Hello,
I plan to begin learning a Java web framework (I love the Java API), I already used Rails and Django.
I want something close to Java, but without all the complexity of J2EE.
I've found 2 framework that could be good for me :
Grails :
Grails looks great, it use Groovy that is better than Java for web application (I think..), but it's slower, that use pure-java components (Hibernate, Strut, Spring), it looks pretty simple to deploy (send .war and it's ok !), the GSP is great ! It's a bit harder to debug (need to restart the server at each modification, and the stacktrace is a mix of Java and Groovy stack that is not always understandable..)
Play! :
This framework also looks great, it's faster than Grails (It's use directly Java), but I don't really like how it use Java, it modify the source code to transform the properties call as setXXX/getXXX, I'm not kind of that... The framework also have caching function that Grails don't (alreary) has. I don't really like the Template Engine.
It's also easer to debug (no need to restart the server, and the stacktrace is clear)
What do you recommend for ?
I am looking for something easy to learn (I used a lot ruby and java, but a little bit java (But I love the Java API)), that is full featured (That's no a problem with all the Java Library availables, but if it's bundle and integrated I prefer), that scale and that is not too slow (faster than ruby), and if possible I would want something with a decent community to easily find support and answer to my questions ;)
PS: No JRuby on Rails
Thank you !
