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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T00:26:19+00:00

I’m trying to choose an AJAX-friendly Java framework for my first web application and

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I’m trying to choose an AJAX-friendly Java framework for my first web application and am interested in first
understanding the architectural differences between the different flavors that are out there.

I like the concept of MVC frameworks, and so am primarily considering the following:

  • Any JSF variety (ICEFaces, RichFaces, PrimeFaces, etc.)
  • Spring Web Flow
  • ZK
  • Wicket

I’ve downloaded each of these projects and tried to follow their samples/tutorials, and there is
so much information to ingest I figured I’d take a breather and come here to cover some preliminaries
first.

I’m interested in how each of these frameworks implements the MVC pattern. Obviously, something rooted
in JSF (like ICEFaces) is going to have a different architecture than Spring. I’m sure that this is a
huge question, so I’m not looking for a full-blown tutorial on each of these frameworks; I’m just
curious as to what sort of artifacts (Java sources, XML config files, etc.) a developer has to write in
order to build a single AJAX-driven page using these. I’m interested in the differences to their approach,
nothing more.

For instance, I would imagine that each framework at some point uses a FrontController (or its likes) to
map HttpRequests to the right Controller implementation. That Controller (bean) would then need to do
some processing, possibly hit the database for some information (using ormapping and forming the Model), and
then construct a View/HttpResponse to send back to the client. This is an oversimplification I’m sure, but
there has to be an easy way to explain the high-level architecture for how each of these frameworks accomplishes
that.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Struts uses the ActionServlet (with Struts2 now its just Action) as the controller and model and jsp is the view.

    For Spring MVC is achieved by DispatcherServlet which does the routing and Model is not bound to any framework related object you can use any.

    JSF – UI jsp or jsf itself, Model – ManagedBean, Controller – FacesServlet.

    I did some similar search for my own project a while ago, have a look at the links below:

    Comparison based on multiple parameters : http://static.raibledesigns.com/repository/presentations/ComparingJavaWebFrameworks.pdf

    Difference between JSF and Struts

    http://struts.apache.org/2.0.14/docs/what-are-the-fundamental-differences-between-struts-and-jsf.html

    Somewhat related post

    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7633583/which-mvc-is-better-spring-or-struts

    Spring and JSF

    http://blog.springsource.org/2007/04/21/what-spring-web-flow-offers-jsf-developers/

    Spring MVC : http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.0.x/reference/mvc.html

    Best Fit For JSF Component Library: Primefaces based on my own experience

    From IBM Clearing the FUD : http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-jsf1/

    Hope this gives you some insight.

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