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Asked: 2026-05-13T15:08:04+00:00

I love Java. It’s great. In fact, I think Java code is just down

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I love Java. It’s great. In fact, I think Java code is just down right sexy! But, there are several things I hate about writing Java web apps:

  1. So many configuration files. I have yet to find a server/container/framework/etc that allows me not to have to create a web.xml. And frameworks only ever add to this complexity.

  2. I love the way PHP works. You drop files into a directory, and you can immediately browse them. Why can’t Java do this? Java has perfectly fine reflection abilities to handle this. So why can’t I drop a couple .class files into a directory, and then be able to immediately browse them? (I know tomcat can deploy from a directory, but that leads to….)

  3. And like PHP, why do I have to restart the server every time I want to redeploy an app? (Glassfish can do hot deploys, but I still have to package it into a .war file)

So, my question is: Is there any use, or and existing solution, for a Java server; that allows you to drop simple POJOs into a directory, and be able to immediately browse them? In essence, I want every thing PHP has, just in Java. Any thoughts?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Grails may address some of your needs. It favours convention over configuration (like RoR). I think the hot deploy issue is not as sealess as you’d like, however.

    If your major concern is writing web.xmls and similar, you can always embed a web container (say, Jetty) into your application and configure it programatically. But (I suspect) that’s probably not how you’re thinking.

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