I’ve inherited an incomplete but small web project (Java EE 5, running on WebSphere 7).
The project consists mostly of JSPs that are accessed directly via their URL, and most JSPs look up their own reference to the EJBs (services) they need. Also, there’s a Servlet for every form that gets submitted by the HTML code in the JSPs.
Architecturally speaking, is there anything wrong with this?
I was thinking it would be better to have an MVC design. I don’t want to convert everything to JSF because I don’t want to convert all the HTML and embedded Java scriptlets into JSF tags and managed beans.
I don’t really want to use Struts or Spring MVC because they’re not part of the Java EE 5 toolkit that comes out of the box with WebSphere, and I don’t want to add additional complexity with the additional libs and config files.
I was thinking about building my own little MVC with a “ControllerServlet” that accepts a command and dynamically build and execute the command object, and redirect to the JSP view.
But I ask myself again, is there anything “wrong” with JSPs that post to Servlets? It’s actually kind of elegant in its simplicity.
What do you think?
Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated! Rob
You’re asking a rather subjective/localized question. But ala.
There’s technically nothing wrong with individual JSPs that submit to individual servlets. The only real problem is when the servlets turn out to contain duplicated code for quite common tasks like collecting request parameters, converting/validating them, setting bean properties, invoking actions, performing navigation. That is not DRY and is what a MVC framework with a single front controller and a well definied lifecycle is supposed to solve.
Or, if the servlet’s tasks are actually well refactored with homegrown code to perform those common tasks, then this is in turn not very maintainable as no one else than the original developer knows the ins and outs of this custom framework. So it’s hard to find anyone else willing to maintain this webapp without learning another framework again which the new developer wouldn’t likely to see in other future webapps. That is why companies usually adopt an existing and well-developed MVC framework like JSF, Spring MVC, Stripes, Struts, etc.