[OT] A first look at Spring vs Struts

[Rick Reumann <st...@reumann.net>]

Trust me this isn't an attempt to open up a whole flame war. I'm just 
curious how many of you have messed with Spring and what your thoughts 
concerning it are.

I've been looking at it some and I do see some strengths it has, but 
some of those strengths I also see as potential weaknesses (maybe).

In my short study (and I mean very short:) of Spring, here's what I've 
been thinking so far...

(Note, Spring handles a lot more than the just the front end framework, 
but since Struts is mostly a front end framework these comments about 
Spring are in relation to the web component portion of Spring).

Flexibility. Here is where I think Spring's major strength lies. You are 
given some out-of-the-box controllers and stuff but how the application 
is put together with the framework allows for a lot of flexibility. In a 
large corporation, though, this all could be a weakness if one isn't 
careful. It seems very easy to have part of an application being coded 
using entirely different Spring concepts than another part. Struts has 
this problem as well, although it appears more difficult to abuse since, 
unless you start really doing funky things in Action execute methods 
(seen it done), it's pretty easy to stay within 'best practices' guidelines.

Learning curve. I can't really tell which is an easier framework to pick 
up and learn. I've been working with Struts for a long time now, so it's 
difficult for me to look at this objectively. The fact that there are a 
lot more ways of developing web applications with Spring can be somewhat 
of an obstacle for picking it up quickly.

View tags. I happen to like the basic struts html tags related to forms. 
Spring doesn't come with much of a tag library that I can tell. I'm not 
sure how tags such as the Nested tag will play with Spring. Currently 
you have to provide all form field values with JSTL... not a big deal 
except a bit unwieldy for nested beans (imo).

Lack of ActionForms. Spring doesn't use ActionForms and I like this. You 
can tie a Value Object right to your front end form. Very nice.  If 
Struts got away from ActionForms I'd be very happy (although I'd lose 
some of the nice html tags functionality).

Spring also uses a lot of cool stuff like IoC (Inversion of 
Control/Dependency Injection).

Right now, as it stands, I'm finding it difficult to justify switching 
over to 'yet another framework' (Sheesh how many are there now - Spring, 
WebWorks..:). I've run into some limitations using Struts (such as its 
nice handling of a 'form wizard flow' where you might need to action 
chain - gets a bit ugly) but overall I don't really have many complaints 
about Struts. It appears that I'm not going to gain that much switching 
over to Spring. A lot of my good buddies in #FunkyCodeMonkey on 
darkmyst.org are former Struts users and they seem to like Spring better 
- although, they haven't given me enough compelling reasons to jump ship.

I've only begun to start looking into Spring so I'm sure I'm missing a 
TON of points that could be made. I'd appreciate any other comments good 
or bad concerning either framework. I'm sure many of you fall into the 
same frustration-boat that I feel like I'm in- "So many technologies out 
there - only so much time." I've trying to determine if I really need to 
be investing the time to explore this framework more when I could be 
exploring other things I need to learn more about. I'm sure many of you 
can relate:)

Thanks,

-- 
Rick


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RE: [OT] A first look at Spring vs Struts

[Matthias Wessendorf <ma...@matthias-wessendorf.de>]

Rick,

i didn't tryed it myself on production (only runing the examples)
but with jsf-spring-bridge, you are able to use
JSF and its taglib in spring.

here it goes:
http://jsf-spring.sourceforge.net/

Cheers,
Matthias

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Reumann [mailto:struttin@reumann.net] 
> Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 9:37 PM
> To: Struts Users Mailing List
> Subject: [OT] A first look at Spring vs Struts
> 
> 
> Trust me this isn't an attempt to open up a whole flame war. I'm just 
> curious how many of you have messed with Spring and what your 
> thoughts 
> concerning it are.
> 
> I've been looking at it some and I do see some strengths it has, but 
> some of those strengths I also see as potential weaknesses (maybe).
> 
> In my short study (and I mean very short:) of Spring, here's 
> what I've 
> been thinking so far...
> 
> (Note, Spring handles a lot more than the just the front end 
> framework, 
> but since Struts is mostly a front end framework these comments about 
> Spring are in relation to the web component portion of Spring).
> 
> Flexibility. Here is where I think Spring's major strength 
> lies. You are 
> given some out-of-the-box controllers and stuff but how the 
> application 
> is put together with the framework allows for a lot of 
> flexibility. In a 
> large corporation, though, this all could be a weakness if one isn't 
> careful. It seems very easy to have part of an application 
> being coded 
> using entirely different Spring concepts than another part. 
> Struts has 
> this problem as well, although it appears more difficult to 
> abuse since, 
> unless you start really doing funky things in Action execute methods 
> (seen it done), it's pretty easy to stay within 'best 
> practices' guidelines.
> 
> Learning curve. I can't really tell which is an easier 
> framework to pick 
> up and learn. I've been working with Struts for a long time 
> now, so it's 
> difficult for me to look at this objectively. The fact that 
> there are a 
> lot more ways of developing web applications with Spring can 
> be somewhat 
> of an obstacle for picking it up quickly.
> 
> View tags. I happen to like the basic struts html tags 
> related to forms. 
> Spring doesn't come with much of a tag library that I can 
> tell. I'm not 
> sure how tags such as the Nested tag will play with Spring. Currently 
> you have to provide all form field values with JSTL... not a big deal 
> except a bit unwieldy for nested beans (imo).
> 
> Lack of ActionForms. Spring doesn't use ActionForms and I 
> like this. You 
> can tie a Value Object right to your front end form. Very nice.  If 
> Struts got away from ActionForms I'd be very happy (although I'd lose 
> some of the nice html tags functionality).
> 
> Spring also uses a lot of cool stuff like IoC (Inversion of 
> Control/Dependency Injection).
> 
> Right now, as it stands, I'm finding it difficult to justify 
> switching 
> over to 'yet another framework' (Sheesh how many are there 
> now - Spring, 
> WebWorks..:). I've run into some limitations using Struts 
> (such as its 
> nice handling of a 'form wizard flow' where you might need to action 
> chain - gets a bit ugly) but overall I don't really have many 
> complaints 
> about Struts. It appears that I'm not going to gain that much 
> switching 
> over to Spring. A lot of my good buddies in #FunkyCodeMonkey on 
> darkmyst.org are former Struts users and they seem to like 
> Spring better 
> - although, they haven't given me enough compelling reasons 
> to jump ship.
> 
> I've only begun to start looking into Spring so I'm sure I'm 
> missing a 
> TON of points that could be made. I'd appreciate any other 
> comments good 
> or bad concerning either framework. I'm sure many of you fall 
> into the 
> same frustration-boat that I feel like I'm in- "So many 
> technologies out 
> there - only so much time." I've trying to determine if I 
> really need to 
> be investing the time to explore this framework more when I could be 
> exploring other things I need to learn more about. I'm sure 
> many of you 
> can relate:)
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- 
> Rick
> 
> 
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> To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscribe@struts.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: user-help@struts.apache.org
> 


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