Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) General Discussion

I am a hardcore J2EE(Servlet/JSP, EJB, WEBLOGIC) fan. but i am also known to all details of Microsoft Technologies(from COM, COM+ ATL, ASP to .NET) and when i actually learned JSF and about its fetures i really felt bad. I was excpecting a better solution to fight ASP.NET but this is really a whole shit. sorry for saying it but i think those who know ASP.NET ( also its next version ASP.NET 2 and Visual Studio 2005) will agree to me. I have used struts and they are great. I have worked on many projects as Technical Lead, Project Manager, Analyst,
Consultant to actually technology selection. and using that knowleadge i can say following points (Please dont misunderstood me i am not pushing microsoft product but it is always better to know what we lack atleast when the lack is unbearable)

1] First of all when we think of a market many issues need to be understood not only technology. first sun has no integrated IDE like Visual Studio and its new SunCreator Studio is another mess except the page navigation feature. but remaining is nowhere compared to VS. also the industry's many segments are shifting to Portal Based Solutions where instead of building custom applications more focus is put on DataW and Minning and a portal solution is implemented as DashBoard(if u dont know about Portals & Dashboard then search on google). here microsoft's ASP.net with its sharepoint portal & services is doing fairly well infact they are also worst but as no alternative they are working. Sun is not focusing on presentation tire and its attempt i.e. JSF is a nowhere its just a STRUT with some changes in architecture and lifecycle those could be added to struts even by a single programmer also the main talent behind its architecture is great but its origin is in struts. custom control developement is worst in JSF if all the state is stored in bean then what the state management JSF is offering? nothing more. also its client side state is simple serialization of whole component tree i.e. bull shit (sorry again). this is like if you ask a simple jsp/servlet programmer to do stuff like ASP.NET he will do this way but is this what we expect from sun? asp.net stores only those parts of components which are going to change over postbacks and that is also only variables stored in those controls not the whole control. and retrives them and a reflection is used to set these values. that is pretty easy to say than do. what sun has done is not only a timepass but a shame.

2] About MVC: ok many say that ASP.NET is not a classic MVC its a page-controller architecture but do you know if you write a simple HttpHandler and an xml file then it functions as classic struts. also in asp.net 2 u can have many forms on a single page even one form could be posted to another page and that page still have access to the controls of last page (Magic) not a magic but a hardwork real hardwork which i have always see behind core java and servlet/jsp and ejb or any other suns product or architetural specifications.

3] Performance : if you put heavy controls created through JSF on a single page with session state and test it under some big load performance is worst as one is better to program in old jsp/servlet way and if there is client side state storage then dont even test. ASP.NET performance is great against JSF.

4] Complexity : to implement JSF it takes great efforts for a programmer. programming all those actionsListeners, configuring them, writting tags for custom controls, no support for non tag version coding ... endless. on other
hand asp.net gives you great benifits creating an application is a childs play. event handling is great. and creating custom controls and their support in VS is fantastic.

5] Ready Made Controls : this is a great advantage of ASP.NET its grid controls are really best custom templates add great flexibilty. also building your own control is childs play. Data binding and adapters area great stuff.

6] ASP.NET offers many fucntions those are actually stolen from struts, tiles, jsp/servlet but there recreation is more powerfull. like WebParts and MasterPages (stolen from tiles). ASP.NET offers in built support for custom themes, personalization. also WebParts are great no comparison with tiles.
There are many strategic points need to undertake when creating a new product this has been always a key that Sun was following but they have completely failed in competing ASP.NET there are thousands of more points I would like to discuss.

Once scott macenly (sun ceo) said that he dont want to left his children in microsoft only world i am strong follower of this. but we need to make it possible

this whole document is just a part of what i want to say i hope a JSF insider could see this write-up.

need your feedback.