Topic 17
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Web Applications with Spring
In an enterprise application, the presentation layer is a critical layer that significantly affects the
acceptance level of the application by the users. The presentation layer is the front door into your
application. It lets the users perform business functions provided by the application, as well as provides
a visual view of the information that is being maintained by the application. How the user interface
performs greatly contributes to the success of the application.
Because of the explosive growth of the Internet (especially via cloud computing these days and the
rise of different kinds of devices that people are using), developing an application's presentation layer is
a very challenging task. The following are some of the major considerations when developing web
applications:
Performance: Performance is always the top requirement of a web application. If
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users choose a function or click a link and it takes a long time to execute (in the
world of Internet, ten seconds is like a century), users will definitely not be happy
with the application.
User-friendly: The application should be easy to use and easy to navigate with
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clear instructions without confusing the user.
Interactive and richness: The user interface should be highly interactive and
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responsive. In addition, the presentation should be rich in terms of visual
presentation, such as charting, dashboard type of interface, and so on.
Accessibility: Nowadays, users require that the application is accessible from
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anywhere via any device. In the office, they will use their desktop for accessing the
application. On the road, users will use various mobile devices including laptops,
tablets, smartphones, and so on, to access the application.
Developing a web application to fulfill the previous requirements is not easy, but they are
considered mandatory for business users. Fortunately, many new technologies and frameworks have
also been developed to address those needs. Recently, many web application frameworks and libraries--
such as Spring MVC, Struts, Tapestry, Java Server Faces (JSF), Adobe Flex, Google Web Toolkit (GWT),
jQuery, and Dojo, to name a few--provide tools and rich component libraries that can help you develop
highly interactive web frontends. In addition, many frameworks provide tools or corresponding widget
libraries targeting mobile device including smartphones and tablets. In addition, the rise of the HTML5
and CSS3 standards and the support of these latest standards by most web browsers and mobile device
manufacturers help ease the development of web applications that need to be available anywhere from
any device.
In terms of web application development, Spring provides comprehensive and intensive support.
The Spring MVC module provides a solid infrastructure and Model View Controller (MVC) framework for
web application development. When using Spring MVC, you can use various view technologies (for
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