Why JavaScript framework is important?

In the past few years AJAX, Web2.0 and RIA are a few of the most used jargon words in Web development world. How many Java web architect/developer really know how to develop these type of web applications?

I assume many Java EE web developer/architect might know what is AJAX and they might have tried a sample code using AJAX. Is it enough to develop Rich Internet Application? definitely not. There are a lot more into that. I am writing this blog entry to emphasize the importance of JavaScript framework to develop RIA.

In the past few years there are quite a few Java EE web framework (Struts, Tapestry, Webwork, Wicket, Spring MVC, etc) became popular and simplified server-side programming. None of this framework are enough to develop RIA. Recently JSF (Java Server Faces) claims that it supports and simiplifies RIA development; to me it is a baseless statement. Its impossible to develop RIA without heavy HTML, CSS and JavaScript code. Definitely JSF doesn’t have any of these, a few vendor (like Richfaces) offering JSF component which supports rich look and AJAX support.

Fortunately there are a few JavaScript framework available which can simplify RIA development make your programmer more efficient on user interface design. There are so many frameworks are available like DOJO, YUI, GWT, Prototype, JQuery, etc.

I didn’t get chance to explore/ experiment all of them, however I got chance to experiment with YUI and DOJO. If you are looking for a solution to development rich look through Markup syntax DOJO is good choice, the coding style is similar to Tapestry. On other hand YUI has support to create rich look components through JavaScript.

I personally prefer DOJO because the style of programming is very similar to markup language requires less JavaScript. Markup syntax is easy for Java developer to understand and code.

Bottom Line

1. If you are a Java web architect/developer keep an eye on various JavaScript frameworks.
2. If you are developing a new web project, it is high time to choose one of JavaScript framework and save your development cost.