Question

I have an opportunity to learn some new tech to write this code. Basic requirements:

• users in various locations worldwide
• user control: control who can see, edit, approve various sheets/accounts/transactions within a sheet
• parse bank statement files into the system
• generate reports
• robust logging: who enters, edits, approves transactions
• secure, reliable data storage
• ability to serve from the Internet, or a local network web server

I was going to use a Google Docs Spreadsheet with scripts, but I can’t see the user control being rigid enough.

At the moment I am leaning towards Java Servlets and JSP with Google App Engine.

What would you use?

Answer 1

Servlets and JSP are good technology but fairly basic / low level. You might find it more interesting and productive to try on of the newer web-based frameworks.

Some ideas:

• Vaadin might suit this kind of application pretty well, it’s a framework for rich internet applications that gives you much more sophisticated components than you could implement with plain JSPs.
• I’ve also heard very good thinks about the Play Framework.
• If you are feeling really adventurous and fancy picking up a new language (Clojure) then Noir is also a great web framework in the making.