Move Over Rails (RoR): We (Java Community) Have Grails, Trails and Now Sails

The beauty about Java community is that they never shy of creating yet another framework for any new / good idea. You have seen dozens (or more) of dependency injection (IoC) frameworks. It has happened again. Rails has not one, not two but three competitors.

Now you don’t have to learn yet another language (Ruby that is) to soak in the simplicity of Rails. You can do it as well in Java.

The three java frameworks inspired by RoR are:

Grails

Grails aims to bring the “coding by convention” paradigm to Groovy. It’s an open-source web application framework that leverages the Groovy language and complements Java Web development. You can use Grails as a standalone development environment that hides all configuration details or integrate your Java business logic.

If you are a seasoned Java developer you will find Grails much easier to develop complex web based applications than other MVC frameworks. You can enjoy the seamless integration of AJAX and database access, also when using existing code bases.

Trails

Trails is a domain driven development framework in the spirit of Ruby on Rails or Naked Objects.

The trails project aims to make java enterprise application development radically simpler by allowing developers to focus on the domain model and having other portions dynamically generated. We will leverage existing technologies such as Spring, Tapestry, and Hibernate rather than reinventing.

Sails

The newest kid on the block has sparse documentation so far - “Sails is a dynamic Java web application framework.” However they have a movie demonstrating how to use sails. They have a movie for eclipse users too. The movie quality wasn’t too good on my windows machine with quicktime viewer. However we should cut him some slack as the project is very very new.

Grails probably has the most momentum today.

It would be wonderful for the Java community if these three developer communities joins hand and creates a much superior product than the original Rails, instead of dissipating their (not so infinite) energy on three different projects with very similar goals. And take Stripes framework author too. He knows how to create a good product.