the best of both worlds, and don't have to learn Spring MVC until you have to.
This tutorial explains connecting to a database the spring way, and explains basic Spring concepts while at it. You could then follow it up with the Spring MVC tutorial.
Spring has an easy learning curve, (not to master it of course) so I would suggest learning them together on a small-scale test project.
I don't know if the question is pertinent for stackoverflow, but in any case I think learning Spring MVC is the best way to take a first step to learn Spring, in fact many Spring tutorials start with a Spring MVC application.
Ive been working now with the Spring Framework 3.0.5 and Spring Security 3.0.5 for several time. I know that Spring Framework uses DI and AOP. I also know that Spring Security uses DI, for example when writing custom handlers or filters. Im not sure whether Spring Security also uses AOP - so my first question is: does it?
Well, Id also like to know how Spring Security can be used for non-spring-based applications. Its written in their documentation that this is possible. Well, I wonder how - it seems like it uses DI, so how should it work in a simple java web application? I guess at least a web container which supports dependency injection is needed, correct? (Which one could that be?)
Thank you for answering :-)
[EDIT]
documentation says:
"documentation says: "Spring Security provides comprehensive security services for J2EE-based enterprise software applications. There is a particular emphasis on supporting projects built using The Spring Framework, which is the leading J2EE solution for enterprise software development. If you're not using Spring for developing enterprise applications, we warmly encourage you to take a closer look at it. Some familiarity with Spring - and in particular dependency injection principles - will help you get up to speed with Spring Security more easily.""
j2ee-based enterprise software applications......... emphasis on supporting projects using spring framework...... well this means it should be possible to work with it without Spring Framework itself!
?
AND:
Even though we use Spring to configure Spring Seurity, your application doesn't have to be Spring-based. Many people use Spring Security with web frameworks such as Struts, for example.
This is from the spring security homepage. well....
Does it use AOP ?
Yes spring-security uses AOP for its method security (you'd have to search the page to find it).
Can you use spring-security without spring ?
Generally no.
As you need to define spring beans for several spring-security elements.
But! You can use Acegi security without spring as far as I know. Which should give you close to the same functionality.
Can you secure a non-J2EE application
Definitely.
Anything that can run in a servlet container can be secured with spring-security. You just need Spring's IoC/DI.
This answer can help you on the minimal spring-security dependencies.