What is Framework in Java

Java Framework is the body or platform of pre-written codes used by Java developers to develop Java applications or web applications. In other words, Java Framework is a collection of predefined classes and functions that is used to process input, manage hardware devices interacts with system software. It acts like a skeleton that helps the developer to develop an application by writing their own code.

What is a framework?

Framework are the bodies that contains the pre-written codes (classes and functions) in which we can add our code to overcome the problem. We can also say that frameworks use programmer's code because the framework is in control of the programmer. We can use the framework by calling its methods, inheritance, and supplying "callbacks", listeners, or other implementations of the Observer pattern.

Popular Java Frameworks

Some of the most popular Java frameworks are:

• Spring
• Hibernate
• Grails
• Play
• JavaServer Faces (JSF)
• Google Web Toolkit (GWT)
• Quarkus

Spring

It is a light-weighted, powerful Java application development framework. It is used for JEE. Its other modules are Spring Security, Spring MVC, Spring Batch, Spring ORM, Spring Boot and Spring Cloud etc.

Advantages

• Loose coupling
• Lightweight
• Fast Development
• Powerful abstraction
• Easy to test

Hibernate

Hibernate is ORM (Object-Relation Mapping) framework that allows us establish communication between Java programming language and the RDBMS.

Advantages

• Portability, productivity, maintainability.
• Open source framework.
• It avoids repetitive code from the JDBC API.

Grails

It is a dynamic framework created by using the Groovy programming language. It is an OOPs language. Its purpose is to enhance the productivity. The syntax of Grails is matched with Java and the code is compiled to JVM. It also works with Java, JEE, Spring and Hibernate.

Advantages

• It uses Groovy programming standard instead of Java programming standard because Groovy is similar to Java.
• Its object mapping feature is easy to use.
• It provides the facility of reusing the code (in the form of plugin) between different Grail applications.
• Provides flexible profiles.

Play

It is a unique Java framework because it does not follow JEE standards. It follows MVC architecture pattern. It is used when we want to develop highly scalable Java application. Using Play framework, we can develop lightweight and web-friendly Java application for both mobile and desktop.

Advantages

• No configuration is required.
• It enhances the developer productivity and target the RESTful architectures.
• It offers hot code reload and error message in the browser.
• It also supports popular IDEs.

JavaServer Faces

It stands for JavaServer Faces. It is a component-based UI framework developed by Oracle that is used to build user interfaces for Java-based applications. It follows MVC design pattern. The application developed using JSF has an architecture that defines a distinction

Advantages

• It is an important part of JEE.
• Provides rich libraries.

Google Web Toolkit (GWT)

It is an open-source framework that allows developers to write client-side Java code. With the help of GWT, we can rapidly develop complex browse application. The advantages to use GWT is that we can easily develop and debug Ajax application. the product of Google, such as Google AdSense, Blogger are developed using GWT.

Advantages

• It employs reusability for web application development
• We can use Google API to develop application.
• It provides functionality such as, internationalization, UI abstraction, and history management.

Quarkus

It is a modern, full-stack, and Kubernetes-native Java framework. It offers small memory footprint and reduced boot time. It works well if the infrastructure is cloud-native. It optimizes Java specifically for Kubernetes and enables it to become an effective platform for serverless, cloud, and Kubernetes environments.

Advantages

• It is used in cloud, containers, and serverless environments.
• It supports microservices architecture and development.
• The developers are free to choose own development model.
• It is compatible with popular frameworks like, Eclipse, Spring Dependency Injection, and Hibernate.

Advantages of Java Frameworks

The advantages of the Java Frameworks are as follows:

• Security: It is the most important advantage of the Java framework. If we found any security loop hole or vulnerability in an application, we can directly move to the official website of the framework to fix the security related issues.
• Support: The widely used framework provides large forums or groups where we can put our problem for the solution. It also provides the documentation of the framework that helps us to understand the working of the framework.
• Efficiency: If we are doing a task without using the framework, it may take time to complete. But if we are doing the same work by using the framework, we can complete that task in easy and fast way. Therefore, using the Java framework development become faster, easier and effective. It also saves time and efforts.
• Expenses: Another advantage of using the framework is to reduce the cost of the application. Because the maintenance cost of the framework is low.

Examples of Frameworks in Java

In Java, Collection is an example of the framework. It reduces the programming efforts because it provides useful data structure and algorithms. It is referred to as library that do not provides inversion of control.

Another example of framework is, Swing and AWT classes. Swing is a GUI based framework used to develop windows-based application. It contains a large number of interfaces. There is inversion of control because of listeners.

Framework vs. Library