How to build Enterprise Level Web Applications using Java?
Java has been used most of the time for learning the various concepts of Object Oriented Programming and concepts. Majority of us also knows that Java is widely used for the creation of Desktop Based Applications. Most of us also knows that the applications that has been built using Java are very boring and have very traditional look and user experience. But many of us do not know that most of the applications that we use daily has been developed using Java. These applications includes Google Drive, Google Docs and other Google Related Applications.
Okay! So we we need Java in this world of JavaScript and all it’s relative? First of all I am going to describe why we need Java to Build the Enterprise Level Web applications and which factors makes the Java standout of modern JavaScript Frameworks.
Why should we use Java to Build Big Web Applications?
There are a couple of factors related to this questions including Security, Better Authentication, Better Data Management, Scalability and Development Cost.
Scalability
Now what is meant by the Scalability? I would try to explain this term as simply as possible so that you do not feel bored and give up reading this article.
Let’s say that there is an application that has been built for the 500 users simultaneously, but at some stage the number of users increased to the 2000 users simultaneously, then how do you think your application will perform?
If you are using Java to develop Web Applications and Projects, then you do not need to worry about this question, because Java provides an excellent way to handle this problem by the means of Scalability.
Now one can ask that how we can write Scalable applications in Java, and the answer of this question is very simple and that answer is by writing better code and how we can write better code is an other discussion and again if went deep into the aspects of writing better code then we will deviate from our discussion, so for time being I will not discuss this matter.
Development Cost
We all know that JavaScript frameworks are released on daily basis and old JavaScript libraries are discarded. So now here a very important question raises and that question is What will happen if the library that has been used in the project gets deprecated or deleted or the new version of that library gets available?
It is quite possible that this deprecation will allow your project or web application not to work properly or some features of your web application stop working.
This can cause to spend a lot of time to update your libraries which means that the hiring of new developers and spending new amount of time and money. So this will automatically increase the development and maintenance cost of the project.
In case of Java, the libraries are built for a long term support and the production team does not have to worry anything about the deprecation of certain libraries. Yes, sometimes the libraries gets deprecated but that happens after some years.
Security
How Java is better in security than the other programming languages and frameworks. The simplest answer to this question is that Java allows the developer to write the SQL injection and other vulnerability proof code with the help of builtin libraries. These libraries are super simple to implement and requires less use cases to worry about.
So these were some aspects that made Java a legacy programming language for many legacy projects. Now we come to one more important point which is How to build the Web Applications using Java? What are frameworks and tools provided by the Java to build the Web Applications? So without a further do let’s get to these points.
Java Web Development Frameworks
There are many Java related web frameworks available but here we are going to talk about the most common ones and easy to work with.
JSP and Servlets
This is one of the most basic tools built on Java to make the web applications. This tools is very old and not being used to built applications today. But many important and effective applications have been built using JSP and Servlets.
Spring Framework
The important and influence Java framework is Spring Framework. Spring Framework is a very big framework that contains different parts and I will talk about some of the parts here in this article.
Spring MVC
Spring MVC is the Java framework based on the Model, View and Controller style. This allows to write web-applications, Restful Back-End and a Full Fledged applications using Hibernate as ORM that can be transferred into any other Database. It is very easy to get started with Spring MVC.
Spring Boot
Spring Boot is the most important aspect of the Spring Framework. Spring boot come with a Built-in server and tools to provide great facilities to developer to develop and excellent and large scale applications. It is very easy to get started with the Spring Boot application. You just need to visit the Spring Starter web-page and select libraries according to your need and you can get started right away.
Thymleaf
Theymleaf is also a very interesting tool provided by the Java to build applications. The most fun thing about Thymleaf is that allows to work with Modern CSS frameworks very effectively for the modern design purposes. It also decreases the complexity of Model to View communication as well.
Hibernate
In order to understand what is Hibernate we have to understand what is ORM. Object Relational Mapping is the Mapping of Entities to the Databases. In very simple words we can say that we make a class of and then we call some methods on the object of that class and the object is saved in the database as row.
Hibernate provided excellent functionality for ORM in the Java Environment. It is very easy to use and it also decreases the development cose to a great extent. But sometimes it creates the Bottleneck regarding the performance.
Final Words
Java has ruled the early 21st century, and this is the time of JavaScript and Machine Learning but we cannot deny the importance of Legacy Programming Languages. When the point of Performance and Reliability comes into the mind then Legacy Programming Languages comes into mind and we cannot deny the importance of these applications.
